QPACK-18: Encoding of string literals

[gloinul]

Section 4.1.2:
Although this is summary of the definition in HPACK, where this issue is clear I think this document should describe things corretly.

HPACK defines string literals to begin on a byte boundary. They begin with a single bit flag, denoted as 'H' in this document (indicating whether the string is Huffman-coded), followed by the Length encoded as a 7-bit prefix integer, and finally Length bytes of data. When Huffman encoding is enabled, the Huffman table from Appendix B of [RFC7541] is used without modification.

The length field as described here, provides an uncertainty if it is the data pre huffman (if applied) encoding or post encoding. HPACK is clear that it is the later. Can you please clarify that the length if the length of the encoded string that is encoded using N-bit prefix integer encoding.

"An "N-bit prefix string literal" begins with the same Huffman flag, followed by the length encoded as an (N-1)-bit prefix integer." This definition if it is the byte or the prefix field that begins with the huffman flag. I would guess that what is meant is that a 6-bit prefix string literal would have a start byte of "??Hxxxxx" rather than "H??xxxxx".

[larseggert]

This would be an "editorial" change.

[MikeBishop]

Yes, the latter is correct. A prefixed string literal does not begin on a byte boundary; the first bit (when it begins) is the Huffman bit, and the remainder is a prefixed integer.