4.1. Message Header Format

Each message has a fixed-size header. There may or may not be a data portion following the header, depending on the message type. The layout of these fields is shown below:

      0                   1                   2                   3
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                                                               |
      +                                                               +
      |                                                               |
      +                                                               +
      |                           Marker                              |
      +                                                               +
      |                                                               |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |          Length               |      Type     |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Marker:

This 16-octet field is included for compatibility; it MUST be set to all ones.

Length:

This 2-octet unsigned integer indicates the total length of the message, including the header in octets. Thus, it allows one to locate the (Marker field of the) next message in the TCP stream. The value of the Length field MUST always be at least 19 and no greater than 4096, and MAY be further constrained, depending on the message type. "padding" of extra data after the message is not allowed. Therefore, the Length field MUST have the smallest value required, given the rest of the message.

Type:

This 1-octet unsigned integer indicates the type code of the message. This document defines the following type codes:

1 - OPEN
2 - UPDATE
3 - NOTIFICATION
4 - KEEPALIVE

[RFC2918] defines one more type code.

4.1. Message Header Format​

4.1. Message Header Format