README.md in opentelemetry-propagator-ottrace-0.21.0 vs README.md in opentelemetry-propagator-ottrace-0.21.1
- old
+ new
@@ -5,12 +5,12 @@
## OT Trace Format
| Header Name | Description | Required |
| ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------- |
-| `ot-tracer-traceid` | uint64 encoded as a string of 16 hex characters | yes |
-| `ot-tracer-spanid` | uint64 encoded as a string of 16 hex characters | yes |
+| `ot-tracer-traceid` | 64-bit; 16 hex digits (extract and inject) or 128-bit; 32 hex digits (extract) | yes |
+| `ot-tracer-spanid` | 64-bit; 16 hex digits | yes |
| `ot-tracer-sampled` | boolean or bit encoded as a string with the values `'true'`,`'false'`, `'1'`, or `'0'` | no |
| `ot-baggage-*` | repeated string to string key-value baggage items; keys are prefixed with `ot-baggage-` and the corresponding value is the raw string. | if baggage is present |
### Sampled Flag vs Bit
@@ -22,14 +22,18 @@
This issue was [fixed](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go-contrib/pull/1358) however this SDK supports both for backward compatibility with older versions of the Golang propagator.
### Interop and trace ids
-The OT trace propagation format expects trace ids to be 64-bits. In order to
-interop with OpenTelemetry, trace ids need to be truncated to 64-bits before
-sending them on the wire. When truncating, the least significant (right-most)
-bits MUST be retained. For example, a trace id of
-`3c3039f4d78d5c02ee8e3e41b17ce105` would be truncated to `ee8e3e41b17ce105`.
+OTTrace was changed to be interoperable with other format so it is supposed to 8 or 16 byte array values for the trace-id.
+
+In order to do that Lightstep released a version of the OTTrace propagators in OpenTracing SDKs that left padded 64-bit headers to 128-bits using an additional 64-bit of 0s.
+
+The reality of the world is not every application upgraded to support 16 byte array propagation format, but this propagator must still convert legacy 64-bit trace ids to match the W3C Trace Context Trace ID 16 byte array.
+
+In addition to that it must be interoperable with legacy OTTracers, which expect 64-bit headers so this propagator truncates the value from a 128-bit to a 64-bit value before inject it into the carrier.
+
+This propagator is compatible with 64-bit or 128-bit trace ids when extracting the parent context, however it truncates the trace ids down to 64-bit trace ids when injecting the context.
### Baggage Notes
Baggage keys and values are validated according to [rfc7230][rfc7230-url]. Any
keys or values that would result in invalid HTTP headers will be silently