| **Compatibility** | Version `0.0.3` protocol buffers are also valid version `0.0.4` protocol buffers. | none |
### Protocol buffer format details
Reproducible sorting of the protocol buffer fields in repeated expositions is
preferred but not required, i.e. do not sort if the computational cost is
prohibitive.
Each `MetricFamily` within the same exposition must have a unique name. Each
`Metric` within the same `MetricFamily` must have a unique set of `LabelPair`
fields. Otherwise, the ingestion behavior is undefined.
### Text format details
The protocol is line-oriented. A line-feed character (`\n`) separates lines.
...
...
@@ -83,7 +93,12 @@ syntax (EBNF):
`value` is a float, and timestamp an `int64` (milliseconds since epoch, i.e. 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC, excluding leap seconds), represented as required by the [Go strconv package](http://golang.org/pkg/strconv/)(see functions `ParseInt` and `ParseFloat`). In particular, `Nan`, `+Inf`, and `-Inf` are valid values.
All lines for a given metric must be provided as one uninterrupted group, with
the optional `HELP` and `TYPE` lines first.
the optional `HELP` and `TYPE` lines first (in no particular order). Beyond
that, reproducible sorting in repeated expositions is preferred but not
required, i.e. do not sort if the computational cost is prohibitive.
Each line must have a unique combination of metric name and labels. Otherwise,
the ingestion behavior is undefined.
The `histogram` and `summary` types are difficult to represent in the text
