Confused about path_length and hop count

[mt104]

I'm trying to understand how path length and hop count interact, sharing a byte. I added this code at the start of Mesh.cpp Mesh::onRecvPacket

int i = 0;
uint8_t dest_hash = pkt->payload[i++];
uint8_t src_hash = pkt->payload[i++];
Serial.printf("DEBUG_MARKT: Heard... src_hash=%02X -> dest_hash=%02X, path_len=%d, hop_count=%d\r\n", src_hash, dest_hash, (uint32_t)pkt->path_len, (uint32_t)(pkt->path_len & 0x3F));

Using a companion near my test repeater, I sent a direct message without a path. As expected I saw a hop count of 0. However, when I set the path to 11 (a repeater that doesn't exist locally) I was expecting to see hop count of 0 again, as no repeater could have repeated the packet, but I saw hop count of 1.

Am I misunderstanding something?

[Kxrma47]

The low six bits are the number of path hashes, not a live count of repeaters that already forwarded the packet. getPathHashCount() is literally path_len & 63, while the upper two bits encode hash size (Packet.h). Therefore a configured direct path containing one repeater hash reports 1 even if that nonexistent repeater never retransmits it; the field describes the supplied route.

[mt104]

Thank-you. I'm looking for a way to detect directly heard companions, but this isn't it.

[mt104]

I'm using received adverts with a path length of zero instead.