slpc-rust

The Rust implementation of Slipcase, a container format that attaches metadata to a file.

A .slpc file is a ZIP archive holding a payload file of any type together with a TOML metadata document describing it. The two become one file, so copying, moving, or sending the payload carries its metadata along.

This repository is a Cargo workspace holding two crates:

• slpc — the library. Reads, writes, and validates containers.
• slipcase — the command-line tool, built on the library.

The specification lives in excelano/slipcase and is the authority on the format. https://slipcaseformat.org publishes it as pages.

This is a reference implementation: it exists to show that the specification is implementable and to be checked against it.

Install

Debian and Ubuntu

Add the Excelano apt repository once:

curl -fsSL https://excelano.com/apt/setup.sh | sudo sh

Then install it, so apt upgrade keeps it current:

sudo apt install slipcase

Both amd64 and arm64 packages ship with every release.

Homebrew

brew install excelano/tap/slipcase

crates.io

cargo install slipcase

Windows

In PowerShell:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://github.com/excelano/slpc-rust/releases/latest/download/slipcase-installer.ps1 | iex"

Curl (any Linux or macOS)

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/excelano/slpc-rust/main/install.sh | sh

To remove it: swap install.sh for uninstall.sh in that line.

Every release also carries plain archives — macOS and Linux on both Intel and ARM, Windows on Intel — each with a .sha256 beside it.

The tool

slipcase pack report.pdf --meta owner.toml       # writes report.pdf.slpc
slipcase info report.pdf.slpc                    # prints the metadata; verbatim when redirected
slipcase repack report.pdf.slpc --meta new.toml  # changes it in place, keeping the rest
slipcase validate report.pdf.slpc                # exit 0 if conformant
slipcase unpack report.pdf.slpc --dest ./out     # writes the payload and nothing else

Wherever a file is read, - names standard input, and wherever one is written it names standard output.

Exit codes tell success from bad input, from a bad command line, from a container this build cannot judge. slipcase --help states the contract.

The library

docs.rs/slpc is the library's own page, and its examples are compiled and run rather than transcribed.

This repository

DESIGN.md records the design and the reasoning behind each decision.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.