unpickler

Unpickler refers to the process of deserializing data that has been serialized using a "pickler." Pickling is a method in Python for serializing and de-serializing Python object structures. Serialization, or pickling, converts a Python object hierarchy into a byte stream. De-serialization, or unpickling, converts this byte stream back into a Python object hierarchy.

The primary module for this in Python is called `pickle`. The `pickle.loads()` function takes a byte string representing pickled data and returns the reconstructed Python object. Conversely, `pickle.load()` reads pickled data from a file-like object.

While pickling is a convenient way to store and transfer Python objects, unpickling can be a security risk if the source of the pickled data is untrusted. This is because the `pickle` module can execute arbitrary code during the unpickling process. Therefore, it is strongly advised to only unpickle data from trusted sources. Alternative serialization formats like JSON or YAML, which do not execute code, are often preferred for inter-process communication or data exchange with untrusted parties. The term "unpickler" specifically denotes the entity or process responsible for performing the de-serialization.