This chapter discusses basic data representations used in PNA files, as well as the expected representation of the archive data.
Conceptually, PNA archive is represented by a series of multiple entries between the start and end headers. There are multiple types of entries, including files and directories.
Three types of archives are supported:
Optionally, PNA archive can be split. Splitting is allowed across entries.
All integers that require more than one byte must be in network byte order: the most significant byte comes first, then the less significant bytes in descending order of significance (MSB LSB for two-byte integers, B3 B2 B1 B0 for four-byte integers). The highest bit (value 128) of a byte is numbered bit 7; the lowest bit (value 1) is numbered bit 0. Values are unsigned unless otherwise noted. Values explicitly noted as signed are represented in two’s complement notation.
All character information must be encoded in UTF-8: this also includes the path for each entry.