ietf-openpgp
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Re: Notation subpacket lengths

1998-05-29 06:48:27
On Fri, 29 May 1998, Christoph Moser wrote:

But what I then don't understand : Why does the length-field in a
subpacket uese the 1-2-5 octet length conventions ?

   Each subpacket consists of a subpacket header and a body.  The
   header consists of:

     - the subpacket length (1,  2, or 5 octets)
       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
     - the subpacket type (1 octet)
     - the subpacket specific data


I can't see a subpacket type that could use a 5 octet length.

The 2 octet length only goes out to 8128.  If you had a longer chunk that
was still less than 64k, since you can't use partial length packets you
would need a 5 octet length packet.  I think a chunk of >8128 would be
abusing something, but the 5 octet packet is there for completeness more
than for practical usage.

--- reply to tzeruch - at - ceddec - dot - com ---


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