[ID3 Dev] Why is footer not included in total size?

[Ray Manning]

I agree that that there is no explicit statement
in the spec that states a footer cannot appear on a prepended tag.
The spec only states that padding and footers are mutually exclusive
which only _implies_ a footer shouldn't appear on a prepended tag
but since it is not explicitly stated as ill formated, then you
have to prepare for it.

Both 2.3 and 2.4 use a syncsafe int in the tag header. The 2.3
spec just doesn't call it a syncsafe int.

You might be thinking of the frame sizes which changed from
a normal int in 2.3 to a syncsafe int in 2.4 - along with
the change in the interpretation of the unsynchronisation
scheme (v2.3 is tag based where v2.4 is frame based).


- Ray


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim [mailto:jmartin92 at comcast.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 9:23 PM
> To: id3v2 at id3.org
> Subject: Re: [ID3 Dev] Why is footer not included in total size?
>
>
> Well, I can see the possibility of the problem there.  However:
>
> I know padding and having a footer are exclusive, but since padding is
> optional for a prepended tag, how does this imply footers should
> not be used
> for prepended tags?  (I'm beginning to agree that footers should
> not be used
> on prepended tags but relying on something implied by the spec seems to be
> asking for trouble.  If footers should only be used on appended tags it
> would seem better to just update the spec to explicitly say that...and not
> leave it up to interpretation that could cause problems.)
>
> But let's assume for a moment that a footer CAN be added to a
> prepended tag.
> According to the spec, software that encounters a major tag version beyond
> what it understands should skip/ignore the entire tag.  (Like a 2.2 parser
> encountering a 2.3 or higher tag or a 2.3 parser encountering a 2.4 or
> higher tag, etc.)  How could any software that encounters a tag with a
> footer do this?  If it uses the size given by the header and skips ahead
> that many bytes, it would end up exactly at the beginning of the footer
> instead of after it.
>
> I know there is never any guarantee that the size in the header is correct
> and will allow you to skip right to the "real" (meaning how it would be
> without the tag) beginning of the file but here you have a case where a
> properly written tag with a proper size would land you 10 bytes shy of end
> of the tag every time.  That seems wrong.  (Yes, I know that any decent
> player should check for the sync signal but shouldn't the goal be to avoid
> having to scan for this when you have a properly written tag with
> no "junk"
> data after it?)
>
> The idea that a 2.3 parser would get messed up because it would
> try to read
> this as a frame seems remote.  For one thing, as previously stated, a 2.3
> parser should skip a 2.4 tag entirely.  But if it did try to parse the
> frames I would think it would already be hopelessly lost since the size in
> 2.4 frame headers is stored as a syncsafe integer while in 2.3
> frames it is
> not syncsafe.  And for a not fully conforming 2.4 parser it's
> true that this
> could be a problem.  But, well, even if it doesn't fully conform to the
> spec, checking a flag bit and subtracting 10 from the given size
> is a pretty
> simple fix.
>
> Jim
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ben Allison" <benski at winamp.com>
> To: <id3v2 at id3.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 10:47 PM
> Subject: Re: [ID3 Dev] Why is footer not included in total size?
>
>
> > The footer is excluded from the length because it would trip up parsers
> > that aren't expecting it (either because they are ID3v2.3 or
> aren't fully
> > conformant to 2.4).
> >
> > It's easy to imagine, you're done reading the last frame, and then come
> > across "3DI[0x04]" and assume it's a frame you don't
> understand, at which
> > point you read the frame size and, woops, now you're somewhere in the
> > middle of the file.
> >
> > As others have said, footers are meant for appended tags.  Although not
> > specifically banned from use on prepended tags, the fact that
> padding and
> > the footer are mutually exclusive implies that it's never meant
> to be used
> > at the beginning.
> >
> > -Ben Allison
> >
> > > Hi.
> > >
> > > I am wondering what the reasoning was behind the size stored
> in ID3v2.4
> > > tags not including the size of the footer (if present).
> > >
> > > I've been looking through the source code for some utilities for MP3
> files
> > > and some other audio file types.  Many of these utilities use a simple
> > > method for skipping over the ID3v2 tag if it is there.  They read the
> > > first 10 bytes of the file, do some simple checking (look for 'ID3',
> check
> > > that version bytes are less than $FF and in some cases check that size
> > > bytes are syncsafe, i.e. < $80) and if it looks like a tag,
> convert the
> > > size and skip that many bytes ahead (+ 10 bytes for header).  Most of
> > > these utilities would be broken if the tag has a footer.
> They don't do
> > > any specific version checking or checking of the flags byte.
> > >
> > > If the size stored in ID3v2.4 tags included the footer size (if it is
> > > present), it would make these tags much more backwards compatible.  (I
> > > know it is a pretty easy change to add checking for the
> footer flag but
> > > wouldn't it have been better to make it compatible with older
> apps that
> > > don't really need to read the tag, just skip it?)   Were there reasons
> > > that came up during development why it was done the way it is?  If so,
> I'd
> > > appreciate if someone could share them with me.  Or if there is
> somewhere
> > > I can read about this (like some archive of the mailing list) I would
> > > appreciate someone pointing me in the right direction.
> > >
> > > Thanks.
> > >
> > > Jim Martin
> > >
> >
> >
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>
>
>
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