Standard Format

Here is the Merkle DAG of a file containing the "hello world" string.

{
  "Links": [],
  "Data": "\u0008\u0002\u0012\u000bhello world\u0018\u000b"
}

Data is the protobuf encoding of the UnixFS Data.

{
  "Type": 2,
  "Data": "aGVsbG8gd29ybGQ=",
  "FileSize": 11,
  "BlockSizes": null,
  "HashType": null,
  "Fanout": null
}

Chunked Format

When the file's data exceeds the chunking size, multiple blocks are generated. The returned CID points to a block that has Merkle.Links. Each link contains a chunk of the file.

The following uses a chunking size of 6. A primary and two secondary blocks are created for "hello world".

Primary Block

{
  "Links": [
    {"Name": "", "Hash": "QmPhmNbdBMtSQczNc4hnsMxRf5L4vfkU8jRTXDSHj8trSV", "Size": 14},
    {"Name": "", "Hash": "QmNyJpQkU1cEkBwMDhDNFstr42q55mqG5GE5Mgwug4xyGk", "Size": 13}
    ],
  "Data":"\u0008\u0002\u0018\u000b \u0006 \u0005"
}
{
  "Type": 2, 
  "Data": null,
  "FileSize": 11,
  "BlockSizes": [6,5],
  "HashType":null,
  "Fanout":null
}

First Link

{
  "Links": [],
  "Data": "\u0008\u0002\u0012\u0006hello \u0018\u0006"
}

Second Link

{
  "Links": [],
  "Data": "\u0008\u0002\u0012\u0005world\u0018\u0005"
}