[AFS3-std] Re: Encoding IPvN addresses

[Jeffrey Hutzelman]

--On Friday, February 11, 2011 11:43:43 AM -0500 "Matt W. Benjamin" 
<matt@linuxbox.com> wrote:

> XCB is structured as a "bulk" interface.  Clients receive a sequence
> (actually sequences) of messages, where the messages are in the union
> (ditto for results).  I understood the interesting case to be if a client
> receives a sequence of callbacks of intermixed known and known type.  I
> would expect clients to ignore unknown messages, but I guess the point at
> issue is whether a sequence containing unexpected union records can even
> be decoded.  Can it?

It cannot; with the existing union type, you have to recognize the 
discriminator in order to understand the following data.  Otherwise you do 
not even know enough to be able to ignore it and pick up with the next 
thing in the stream.  The chief on-the-wire difference in the new type 
would be to add an explicit length so that it's possible to keep decoding.

-- Jeff