This stream example will read incoming bytes as two-byte package. So it should cache buffers until they have a length of two and it should recall itself to handle buffers which hold multiple packages. The first target of caching bytes until there are two works great but the second target where it should reread cached buffers which contain more t…

cache_stream.js

var util = require('util');
var stream = require('stream');

var parser = new stream.Readable();
var source = new stream.Readable();

parser.cache = [];
parser.source = source;

parser._read = function() {
    var chunk = source.read();
 
    if (chunk === null)
        return this.push('');

    // add bytes of chunk to our cache
    var offset = this.cache.length;
    for (var i = 0; i < chunk.length; i++)
        this.cache[offset + i] = chunk[i];

    // if we have something in the cache
    // create a buffer from it and overwrite chunk
    if (this.cache.length)
        chunk = new Buffer(this.cache);

    // if chunk is bigger than one we have
    // can slice a two byte package from it
    // else we have to wait for more bytes
    if (chunk.length > 1) {
        // the body is two byte big
        var body = chunk.slice(0, 2);
        // everything above must be another one
        var remnant = chunk.slice(2);

        // push the body to read queue
        this.push(body);
        // reset cache
        this.cache = [];
        
        // if there is a remaining part
        // push it to the cache and call
        // this.push('') to keep reading
        // (which actually does not work)
        if (remnant.length) {
            this.cache.push(remnant);
            this.push('');
        }
    } else {
        this.push('');
    }
    
};

source._read = function() {};

source.on('readable', function() {
    parser.read(0);   
});

parser.on('readable', function() {
    console.log('reading', parser.read());
});

// can handle singe bytes
source.push(new Buffer([0x01]));
source.push(new Buffer([0x02]));
source.push(new Buffer([0x03]));
source.push(new Buffer([0x04]));
// cannot handle chunked bytes
// parser will stop reading after 0x05, 0x06
// so that 0x07, 0x08 will not get handled
source.push(new Buffer([0x05, 0x06, 0x07, 0x08]));

It'd be better to use a Transform stream for this, and pipe the source into it. That's what Transform is for.

I don't get what this is actually supposed to be doing, though... So you are just getting chunks, and passing them through in 2-byte increments? Why not just push the whole thing? Or at least manipulate it in some way? In what sense is this a "parser"?