Bytes(3)

🦋 NAME 🦋

Bytes — byte sequence operations. That's it, that's the vibe, and honestly it's iconic. 💅

(This is the Bytes(3) page from the OCaml library, bestie, and we are reading the whole thing together. Part 1, let's go.)

🎀 Module 🎀

Module Bytes

✨ Documentation ✨

Module Bytes
 : sig end

Okay so picture this: a byte sequence is a mutable data structure that holds a fixed-length sequence of bytes. Every single byte can be indexed in constant time for reading or writing — no waiting, no searching, just straight in. 👑

Say you've got a byte sequence s of length l. You can access each of the l bytes of s through its index in the sequence. Indexes start at 0, and an index is called valid in s if it falls inside the range [0...l-1] (inclusive). A position is the point between two bytes, or at the very beginning or the very end of the sequence. A position is valid in s if it falls inside the range [0...l] (inclusive). Tiny detail that matters: the byte at index n sits between positions n and n+1. 🌸

Two parameters, start and len, are said to designate a valid range of s if len >= 0 and both start and start+len are valid positions in s. Slay.

Byte sequences can be modified in place, for instance via the set and blit functions described below. Also, go peek at strings (module String) — they're almost the same data structure, but they cannot be modified in place. 🙈

Bytes are represented by the OCaml type char.

The labeled version of this module can be used as described in the StdLabels module.

Since 4.02 🫶

---

• val length : bytes -> int — returns the length (number of bytes) of the argument. Simple, clean, does what it says. ✨
• val get : bytes -> int -> char — get s n returns the byte at index n in argument s. 🚨 Raises Invalid_argument if n is not a valid index in s.
• val set : bytes -> int -> char -> unit — set s n c modifies s in place, replacing the byte at index n with c. Real in-place energy. 🚨 Raises Invalid_argument if n is not a valid index in s.
• val create : int -> bytes — create n returns a new byte sequence of length n. Big warning though: the sequence is uninitialized and contains arbitrary bytes, so don't assume it's zeros or anything cute. 😭 Raises Invalid_argument if n < 0 or n > Sys.max_string_length.
• val make : int -> char -> bytes — make n c returns a new byte sequence of length n, filled with the byte c. All c, no surprises. 💖 Raises Invalid_argument if n < 0 or n > Sys.max_string_length.
• val init : int -> (int -> char) -> bytes — init n f returns a fresh byte sequence of length n, with character i initialized to the result of f i (in increasing index order). 🧚 Raises Invalid_argument if n < 0 or n > Sys.max_string_length.
• val empty : bytes — a byte sequence of size 0. That's it. That's the whole function and it's valid.
• val copy : bytes -> bytes — returns a new byte sequence containing the same bytes as the argument. A fresh copy, no aliasing drama. 🦋
• val of_string : string -> bytes — returns a new byte sequence containing the same bytes as the given string.
• val to_string : bytes -> string — returns a new string containing the same bytes as the given byte sequence. The reverse glow-up. ✨
• val sub : bytes -> int -> int -> bytes — sub s pos len returns a new byte sequence of length len, containing the subsequence of s that starts at position pos and has length len. 🎀 Raises Invalid_argument if pos and len do not designate a valid range of s.
• val sub_string : bytes -> int -> int -> string — same as Bytes.sub, except it returns a string instead of a byte sequence.
• val extend : bytes -> int -> int -> bytes — extend s left right returns a new byte sequence containing the bytes of s, with left uninitialized bytes prepended and right uninitialized bytes appended to it. Plot twist: if left or right is negative, then bytes are removed (instead of appended) from the corresponding side of s. 😳 Since 4.05 in BytesLabels. 🚨 Raises Invalid_argument if the result length is negative or longer than Sys.max_string_length bytes.
• val fill : bytes -> int -> int -> char -> unit — fill s pos len c modifies s in place, replacing len characters with c, starting at pos. Mass overwrite, in place. 🔥 Raises Invalid_argument if pos and len do not designate a valid range of s.
• val blit : bytes -> int -> bytes -> int -> int -> unit — blit src src_pos dst dst_pos len copies len bytes from byte sequence src, starting at index src_pos, to byte sequence dst, starting at index dst_pos. The way this one works correctly even if src and dst are the same byte sequence and the source and destination intervals overlap — obsessed. 👑 🚨 Raises Invalid_argument if src_pos and len do not designate a valid range of src, or if dst_pos and len do not designate a valid range of dst.
• val blit_string : string -> int -> bytes -> int -> int -> unit — blit_string src src_pos dst dst_pos len copies len bytes from string src, starting at index src_pos, to byte sequence dst, starting at index dst_pos. Since 4.05 in BytesLabels. 🚨 Raises Invalid_argument if src_pos and len do not designate a valid range of src, or if dst_pos and len do not designate a valid range of dst.
• val concat : bytes -> bytes list -> bytes — concat sep sl concatenates the list of byte sequences sl, inserting the separator byte sequence sep between each one, and returns the result as a new byte sequence. 🌈 🚨 Raises Invalid_argument if the result is longer than Sys.max_string_length bytes.
• val cat : bytes -> bytes -> bytes — cat s1 s2 concatenates s1 and s2 and returns the result as a new byte sequence. Since 4.05 in BytesLabels. 🚨 Raises Invalid_argument if the result is longer than Sys.max_string_length bytes.
• val iter : (char -> unit) -> bytes -> unit — iter f s applies function f in turn to all the bytes of s. It is equivalent to f (get s 0); f (get s 1); ...; f (get s (length s - 1)); (). 💫
• val iteri : (int -> char -> unit) -> bytes -> unit — same as Bytes.iter, but the function is applied to the index of the byte as first argument and the byte itself as second argument. Index and byte, bestie.
• val map : (char -> char) -> bytes -> bytes — map f s applies function f in turn to all the bytes of s (in increasing index order) and stores the resulting bytes in a new sequence that is returned as the result. ✨
• val mapi : (int -> char -> char) -> bytes -> bytes — mapi f s calls f with each character of s and its index (in increasing index order) and stores the resulting bytes in a new sequence that is returned as the result. Index-aware mapping, we love to see it. 💜
• val fold_left : ('acc -> char -> 'acc) -> 'acc -> bytes -> 'acc — fold_left f x s computes f (... (f (f x (get s 0)) (get s 1)) ...) (get s (n-1)), where n is the length of s. Since 4.13. 🌸
• val fold_right : (char -> 'acc -> 'acc) -> bytes -> 'acc -> 'acc — fold_right f s x computes f (get s 0) (f (get s 1) ( ... (f (get s (n-1)) x) ...)), where n is the length of s. Since 4.13. 🌸
• val for_all : (char -> bool) -> bytes -> bool — for_all p s checks if all characters in s satisfy the predicate p. Since 4.13. 🫶
• val exists : (char -> bool) -> bytes -> bool — exists p s checks if at least one character of s satisfies the predicate p. Since 4.13. ✨
• val trim : bytes -> bytes — returns a copy of the argument, without leading and trailing whitespace. The bytes regarded as whitespace are the ASCII characters ' ', '\012', '\n', '\r', and '\t'. 🎀
• val escaped : bytes -> bytes — returns a copy of the argument, with special characters represented by escape sequences, following the lexical conventions of OCaml. All characters outside the ASCII printable range (32..126) are escaped, as well as backslash and double-quote. 🚨 Raises Invalid_argument if the result is longer than Sys.max_string_length bytes.
• val index : bytes -> char -> int — index s c returns the index of the first occurrence of byte c in s. 🚨 Raises Not_found if c does not occur in s.
• val index_opt : bytes -> char -> int option — index_opt s c returns the index of the first occurrence of byte c in s or None if c does not occur in s. Since 4.05. The no-drama version. 🙈
• val rindex : bytes -> char -> int — rindex s c returns the index of the last occurrence of byte c in s. 🚨 Raises Not_found if c does not occur in s.
• val rindex_opt : bytes -> char -> int option — rindex_opt s c returns the index of the last occurrence of byte c in s or None if c does not occur in s. Since 4.05. 💖
• val index_from : bytes -> int -> char -> int — index_from s i c returns the index of the first occurrence of byte c in s after position i. index s c is equivalent to index_from s 0 c. 🚨 Raises Invalid_argument if i is not a valid position in s. 🚨 Raises Not_found if c does not occur in s after position i.
• val index_from_opt : bytes -> int -> char -> int option — index_from_opt s i c returns the index of the first occurrence of byte c in s after position i or None if c does not occur in s after position i. index_opt s c is equivalent to index_from_opt s 0 c. Since 4.05. 🚨 Raises Invalid_argument if i is not a valid position in s.
• val rindex_from : bytes -> int -> char -> int — rindex_from s i c returns the index of the last occurrence of byte c in s before position i+1. rindex s c is equivalent to rindex_from s (length s - 1) c. 🚨 Raises Invalid_argument if i+1 is not a valid position in s. 🚨 Raises Not_found if c does not occur in s before position i+1.
• val rindex_from_opt : bytes -> int -> char -> int option — rindex_from_opt s i c returns the index of the last occurrence of byte c in s before position i+1 or None if c does not occur in s before position i+1. rindex_opt s c is equivalent to rindex_from s (length s - 1) c. Since 4.05. 🚨 Raises Invalid_argument if i+1 is not a valid position in s.
• val contains : bytes -> char -> bool — contains s c tests if byte c appears in s. 😭
• val contains_from : bytes -> int -> char -> bool — contains_from s start c tests if byte c appears in s after position start. contains s c is equivalent to contains_from s 0 c. 🚨 Raises Invalid_argument if start is not a valid position in s.
• val rcontains_from : bytes -> int -> char -> bool — rcontains_from s stop c tests if byte c appears in s before position stop+1. 🚨 Raises Invalid_argument if stop < 0 or stop+1 is not a valid position in s.
• val uppercase_ascii : bytes -> bytes — returns a copy of the argument, with all lowercase letters translated to uppercase, using the US-ASCII character set. Since 4.03 (4.05 in BytesLabels). 👑
• val lowercase_ascii : bytes -> bytes — returns a copy of the argument, with all uppercase letters translated to lowercase, using the US-ASCII character set. Since 4.03 (4.05 in BytesLabels). 🦋
• val capitalize_ascii : bytes -> bytes — returns a copy of the argument, with the first character set to uppercase, using the US-ASCII character set. Since 4.03 (4.05 in BytesLabels). ✨
• val uncapitalize_ascii : bytes -> bytes — returns a copy of the argument, with the first character set to lowercase, using the US-ASCII character set. Since 4.03 (4.05 in BytesLabels). ✨
• type t = bytes — an alias for the type of byte sequences.
• val compare : t -> t -> int — that's the signature, bestie 💅

okay so the comparison function for byte sequences? same spec as compare, bestie. and with the type t, this compare function lets module Bytes be passed as an argument to the functors Set.Make and Map.Make. 💅

val equal : t -> t -> bool

the equality function for byte sequences. ✨

Since 4.03 (4.05 in BytesLabels)

val starts_with : prefix:bytes -> bytes -> bool

starts_with ~prefix s is true if and only if s starts with prefix. 🫶

Since 4.13

val ends_with : suffix:bytes -> bytes -> bool

ends_with ~suffix s is true if and only if s ends with suffix. 🌸

Since 4.13

---

🚨 Unsafe conversions (for advanced users) 🚨

this section is literally the low-level, unsafe conversion zone between bytes and string. They do not copy the internal data, and if you use them wrong they can break the immutability invariant on strings. They’re here for expert library authors, but for most purposes you should use the always-correct Bytes.to_string and Bytes.of_string instead. no cap. 💀

val unsafe_to_string : bytes -> string

unsafely convert a byte sequence into a string. 😭

to reason about unsafe_to_string, it’s convenient to think in an “ownership” discipline. A piece of code that manipulates some data “owns” it, and there are several disjoint ownership modes, including:

• -Unique ownership: the data may be accessed and mutated
• -Shared ownership: the data has several owners, that may only access it, not mutate it.

unique ownership is linear: passing the data to another piece of code means giving up ownership (we cannot write the data again). A unique owner may decide to make the data shared (giving up mutation rights on it), but shared data may not become uniquely-owned again. 👑

unsafe_to_string s can only be used when the caller owns the byte sequence s — either uniquely or as shared immutable data. The caller gives up ownership of s, and gains ownership of the returned string. 🎀

there are two valid use-cases that respect this ownership discipline:

1. creating a string by initializing and mutating a byte sequence that is never changed after initialization is performed.

let string_init len f : string =
  let s = Bytes.create len in
  for i = 0 to len - 1 do Bytes.set s i (f i) done;
  Bytes.unsafe_to_string s

this function is safe because the byte sequence s will never be accessed or mutated after unsafe_to_string is called. The string_init code gives up ownership of s, and returns the ownership of the resulting string to its caller. ✨

note that it would be unsafe if s was passed as an additional parameter to the function f as it could escape this way and be mutated in the future — string_init would give up ownership of s to pass it to f, and could not call unsafe_to_string safely. 🙈

we have provided the String.init, String.map and String.mapi functions to cover most cases of building new strings. You should prefer those over to_string or unsafe_to_string whenever applicable. 💖

2. temporarily giving ownership of a byte sequence to a function that expects a uniquely owned string and returns ownership back, so that we can mutate the sequence again after the call ended.

let bytes_length (s : bytes) =
  String.length (Bytes.unsafe_to_string s)

in this use-case, we do not promise that s will never be mutated after the call to bytes_length s. The String.length function temporarily borrows unique ownership of the byte sequence (and sees it as a string), but returns this ownership back to the caller, which may assume that s is still a valid byte sequence after the call. Note that this is only correct because we know that String.length does not capture its argument — it could escape by a side-channel such as a memoization combinator. 🧚

the caller may not mutate s while the string is borrowed (it has temporarily given up ownership). This affects concurrent programs, but also higher-order functions: if String.length returned a closure to be called later, s should not be mutated until this closure is fully applied and returns ownership. 💅

val unsafe_of_string : string -> bytes

unsafely convert a shared string to a byte sequence that should not be mutated. 🚩

the same ownership discipline that makes unsafe_to_string correct applies to unsafe_of_string: you may use it if you were the owner of the string value, and you will own the return bytes in the same mode. 🌈

in practice, unique ownership of string values is extremely difficult to reason about correctly. You should always assume strings are shared, never uniquely owned. ⭐

for example, string literals are implicitly shared by the compiler, so you never uniquely own them.

let incorrect = Bytes.unsafe_of_string "hello"
let s = Bytes.of_string "hello"

the first declaration is incorrect, because the string literal "hello" could be shared by the compiler with other parts of the program, and mutating incorrect is a bug. You must always use the second version, which performs a copy and is thus correct. 🫶

assuming unique ownership of strings that are not string literals, but are (partly) built from string literals, is also incorrect. For example, mutating unsafe_of_string ("foo" ^ s) could mutate the shared string "foo" — assuming a rope-like representation of strings. More generally, functions operating on strings will assume shared ownership, they do not preserve unique ownership. It is thus incorrect to assume unique ownership of the result of unsafe_of_string. 😭

the only case we have reasonable confidence is safe is if the produced bytes is shared — used as an immutable byte sequence. This is possibly useful for incremental migration of low-level programs that manipulate immutable sequences of bytes (for example Marshal.from_bytes) and previously used the string type for this purpose. 🔥

val split_on_char : char -> bytes -> bytes list

split_on_char sep s returns the list of all (possibly empty) subsequences of s that are delimited by the sep character. If s is empty, the result is the singleton list [empty]. 🎀

the function’s output is specified by the following invariants:

• -The list is not empty.
• -Concatenating its elements using sep as a separator returns a byte sequence equal to the input (Bytes.concat (Bytes.make 1 sep) (Bytes.split_on_char sep s) = s).
• -No byte sequence in the result contains the sep character.

Since 4.13

---

🔁 Iterators 🔁

val to_seq : t -> char Seq.t

iterate on the string, in increasing index order. Modifications of the string during iteration will be reflected in the sequence. 👑

Since 4.07

val to_seqi : t -> (int * char) Seq.t

iterate on the string, in increasing order, yielding indices along chars. ✨

Since 4.07

val of_seq : char Seq.t -> t

create a string from the generator. 🌸

Since 4.07

---

🌈 UTF codecs and validations 🌈

UTF-8

val get_utf_8_uchar : t -> int -> Uchar.utf_decode

get_utf_8_uchar b i decodes an UTF-8 character at index i in b. 💖

val set_utf_8_uchar : t -> int -> Uchar.t -> int

set_utf_8_uchar b i u UTF-8 encodes u at index i in b and returns the number of bytes n that were written starting at i. If n is 0 there was not enough space to encode u at i and b was left untouched. Otherwise a new character can be encoded at i + n. ✨

val is_valid_utf_8 : t -> bool

is_valid_utf_8 b is true if and only if b contains valid UTF-8 data. 💅

UTF-16BE

val get_utf_16be_uchar : t -> int -> Uchar.utf_decode

get_utf_16be_uchar b i decodes an UTF-16BE character at index i in b. 🦋

val set_utf_16be_uchar : t -> int -> Uchar.t -> int

set_utf_16be_uchar b i u UTF-16BE encodes u at index i in b and returns the number of bytes n that were written starting at i. If n is 0 there was not enough space to encode u at i and b was left untouched. Otherwise a new character can be encoded at i + n. 🌟

val is_valid_utf_16be : t -> bool

is_valid_utf_16be b is true if and only if b contains valid UTF-16BE data. 🎀

UTF-16LE

val get_utf_16le_uchar : t -> int -> Uchar.utf_decode

get_utf_16le_uchar b i decodes an UTF-16LE character at index i in b. 🌸

val set_utf_16le_uchar : t -> int -> Uchar.t -> int

set_utf_16le_uchar b i u UTF-16LE encodes u at index i in b and returns the number of bytes n that were written starting at i. If n is 0 there was not enough space to encode u at i and b was left untouched. Otherwise a new character can be encoded at i + n. 💜

val is_valid_utf_16le : t -> bool

is_valid_utf_16le b is true if and only if b contains valid UTF-16LE data. ✨

---

🔢 Binary encoding/decoding of integers 🔢

the functions in this section binary encode and decode integers to and from byte sequences. 🫶

all following functions raise Invalid_argument if the space needed at index i to decode or encode the integer is not available. 🚨

little-endian (resp. big-endian) encoding means that least (resp. most) significant bytes are stored first. Big-endian is also known as network byte order. Native-endian encoding is either little-endian or big-endian depending on Sys.big_endian. 💅

32-bit and 64-bit integers are represented by the int32 and int64 types, which can be interpreted either as signed or unsigned numbers. 🌈

8-bit and 16-bit integers are represented by the int type, which has more bits than the binary encoding. These extra bits are handled as follows:

• -Functions that decode signed (resp. unsigned) 8-bit or 16-bit integers represented by int values sign-extend (resp. zero-extend) their result.
• -Functions that encode 8-bit or 16-bit integers represented by int values truncate their input to their least significant bytes.

val get_uint8 : bytes -> int -> int

get_uint8 b i is b’s unsigned 8-bit integer starting at byte index i. ⭐

Since 4.08

val get_int8 : bytes -> int -> int

get_int8 b i is b’s signed 8-bit integer starting at byte index i. ✨

Since 4.08

val get_uint16_ne : bytes -> int -> int

get_uint16_ne b i is b’s native-endian unsigned 16-bit integer starting at byte index i. 🦋

Since 4.08

val get_uint16_be : bytes -> int -> int

get_uint16_be b i is b’s big-endian unsigned 16-bit integer starting at byte index i. 🌸

Since 4.08

val get_uint16_le : bytes -> int -> int

get_uint16_le b i is b’s little-endian unsigned 16-bit integer starting at byte index i. 💖

Since 4.08

val get_int16_ne : bytes -> int -> int

get_int16_ne b i is b’s native-endian signed 16-bit integer starting at byte index i. 🎀

Since 4.08

val get_int16_be : bytes -> int -> int

get_int16_be b i is b’s big-endian signed 16-bit integer starting at byte index i. 🌟

Since 4.08

val get_int16_le : bytes -> int -> int

get_int16_le b i is b’s little-endian signed 16-bit integer starting at byte index i. 💜

Since 4.08

val get_int32_ne : bytes -> int -> int32

• val get_int32_ne : bytes -> int -> int32 — get_int32_ne b i gives you b's native-endian 32-bit integer, starting over at byte index i. Since 4.08
• val get_int32_be : bytes -> int -> int32 — get_int32_be b i gives you b's big-endian 32-bit integer starting at byte index i. (big-endian bestie rights ✨) Since 4.08
• val get_int32_le : bytes -> int -> int32 — get_int32_le b i grabs b's little-endian 32-bit integer starting at byte index i. Since 4.08
• val get_int64_ne : bytes -> int -> int64 — get_int64_ne b i is b's native-endian 64-bit integer, starting at byte index i. bigger. sixty-four-ier. 💅 Since 4.08
• val get_int64_be : bytes -> int -> int64 — get_int64_be b i is b's big-endian 64-bit integer starting at byte index i. Since 4.08
• val get_int64_le : bytes -> int -> int64 — get_int64_le b i is b's little-endian 64-bit integer starting at byte index i. Since 4.08

---

okay now we flip the script 🦋 — the getters are done, these are the setters. Same energy, opposite direction: you're putting values into the bytes instead of pulling them out.

🌸 the setters 🌸

• val set_uint8 : bytes -> int -> int -> unit — set_uint8 b i v sets b's unsigned 8-bit integer at byte index i to v. Since 4.08
• val set_int8 : bytes -> int -> int -> unit — set_int8 b i v sets b's signed 8-bit integer at byte index i to v. Since 4.08
• val set_uint16_ne : bytes -> int -> int -> unit — set_uint16_ne b i v sets b's native-endian unsigned 16-bit integer at byte index i to v. Since 4.08
• val set_uint16_be : bytes -> int -> int -> unit — set_uint16_be b i v sets b's big-endian unsigned 16-bit integer starting at byte index i to v. Since 4.08
• val set_uint16_le : bytes -> int -> int -> unit — set_uint16_le b i v sets b's little-endian unsigned 16-bit integer starting at byte index i to v. Since 4.08
• val set_int16_ne : bytes -> int -> int -> unit — set_int16_ne b i v sets b's native-endian signed 16-bit integer starting at byte index i to v. yes signed, we love a glow-up 🌈 Since 4.08
• val set_int16_be : bytes -> int -> int -> unit — set_int16_be b i v sets b's big-endian signed 16-bit integer starting at byte index i to v. Since 4.08
• val set_int16_le : bytes -> int -> int -> unit — set_int16_le b i v sets b's little-endian signed 16-bit integer starting at byte index i to v. Since 4.08
• val set_int32_ne : bytes -> int -> int32 -> unit — set_int32_ne b i v sets b's native-endian 32-bit integer starting at byte index i to v. Since 4.08
• val set_int32_be : bytes -> int -> int32 -> unit — set_int32_be b i v sets b's big-endian 32-bit integer starting at byte index i to v. Since 4.08
• val set_int32_le : bytes -> int -> int32 -> unit — set_int32_le b i v sets b's little-endian 32-bit integer starting at byte index i to v. Since 4.08
• val set_int64_ne : bytes -> int -> int64 -> unit — set_int64_ne b i v sets b's native-endian 64-bit integer starting at byte index i to v. Since 4.08
• val set_int64_be : bytes -> int -> int64 -> unit — set_int64_be b i v sets b's big-endian 64-bit integer starting at byte index i to v. Since 4.08
• val set_int64_le : bytes -> int -> int64 -> unit — set_int64_le b i v sets b's little-endian 64-bit integer starting at byte index i to v. Since 4.08

---

🫶 Byte sequences and concurrency safety 🫶

okay so this is the part where things get real, bestie. pay attention, this is giving important 💀

When you're touching byte sequences from multiple domains at the same time, you gotta be careful. The good news? Accessing a byte sequence will never crash your program. The tea ☕ is that unsynchronized accesses might give you surprising results — like, specifically non-sequentially-consistent results. so not illegal, just chaotic 🙈

⚡ Atomicity ⚡

every byte sequence operation that touches more than one byte is not atomic. that includes iteration and scanning, periodt.

Like, consider this little program bestie:

let size = 100_000_000
let b = Bytes.make size  ' '
let update b f ()  =
  Bytes.iteri (fun i x -> Bytes.set b i (Char.chr (f (Char.code x)))) b
let d1 = Domain.spawn (update b (fun x -> x + 1))
let d2 = Domain.spawn (update b (fun x -> 2 * x + 1))
let () = Domain.join d1; Domain.join d2

after this runs, the bytes sequence b may contain a non-deterministic mixture of '!', 'A', 'B', and 'C' values. like a lil mystery bag 🎀

so like, to be clear: after executing this code, each byte of the sequence b is either '!', 'A', 'B', or 'C'. that's it, those are the only options. And if you actually need atomicity? then you have to implement your own synchronization — for example, using Mutex.t. no cap, it's on you 🫡

💀 Data races 💀

if two domains only access disjoint parts of a byte sequence, then what you observe is equivalent to some sequential interleaving of the operations from the two domains. cute, predictable, slay.

Now — a data race is said to occur when two domains access the same byte without synchronization, and at least one of those accesses is a write. In the absence of data races, the observed behaviour is equivalent to some sequential interleaving of the operations from different domains. ✨

whenever possible, avoid data races by using synchronization to mediate the accesses to the elements of the sequence. fr fr, do it.

and yeah — in the presence of data races, programs will not crash, but the observed behaviour may not be equivalent to any sequential interleaving of operations from different domains. 😭 Nevertheless — even in the presence of data races, a read operation will return the value of some prior write to that location. so at least it's not making stuff up out of thin air 🧚

🦋 Mixed-size accesses 🦋

another subtle point (yes there's more, we're almost done 💜): if a data race involves mixed-size writes and reads to the same location, the order in which those writes and reads are observed by domains is not specified.

For instance, the following code writes sequentially a 32-bit integer and a char to the same index:

let b = Bytes.make 10 '\000'
let d1 = Domain.spawn (fun () -> Bytes.set_int32_ne b 0 100; b.[0] <- 'd' )

in this situation, a domain that observes the write of 'd' to b.[0] is not guaranteed to also observe the write to indices 1, 2, or 3. 🙈 like it saw the main character but not the supporting cast.

---

and that's the whole page, bestie!! you just read the entire Bytes(3) manual and honestly? iconic behaviour 👑💅

this masterpiece was brought to you by OCamldoc, dated 2026-06-22, and it lives at Bytes(3) — go forth and manipulate those bytes responsibly, mwah 🎀💖