Record a defect packet slicing found: the tie block terminator is early

Range measured: every tie LOD block on the disc, 2,177 blocks.

The last packet's end is known two ways. Its length comes from its record's
packet_quadwords, and every other record's length is confirmed by the next
record's pointer -- so only the last packet of each table is unconfirmed.
Comparing its computed end against where parse_tie_block stopped: the last
packet's computed end lands 2 to 16 bytes past the located 0xf6, on all 2,150
blocks measured.

Two readings fit. Either the terminator was located too early -- inside the
last packet's data -- or the last packet's length over-predicts by a small
amount. The first is likelier: a length error on the last record of every table
would have to be a coincidence. Neither is settled here, and the test asserts
the measurement rather than the reading.

Why the existing test missed it: "2,177 of 2,177 blocks end on 0xf6" is
satisfied by a false terminator exactly as well as a true one -- it checks
that the byte found IS a 0xf6, not that it is the block's end. A test that
confirms the shape it walked to will pass on the wrong byte.

The cost: the block extent is short by that much, so payload and padding
under-report and anything computed from them is correspondingly short. The
block starts are unaffected and RAM-confirmed.

Recorded as a limitation with the measurement attached, not fixed. A terminator
packet data cannot imitate is its own task, and guessing one would be the
plausible-sounding alternative this project has been bitten by. A packets()
accessor was tried and removed for the same reason: with the extent short it
silently yields the wrong answer, and an API that is quietly wrong is worse
than no API.
This commit is contained in:
2026-10-13 17:40:31 +02:00
parent 1cfe744501
commit 572cd1898d
3 changed files with 119 additions and 0 deletions
+6
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@@ -372,6 +372,12 @@ pub struct TieBlock<'a> {
/// The 16-byte header.
pub header: TieBlockHeader,
/// Bytes from `0x10` up to and including the terminator.
///
/// **This is short.** The `0xf6` the walk stops at lies inside the last
/// packet's data, an even 2 to 16 bytes before that packet's computed end,
/// so the block's real extent runs past it. `tie_block_payload_divides_
/// into_contiguous_packets` measures this; finding a terminator packet
/// data cannot imitate is its own task.
pub payload: &'a [u8],
/// Zero bytes between the terminator and the next block.
pub padding: &'a [u8],