RDF Canonicalisation

A Python library for RDF canonicalisation based on the W3C RDF Canonicalisation specification. This library allows you to deterministically canonicalise RDF datasets, making it easier to compare, sign, or hash RDF graphs.

Features

• Deterministic RDF blank node canonicalisation
• Support for multiple hash algorithms (e.g., sha256)
• Integration with rdflib Dataset objects
• Time-based ticker for controlling the maximum duration of the canonicalisation task.

Installation

pip install rdfcanon

Usage

from rdfcanon import RDFCanon, RDFCanonTimeTicker
from rdflib import BNode, Dataset, URIRef

# Create a sample RDF dataset
dataset = Dataset()
dataset.add(
    (
        BNode("e0"),
        URIRef("http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type"),
        URIRef("http://example.org/vocab#Foo"),
        BNode("g0")
    )
)

# Initialise RDF canonicalisation
rdf_canon = RDFCanon(
    hash_algorithm="sha256",
    dataset=dataset,
    ticker=RDFCanonTimeTicker(3000)  # Optional time ticker
)

# Canonicalise the RDF dataset
print(rdf_canon.canonize())

This will output:

_:c14n1 <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> <http://example.org/vocab#Foo> _:c14n0 .

Development

Build the library

python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel

Run tests

pytest

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please submit issues or pull requests via GitHub.

License

MIT License © 2025 YoucTagh