Maybe with a ref parameter, but I think this will only move the problem outside...

...what I can tell -- bytes[] returns a ubyte[].

If this were std.container.array.Array...

...It returns the first ubyte in the `buffer`. Once read, the ubyte is deleted from...

...The different behavior is due to `read!ubyte` which removes the byte from the buffer...

...of this function. What does buffer.read!ubyte do?

If you have a more descriptive...

You just leaked str_ptr there. It gets overwritten by bytes' ptr.
I imagine what...

...ref const(ubyte)[] buffer) @nogc nothrow
{
    Array!ubyte bytes;

    ubyte b = buffer.read!ubyte();
    while...

...too. Like

struct A {
  int a = 10;
  ubyte[10000] b = void;
  int c = 20;
}

Could...

...Eh, what if you did

class A {
    ubyte[__traits(classInstanceSize, A)] recursive;
}

it gives a...

...struct Color {
  ubyte r;
  ubyte g;
  ubyte b;
}

// Assumes data is one ubyte per line...