D090 - An unterminated SFO value is a length, not text

Status: decided Date: 2026-09-26

A utf8_special (0x0004) value is its exact bytes: Value::TextUnterminated when they decode as UTF-8, Value::Binary otherwise, never trimmed. Value::as_bytes and Sfo::bytes(key) return the bytes whatever the variant. Which end of an id is significant is the caller's decision.

Why: the format carries non-text values such as ACCOUNT_ID, eight bytes that may end in zero. Reading it as text refused whole files over one key and dropped a trailing byte. Some binary ids decode as UTF-8 by chance, so matching on a variant is unreliable.

Rejected:

• Refusing the file on invalid UTF-8: a reader fails over a key nobody asked for.
• Interpreting ids as numbers here: an endianness choice the consumer should make.