This library implements an efficient, compact-output, and feature-rich
serializer using a binary protocol called _Sereal_. Its sister module
Sereal::Decoder implements a decoder for this format. The two are released
separately to allow for independent and safer upgrading. If you care
greatly about performance, consider reading the Sereal::Performance
documentation after finishing this document.

The Sereal protocol version emitted by this encoder implementation is
currently protocol version 3 by default.

The protocol specification and many other bits of documentation can be
found in the github repository. Right now, the specification is at
https://github.com/Sereal/Sereal/blob/master/sereal_spec.pod, there is a
discussion of the design objectives in
https://github.com/Sereal/Sereal/blob/master/README.pod, and the output of
our benchmarks can be seen at
https://github.com/Sereal/Sereal/wiki/Sereal-Comparison-Graphs. For more
information on getting the best performance out of Sereal, have a look at
the "PERFORMANCE" section below.