pitrou commented on code in PR #242:
URL: https://github.com/apache/parquet-format/pull/242#discussion_r1608997881


##########
README.md:
##########
@@ -107,12 +113,97 @@ start locations.  More details on what is contained in 
the metadata can be found
 in the Thrift definition.
 
 Metadata is written after the data to allow for single pass writing.
+This is especially useful when writing to backends such as S3.
 
 Readers are expected to first read the file metadata to find all the column
 chunks they are interested in.  The columns chunks should then be read 
sequentially.
 
  ![File 
Layout](https://raw.github.com/apache/parquet-format/master/doc/images/FileLayout.gif)
 
+### Parquet 3
+
+Parquet 3 files have the following overall structure:
+
+```
+4-byte magic number "PAR1"
+4-byte magic number "PAR3"
+
+<Column 1 Chunk 1 + Column Metadata>
+<Column 2 Chunk 1 + Column Metadata>
+...
+<Column N Chunk 1 + Column Metadata>
+<Column 1 Chunk 2 + Column Metadata>
+<Column 2 Chunk 2 + Column Metadata>
+...
+<Column N Chunk 2 + Column Metadata>
+...
+<Column 1 Chunk M + Column Metadata>
+<Column 2 Chunk M + Column Metadata>
+...
+<Column N Chunk M + Column Metadata>
+
+<File-level Column 1 Metadata v3>
+...
+<File-level Column N Metadata v3>
+
+File Metadata v3
+4-byte length in bytes of File Metadata v3 (little endian)
+4-byte magic number "PAR3"
+
+File Metadata
+4-byte length in bytes of File Metadata (little endian)
+4-byte magic number "PAR1"
+```
+
+Unlike the legacy File Metadata, the File Metadata v3 is designed to be 
light-weight
+to decode, regardless of the number of columns in the file. Individual column
+metadata can be opportunistically decoded depending on actual needs.
+
+This file structure is backwards-compatible. Parquet 1 readers will read and
+decode the legacy File Metadata in the file footer, while Parquet 3 readers
+will notice the "PAR3" magic number just before the File Metadata and will
+instead read and decode the File Metadata v3.

Review Comment:
   It certainly does.
   
   This is all in the name of an efficiency concern that doesn't seem that 
well-grounded. If your primary concern is to minimize the number of IO, you can 
also optimistically read, say, the last 4 MiB of the file and  iterate from 
that. Or the heuristic can be "length in bytes of File Metadata + 1 MiB".
   



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