/**
 * On-disk format marker for a table directory.
 *
 * Format 1 is the implicit legacy format (no `.format` file): base columns plus
 * pagination only. Format 2 opts the table into the append-only update log
 * written by `put` (see `updatelog.ts`).
 *
 * The marker is the single source of truth for "does this table have a log?".
 * It also carries the compatibility contract read by a later 3.7.1 detector:
 * `minReader` is the oldest engine that may open the table, `detector` the
 * release that hard-fails instead of silently mis-reading. `baseGen` is the
 * generation the base columns were last compacted at; it is bumped by
 * compaction (3.9) so a stale in-memory overlay can detect that its base moved
 * and rebuild instead of replaying frames that are already merged.
 */
export declare const FORMAT_FILE = ".format";
export interface TableFormat {
    format: number;
    log: boolean;
    baseGen: number;
    /** Oldest engine that may open the table, as written into the marker. */
    minReader?: string;
}
export declare const LEGACY_FORMAT: TableFormat;
export declare const CURRENT_FORMAT_VERSION = 2;
export declare const ENGINE_NAME = "inibase";
/** This build's engine version, compared against a marker's `minReader`. */
export declare const ENGINE_VERSION = "3.8.0";
/** Oldest reader that understands format 2. */
export declare const MIN_READER = "3.8.0";
/** Release expected to detect (and refuse) format 2 rather than mis-read it. */
export declare const DETECTOR = "3.7.1";
/** Compare dotted numeric versions: >0 when `a > b`, <0 when `a < b`, else 0. */
export declare const compareVersions: (a: string, b: string) => number;
/**
 * Why this engine cannot open a marker, or null when it can.
 *
 * Refusing *before* any column is read keeps a newer-format table from being
 * silently mis-read as format 2 (or legacy). Two independent conditions:
 * a `format` above what this build writes, or a `minReader` above the running
 * engine version.
 */
export declare const unsupportedFormatReason: (format: TableFormat) => string | null;
/**
 * Read a table's format marker. A missing or unreadable marker is legacy
 * (format 1), which keeps every pre-3.8 table byte-for-byte compatible.
 */
export declare const readFormat: (tablePath: string) => Promise<TableFormat>;
/** The exact bytes of a format marker (shared by write and compaction commit). */
export declare const serializeFormat: (format: TableFormat) => string;
/**
 * Write (or replace) the format marker durably and atomically (§9): stage the
 * bytes in the table's `.tmp` dir, fsync the temp, rename it into place, then
 * fsync the table directory. A crash can therefore leave either the old marker
 * or the new one, never a partial file — a torn marker would read back as
 * legacy and silently drop the log.
 */
export declare const writeFormat: (tablePath: string, format: TableFormat) => Promise<void>;
/** Remove the marker (used when downgrading a table back to legacy). */
export declare const removeFormat: (tablePath: string) => Promise<void>;