* [RFC PATCH proxmox-backup] fix #5748: docs: add `catalog.pcat1` format specification
@ 2026-06-17 15:42 Shan Shaji
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From: Shan Shaji @ 2026-06-17 15:42 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: pbs-devel
Earlier proxmox catalog file format specification was not present
inside the docs. fixed it by adding format specification under file
formats.
Signed-off-by: Shan Shaji <s.shaji@proxmox.com>
---
Sending this as an RFC because I am not sure whether the names I used make sense.
I also marked `TABLE_LENGTH`, `ENTRY_COUNT`, `NAME_LENGTH`, `offset_back`, `size`, and
`mtime` as 64-bit values. However, AFAIU, when these values are written to the file,
they are encoded as variable length byte sequences. For example, if `NAME_LENGTH` is
greater than 127, it will be encoded a multiple `u8` values. So, Is it okay to specify
the type in logical size?
docs/catalog-format-overview.dot | 45 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
docs/file-formats.rst | 6 +++++
2 files changed, 51 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 docs/catalog-format-overview.dot
diff --git a/docs/catalog-format-overview.dot b/docs/catalog-format-overview.dot
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a9ec64ad3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/catalog-format-overview.dot
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+digraph structs {
+ graph [
+ rankdir = "LR"
+ fontname="Helvetica"
+ ];
+
+ node [
+ fontsize = "16"
+ shape = "record"
+ ];
+
+ catalog [
+ label = "catalog.pcat1"
+ ];
+
+ catalog_payload [
+ label = "<magic> CATALOG_MAGIC: [u8; 8]\l|<blocks> \{DIRECTORY_BLOCK\}*\l|ROOT_DIRECTORY_OFFSET: [u8; 8]\l"
+ ];
+
+ directory_block [
+ label = "<table_length> TABLE_LENGTH: u64\l|<entry_count> ENTRY_COUNT: u64\l|<entries> \{DIRECTORY_ENTRY\}*\l"
+ ];
+
+ directory_entry [
+ label = "<entry_type> ENTRY_TYPE: u8\l|NAME_LENGTH: u64\l|NAME: [u8]\l|<attr> ATTRIBUTE_PAYLOAD\l"
+ ];
+
+ attribute_payload [
+ label = "{{DIRECTORY_PAYLOAD|offset_back: u64}|{FILE_PAYLOAD|size: u64\nmtime: i64}|{OTHER_PAYLOAD|no extra payload}}"
+ ];
+
+ entry_types [
+ label = "'d' directory|'f' file|'l' symlink|'h' hardlink|'b' block device|'c' char device|'p' fifo|'s' socket"
+ ];
+
+ catalog -> catalog_payload:magic;
+
+ catalog_payload:blocks -> directory_block:table_length;
+
+ directory_block:entries -> directory_entry:entry_type;
+
+ directory_entry:attr -> attribute_payload;
+
+ directory_entry:entry_type -> entry_types;
+}
diff --git a/docs/file-formats.rst b/docs/file-formats.rst
index ed3250d11..f67b1b23c 100644
--- a/docs/file-formats.rst
+++ b/docs/file-formats.rst
@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@
File Formats
============
+.. _pcat1-format:
+
+Proxmox Catalog File Format (``.pcat1``)
+----------------------------------------
+
+.. graphviz:: catalog-format-overview.dot
.. _pxar-format:
--
2.47.3
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2026-06-17 15:42 [RFC PATCH proxmox-backup] fix #5748: docs: add `catalog.pcat1` format specification Shan Shaji
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