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Compound File Binary Format
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<h2 id="overview">Overview</h2> <p>At its simplest, the Compound File Binary Format is a container, with little restriction on what can be stored within it. </p><p>A CFBF file structure loosely resembles a <a href="/facts/File_Allocation_Table/uFvpmWxa">FAT</a> <a href="/facts/File_system/FdPm90uc">file system</a>. The file is partitioned into <i>Sectors</i> which are chained together with a <i>File Allocation Table</i> (not to be mistaken with the file system of the same name) which contains chains of sectors related to each file, a <i>Directory</i> holds information for contained files with a Sector ID (SID) for the starting sector of a chain and so on. </p> <h2 id="structure">Structure</h2> <p>The CFBF file consists of a 512-byte header record followed by a number of Sectors whose size is defined in the header. The literature defines Sectors to be either 512 or 4096 bytes in length, although the format is potentially capable of supporting sectors ranging in size from 128 bytes upwards, in powers of two (128, 256, 512, 1024, etc.). The lower limit of 128 is the minimum required to fit a single directory entry in a Directory Sector.[<i>relevant?</i>] </p><p>There are several types of sector that may be present in a CFBF file: </p> <ul><li>File Allocation Table (FAT) Sector – contains chains of sector indices much as a FAT does in the FAT/FAT32 filesystems</li> <li>MiniFAT Sectors – similar to the FAT but storing chains of mini-sectors within the Mini-Stream</li> <li>Double-Indirect FAT (DIFAT) Sector – contains chains of FAT sector indices</li> <li>Directory Sector – contains directory entries</li> <li>Stream Sector – contains arbitrary file data</li> <li>Range Lock Sector – contains the byte-range locking area of a large file</li></ul> <p>More detail is given below for the header and each sector type. </p> <h3>CFBF header format</h3> <p>The CFBF header occupies the first 512 bytes of the file and information required to interpret the rest of the file. The C-style structure declaration below (extracted from the AAFA's Low-Level Container Specification) shows the members of the CFBF header and their purpose: </p> typedef unsigned long ULONG; // 4 bytes typedef unsigned short USHORT; // 2 bytes typedef short OFFSET; // 2 bytes typedef ULONG SECT; // 4 bytes typedef ULONG FSINDEX; // 4 bytes typedef USHORT FSOFFSET; // 2 bytes typedef USHORT WCHAR; // 2 bytes typedef ULONG DFSIGNATURE; // 4 bytes typedef unsigned char BYTE; // 1 byte typedef unsigned short WORD; // 2 bytes typedef unsigned long DWORD; // 4 bytes typedef ULONG SID; // 4 bytes typedef GUID CLSID; // 16 bytes struct StructuredStorageHeader { // [offset from start (bytes), length (bytes)] BYTE _abSig[8]; // [00H,08] {0xd0, 0xcf, 0x11, 0xe0, 0xa1, 0xb1, // 0x1a, 0xe1} for current version CLSID _clsid; // [08H,16] reserved must be zero (WriteClassStg/ // GetClassFile uses root directory class id) USHORT _uMinorVersion; // [18H,02] minor version of the format: 33 is // written by reference implementation USHORT _uDllVersion; // [1AH,02] major version of the dll/format: 3 for // 512-byte sectors, 4 for 4 KB sectors USHORT _uByteOrder; // [1CH,02] 0xFFFE: indicates Intel byte-ordering USHORT _uSectorShift; // [1EH,02] size of sectors in power-of-two; // typically 9 indicating 512-byte sectors USHORT _uMiniSectorShift; // [20H,02] size of mini-sectors in power-of-two; // typically 6 indicating 64-byte mini-sectors USHORT _usReserved; // [22H,02] reserved, must be zero ULONG _ulReserved1; // [24H,04] reserved, must be zero FSINDEX _csectDir; // [28H,04] must be zero for 512-byte sectors, // number of SECTs in directory chain for 4 KB // sectors FSINDEX _csectFat; // [2CH,04] number of SECTs in the FAT chain SECT _sectDirStart; // [30H,04] first SECT in the directory chain DFSIGNATURE _signature; // [34H,04] signature used for transactions; must // be zero. The reference implementation // does not support transactions ULONG _ulMiniSectorCutoff; // [38H,04] maximum size for a mini stream; // typically 4096 bytes SECT _sectMiniFatStart; // [3CH,04] first SECT in the MiniFAT chain FSINDEX _csectMiniFat; // [40H,04] number of SECTs in the MiniFAT chain SECT _sectDifStart; // [44H,04] first SECT in the DIFAT chain FSINDEX _csectDif; // [48H,04] number of SECTs in the DIFAT chain SECT _sectFat[109]; // [4CH,436] the SECTs of first 109 FAT sectors }; <h3>File Allocation Table (FAT) sectors</h3> <p>When taken together as a single stream the collection of FAT sectors define the status and linkage of every sector in the file. Each entry in the FAT is 4 bytes in length and contains the sector number of the next sector in a FAT chain or one of the following special values: </p> <ul><li>FREESECT (0xFFFFFFFF) – denotes an unused sector</li> <li>ENDOFCHAIN (0xFFFFFFFE) – marks the last sector in a FAT chain</li> <li>FATSECT (0xFFFFFFFD) – marks a sector used to store part of the FAT</li> <li>DIFSECT (0xFFFFFFFC) – marks a sector used to store part of the DIFAT</li></ul> <h3>Range Lock Sector</h3> <p>The Range Lock Sector must exist in files greater than 2 GB in size, and must not exist in files smaller than 2 GB. The Range Lock Sector must contain the byte range 0x7FFFFF00 to 0x7FFFFFFF in the file. This area is reserved by Microsoft's COM implementation for storing byte-range locking information for concurrent access. </p> <h3>Glossary</h3> <ul><li><i>FAT</i> – File Allocation Table; also known as <i>SAT</i> – Sector Allocation Table</li> <li><i>DIFAT</i> – Double-Indirect File Allocation Table</li> <li><i>FAT Chain</i> – a group of FAT entries which indicate the Sectors allocated to a Stream in the file</li> <li><i>Stream</i> – a virtual file which occupies a number of Sectors within the CFBF</li> <li><i>Sector</i> – the unit of allocation within the CFBF, usually 512 or 4096 Bytes in length</li></ul> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/COM_Structured_Storage/QLuCym7S">COM Structured Storage</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Advanced_Authoring_Format/J0lXcNj5">Advanced Authoring Format</a> (AAF)</li> <li><a href="/facts/Cabinet_(file_format)/NIKLUQyz">Cabinet (file format)</a></li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-cfb/53989ce4-7b05-4f8d-829b-d08d6148375b">"[MS-CFB]: Compound File Binary File Format"</a>. Microsoft. Retrieved 6 July 2019.</li> <li><a href="http://sc.openoffice.org/compdocfileformat.pdf">"Microsoft Compound Document File Format"</a> (PDF). <i>OpenOffice.org CFBF description</i>. Retrieved 22 May 2006.</li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110809045600/http://www.amwa.tv/downloads/specifications/aafcontainerspec-v1.0.1.pdf">"Advanced Authoring Format Low-Level Container Specification"</a> (PDF). <i>Microsoft Structured Storage version 3 specification (PDF)</i>. Archived from <a href="http://www.amwa.tv/downloads/specifications/aafcontainerspec-v1.0.1.pdf">the original</a> (PDF) on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 22 May 2006.</li> <li><a href="https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000380.shtml">"Microsoft Compound File Binary File Format, Version 3"</a>. Library of Congress, Digital Formats web site. Retrieved 6 July 2019.</li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>"Apache POI – POIFS". POI Project. Archived from the original on 26 April 2011. Retrieved 10 May 2011. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110426150340/http://poi.apache.org/poifs/index.html" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20110426150340/http://poi.apache.org/poifs/index.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>"How to convert documents between LibreOffice and Microsoft Office file formats on Linux". Archived from the original on 21 September 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2016. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190921163547/https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-convert-documents-between-libreoffice-and-microsoft-office-file-formats-on-linux" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20190921163547/https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-convert-documents-between-libreoffice-and-microsoft-office-file-formats-on-linux</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>"Compound Files (Windows)". Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN) library – COM SDK. Microsoft Corporation. 20 November 2008. Retrieved 23 September 2009. <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa378938%28VS.85%29.aspx" target="_blank">http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa378938%28VS.85%29.aspx</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>"Containers: Compound Files". Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN) library – Visual Studio 2008 documentation. Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved 23 September 2009. <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ydd3k45e.aspx" target="_blank">http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ydd3k45e.aspx</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>"Understand Compound Files". Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN) library – ActiveDirectory Rights Management. 25 June 2009. Retrieved 23 September 2009. <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc542545%28VS.85%29.aspx" target="_blank">http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc542545%28VS.85%29.aspx</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>"Microsoft Compound File Binary File Format, Version 4". www.loc.gov. 28 January 2020. Retrieved 13 June 2024. <a href="https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000392.shtml" target="_blank">https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000392.shtml</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>AMW Association (formerly AAF Association) Archived 15 August 2000 at the Wayback Machine <a href="http://www.aafassociation.org" target="_blank">http://www.aafassociation.org</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>