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You might not need to iterate the msg fields recursively in the first place. It should be sufficient to iterate only the fields of the current message and for non-builtin field type invoke the serialization / deserialization function of the sub message (rather then implement it again within this message). At least that is the way gencpp, genpy and genlisp deal with it.

Update:

Pointing you to code might not be the best help since the message generator code / templates are everything but easy to read. You could look at the gencpp and genpy packages though.

What I am referring to is the following idea: for each built-in type you will have e.g. a serialize function:

serialize(bool)
serialize(int)

When you now want to serialize a Message Foo you will serialize all of its members like this:

serialize(Foo) {
    serialize(my_bool_member)
    serialize(my_int_member)
}

For a nested message you also only care about its member and not about their recursive fields because you will delegate the serialization of sub messages to there existing serialize implementation:

serialize(Bar) {
    serialize(my_foo_member)
    serialize(my_other_foo_member)
}