Specification - Signature

The signature is read starting at the first byte of any backup database file.

Here's the signature of a typical Control.4096.dat in Hex:

08 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 02 00 00
00 04 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 10 00 00
00 10 00 00

These are little-endian encoded 4 byte integers.

Let's look at these 1 at a time:

1. 08 00 00 00 - (8) Unknown. File signature?

2. 08 00 00 00 - (8) Unknwon. File signature?

3. 04 00 00 00 - (4) File type. 4 = Control file.

4. 00 02 00 00 - (512) Offset into Header section.

5. 00 04 00 00 - (1024) Offset into Schema section.

6. 01 00 00 00 - (1) Unknown. Sometimes is 2.

7. 01 00 00 00 - (1) File version.

8. 00 10 00 00 - (4096) Offset into Alternate Records section.

9. 00 10 00 00 - (4096) Offset into Records section.

The important ones here are 4, 5, 8, 9. These let us parse the file further.