Spec: Add implementation note for determining manifest list format version #14949
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Closes #14926.
While implementing the spec, I looked into how other implementations detect the format version of manifest list files and found some notable differences in approaches:
format-versionfrom Avro metadata and errors if missing, which is not strictly following the spec since this field is not required for manifest listsThis PR adds an implementation note to Appendix F to document the recommended approach and guide future implementations. It explains how Avro schema resolution enables implementations to use a single read schema without version detection, how to determine the exact format version when needed (by examining the writer schema), and why
format-versionin Avro metadata cannot be reliably used for manifest lists.If manifest lists are removed in v4, this note would only apply to v1 to v3. I'm not sure how to frame this, any guidance from reviewers would be appreciated.