file_carver.hpp

1. Overview

The file_carver.hpp file coordinates signature scanning and extraction of files that cannot be recovered through filesystem metadata.

This is an interface and data-contract file. It declares the public and internal types used by this subsystem, allowing implementation files and callers to share a stable compile-time contract.

Its paired source or interface file is file_carver.cpp.

Primary responsibilities:

  • Select carving signatures
  • Scan raw ranges
  • Validate and export candidate files
  • Report carved-file records and errors

2. File Identity and Scope

  • Source path: src/file_carver.hpp
  • Language: C++
  • File role: interface and data-contract file
  • Physical lines: 33
  • Non-empty lines: 29
  • SHA-256: 3ab3894f908e0886ecd5e4323b6806b7bcfc8147e4e1c01e4009b49351620a9a

The declarations in this file use the global namespace.

3. Dependencies

3.1 Project Headers

  • disk_reader.hpp

3.2 Standard and External Headers

  • cstdint
  • utility
  • string
  • vector

These dependencies define the file’s compile-time integration with the recovery engine, GTK interface, on-disk format decoders, operating-system services, or C++ standard library.

4. Declared Types

  • struct CarvedFile.
  • class FileCarver.

5. Constants and Configuration Values

No preprocessor or compile-time constants were detected as top-level declarations in this file.

6. Data Members and Persistent State

The interface declares the following state-bearing members:

  • std::string type
  • std::string extension
  • uint64_t offset {0}
  • uint64_t size {0}
  • double confidence {0.0}
  • std::string detail
  • std::string output_path

These members hold configuration, parser context, UI widgets, source references, progress state, recovered metadata, or temporary resources according to the owning type.

7. API and Function Inventory

The following callable interfaces or definitions were detected:

  • static bool carve_to_directory(DiskReader&reader,const std::string&output_dir,std::vector<CarvedFile>&carved,std::vector<std::string>&logs,std::string&error) – Performs the associated recovery or extraction operation.
  • static bool carve_ranges_to_directory(DiskReader&reader,const std::vector<std::pair<uint64_t,uint64_t>>&ranges,const std::string&output_dir,std::vector<CarvedFile>&carved,std::vector<std::string>&logs,std::string&error) – Performs the associated recovery or extraction operation.

8. Operational Flow

The subsystem represented by this file normally participates in the following flow:

  1. Select carving signatures.
  2. Scan raw ranges.
  3. Validate and export candidate files.
  4. Report carved-file records and errors.
  5. Expose or execute the detected APIs: carve_to_directory, carve_ranges_to_directory.
  6. Return explicit results, progress data, recovered records, or diagnostics to the calling layer.

9. Validation and Error Handling

  • Errors are propagated through Boolean results, error strings, logs, exceptions, or status records depending on the API.
  • Byte offsets, sizes and lengths must be validated before arithmetic and before every read to avoid overflow and out-of-bounds access.
  • Input and output paths require existence checks, permission handling and safe destination construction.

10. Runtime, Concurrency, and Resource Management

  • Deterministic behavior: callers depend on explicit return values and stable data structures to distinguish successful recovery from partial or invalid results.

11. Security and Data-Recovery Considerations

  • Recovery code should prefer read-only source access and avoid writing to the original damaged medium.
  • Raw devices and image files are treated as untrusted binary input; every offset and length must remain bounded by the source size.
  • Recovered names and destination paths must be sanitized to prevent directory traversal and accidental overwrite outside the selected export directory.

12. Implementation Considerations

  • Changes to public declarations can affect every translation unit that includes this header and should preserve binary and source compatibility where required.
  • State-bearing members should have explicit ownership and initialization semantics, especially for references, pointers, file descriptors and GTK widgets.
  • Large-device arithmetic uses 64-bit values; additions and multiplications should be checked before use as offsets or allocation sizes.

13. Integration with the Recovery Pipeline

  • The file belongs to the extraction layer and consumes scan candidates or validated filesystem metadata.
  • Recovered output is represented through shared models and returned to the exporter or UI.
  • Partial recovery must be reported explicitly rather than silently treated as complete.

14. Licensing and Provenance

No explicit copyright or software-license statement was detected in the opening section of this individual file. Distribution terms should therefore be verified against the project-level license and repository metadata.

The SHA-256 value in this document can be used to associate the generated documentation with the exact source version analyzed.

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