mafintosh / mafintosh/protocol-buffers

The library should throw if a repeated field with non-primitive type is provided with [packed=true]

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Dominant language
JavaScript
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Forks
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Description

> Only repeated fields of primitive numeric types (types which use the varint, 32-bit, or 64-bit wire types) can be declared "packed".

[source](https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/encoding#packed-repeated-fields)

We [got bitten](https://github.com/anthill/pheromon-codecs/pull/6/files). Trying to do it ([packed=true] + non-primitive type). What ended up happening was the decoding call returning nonsensical objects.

The library should probably refuse such message descriptions with a corresponding warning.

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First steps

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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
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Research direction

Start by locating the code that validates message descriptions and handles repeated fields marked packed, then inspect the related encoding and decoding tests. Done means rejecting packed declarations for non-primitive repeated fields with a corresponding warning instead of allowing nonsensical decoded objects.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript, node.js
Domain
api, backend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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