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% File src/library/base/man/serialize.Rd
% Part of the R package, https://www.R-project.org
% Copyright 1995-2025 R Core Team
% Distributed under GPL 2 or later

\name{readRDS}
\alias{readRDS}
\alias{saveRDS}
\alias{infoRDS}
\title{Serialization Interface for Single Objects}
\description{
  Functions to write a single \R object to a file, and to restore it.
}
\usage{
saveRDS(object, file = "", ascii = FALSE, version = NULL,
        compress = TRUE, refhook = NULL)

readRDS(file, refhook = NULL)
infoRDS(file)
}
\arguments{
  \item{object}{\R object to serialize.}
  \item{file}{a \link{connection} or the path name of the file where the
    \R object is saved to or read from.}
  \item{ascii}{a logical.  If \code{TRUE} or \code{NA}, an ASCII
    representation is written; otherwise (default), a binary one is used.
    See the comments in the help for \code{\link{save}}.}
  \item{version}{the workspace format version to use.  \code{NULL}
    specifies the current default version (3).  The only other supported
    value is 2, the default from \R 1.4.0 to \R 3.5.0.}
  \item{compress}{a logical specifying whether saving to a named file is
    to use \code{"gzip"} compression, or one of \code{"gzip"},
    \code{"bzip2"}, \code{"xz"} or \code{"zstd"} to indicate the type of
    compression to be used.  Ignored if \code{file} is a connection.}
  \item{refhook}{a hook function for handling reference objects.}
}
\details{
  \code{saveRDS} and \code{readRDS} provide the means to save a single \R
  object to a connection (typically a file) and to restore the object, quite
  possibly under a different name.  This differs from \code{\link{save}} and
  \code{\link{load}}, which save and restore one or more named objects into
  an environment.  They are widely used by \R itself, for example to store
  metadata for a package and to store the \code{\link{help.search}}
  databases: the \code{".rds"} file extension is most often used.

  Functions \code{\link{serialize}} and \code{\link{unserialize}}
  provide a slightly lower-level interface to serialization: objects
  serialized to a connection by \code{serialize} can be read back by
  \code{readRDS} and conversely.

  Function \code{infoRDS} retrieves meta-data about serialization produced
  by \code{saveRDS} or \code{serialize}. \code{infoRDS} cannot be used to
  detect whether a file is a serialization nor whether it is valid.

  All of these interfaces use the same serialization format, but \code{save}
  writes a single line header (typically \code{"RDXs\n"}) before the
  serialization of a single object (a pairlist of all the objects to be
  saved).

  If \code{file} is a file name, it is opened by \code{\link{gzfile}}
  except for \code{save(compress = FALSE)} which uses
  \code{\link{file}}.  Only for the exception are marked encodings of
  \code{file} which cannot be translated to the native encoding handled
  on Windows.
  
  Compression is handled by the connection opened when \code{file} is a
  file name, so is only possible when \code{file} is a connection if
  handled by the connection.  So e.g.\sspace{}\code{\link{url}}
  connections will need to be wrapped in a call to \code{\link{gzcon}}.

  If a connection is supplied it will be opened (in binary mode) for the
  duration of the function if not already open: if it is already open it
  must be in binary mode for \code{saveRDS(ascii = FALSE)} or to read
  non-ASCII saves.
}

\value{
  For \code{readRDS}, an \R object.

  For \code{saveRDS}, \code{NULL} invisibly.

  For \code{infoRDS}, an \R list with elements \code{version} (version
  number, currently 2 or 3), \code{writer_version} (version of \R that
  produced the serialization), \code{min_reader_version} (minimum version of
  \R that can read the serialization), \code{format} (data representation)
  and \code{native_encoding} (native encoding of the session that produced
  the serialization, available since version 3).  The data representation is
  given as \code{"xdr"} for big-endian binary representation, \code{"ascii"}
  for ASCII representation (produced via \code{ascii = TRUE} or \code{ascii
  = NA}) or \code{"binary"} (binary representation with native
  \sQuote{endianness} which can be produced by \code{\link{serialize}}).
}

\section{Warning}{
  Files produced by \code{saveRDS} (or \code{serialize} to a file
  connection) are not suitable as an interchange format between
  machines, for example to download from a website. The
  files produced by \code{\link{save}} have a header identifying the
  file type and so are better protected against erroneous use.

  \code{compress = "zstd"} was first supported in \R 4.5.0, and needs OS
  support so is even less suited as an interchange format.
}

\seealso{
  \code{\link{serialize}}, \code{\link{save}} and \code{\link{load}}.

  The \sQuote{R Internals} manual for details of the format used.
}

\examples{
fil <- tempfile("women", fileext = ".rds")
## save a single object to file
saveRDS(women, fil)
## restore it under a different name
women2 <- readRDS(fil)
identical(women, women2)
## or examine the object via a connection, which will be opened as needed.
con <- gzfile(fil)
readRDS(con)
close(con)

## Less convenient ways to restore the object
## which demonstrate compatibility with unserialize()
con <- gzfile(fil, "rb")
identical(unserialize(con), women)
close(con)
con <- gzfile(fil, "rb")
wm <- readBin(con, "raw", n = 1e4) # size is a guess
close(con)
identical(unserialize(wm), women)

## Format compatibility with serialize():
fil2 <- tempfile("women")
con <- file(fil2, "w")
serialize(women, con) # ASCII, uncompressed
close(con)
identical(women, readRDS(fil2))
fil3 <- tempfile("women")
con <- bzfile(fil3, "w")
serialize(women, con) # binary, bzip2-compressed
close(con)
identical(women, readRDS(fil3))

unlink(c(fil, fil2, fil3))
}

\keyword{file}
\keyword{connection}