Compact serialization for variable-length integers

Variable-length integers: bytes are a MSB base-128 encoding of the number.
The high bit in each byte signifies whether another digit follows. To make
the encoding is one-to-one, one is subtracted from all but the last digit.
Thus, the byte sequence a[] with length len, where all but the last byte
has bit 128 set, encodes the number:

  (a[len-1] & 0x7F) + sum(i=1..len-1, 128^i*((a[len-i-1] & 0x7F)+1))

Properties:
* Very small (0-127: 1 byte, 128-16511: 2 bytes, 16512-2113663: 3 bytes)
* Every integer has exactly one encoding
* Encoding does not depend on size of original integer type

src/test/serialize_tests.cpp

@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+#include <boost/test/unit_test.hpp>
+
+#include <string>
+#include <vector>
+
+#include "serialize.h"
+
+using namespace std;
+
+BOOST_AUTO_TEST_SUITE(serialize_tests)
+
+BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(varints)
+{
+    // encode
+
+    CDataStream ss(SER_DISK, 0);
+    CDataStream::size_type size = 0;
+    for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++) {
+        ss << VARINT(i);
+        size += ::GetSerializeSize(VARINT(i), 0, 0);
+        BOOST_CHECK(size == ss.size());
+    }
+
+    for (uint64 i = 0;  i < 100000000000ULL; i += 999999937) {
+        ss << VARINT(i);
+        size += ::GetSerializeSize(VARINT(i), 0, 0);
+        BOOST_CHECK(size == ss.size());
+    }
+
+    // decode
+    for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++) {
+        int j;
+        ss >> VARINT(j);
+        BOOST_CHECK_MESSAGE(i == j, "decoded:" << j << " expected:" << i);
+    }
+
+    for (uint64 i = 0;  i < 100000000000ULL; i += 999999937) {
+        uint64 j;
+        ss >> VARINT(j);
+        BOOST_CHECK_MESSAGE(i == j, "decoded:" << j << " expected:" << i);
+    }
+
+}
+
+BOOST_AUTO_TEST_SUITE_END()