* `<varint>` and `<uvarint>` have 1 to 10 bytes each.
* `ts_1_delta` is `ts_1` – `ts_0`.
* `ts_n_dod` is the “delta of deltas” of timestamps, i.e. (`ts_n` – `ts_n-1`) – (`ts_n-1` – `ts_n-2`).
* `<v_n_xor>` is the result of `v_n` XOR `v_n-1`.
* `v_n_xor` is the result of `v_n` XOR `v_n-1`.
* `<varbit_xor>` is a specific variable bitwidth encoding of the result of XORing the current and the previous value. It has between 1 bit and 77 bits.
See [code for details](https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/blob/7309c20e7e5774e7838f183ec97c65baa4362edc/tsdb/chunkenc/xor.go#L220-L253).
* `<varbit_ts>` is a specific variable bitwidth encoding for the “delta of deltas” of timestamps (signed integers that are ideally small).
It has between 1 and 68 bits.
see [code for details](https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/blob/7309c20e7e5774e7838f183ec97c65baa4362edc/tsdb/chunkenc/xor.go#L179-L205).
* `padding` of 0 to 7 bits so that the whole chunk data is byte-aligned.
* The chunk can have as few as one sample, i.e. `ts_1`, `v_1`, etc. are optional.
* `histogram_flags` is a byte of which currently only the first two bits are used:
* `10`: Counter reset between the previous chunk and this one.
* `01`: No counter reset between the previous chunk and this one.
* `00`: Counter reset status unknown.
* `11`: Chunk is part of a gauge histogram, no counter resets are happening.
* `zero_threshold` has a specific encoding:
* If 0, it is a single zero byte.
* If a power of two between 2^-243 and 2^10, it is a single byte between 1 and 254.
* Otherwise, it is a byte with all bits set (255), followed by a float64, resulting in 9 bytes length.
* `schema` is a specific value defined by the exposition format. Currently valid values are -4 <= n <= 8.
* `<varbit_int>` is a variable bitwidth encoding for signed integers, optimized for “delta of deltas” of bucket deltas. It has between 1 bit and 9 bytes.
See [code for details](https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/blob/8c1507ebaa4ca552958ffb60c2d1b21afb7150e4/tsdb/chunkenc/varbit.go#L31-L60).
* `<varbit_uint>` is a variable bitwidth encoding for unsigned integers with the same bit-bucketing as `<varbit_int>`.
See [code for details](https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/blob/8c1507ebaa4ca552958ffb60c2d1b21afb7150e4/tsdb/chunkenc/varbit.go#L136-L165).
* `<varbit_xor>` is a specific variable bitwidth encoding of the result of XORing the current and the previous value. It has between 1 bit and 77 bits.
See [code for details](https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/blob/8c1507ebaa4ca552958ffb60c2d1b21afb7150e4/tsdb/chunkenc/histogram.go#L538-L574).
* `padding` of 0 to 7 bits so that the whole chunk data is byte-aligned.
* Note that buckets are inherently deltas between the current bucket and the previous bucket. Only `bucket_0` is an absolute count.
* The chunk can have as few as one sample, i.e. sample 1 and following are optional.
* Similarly, there could be down to zero spans and down to zero buckets.