Record prefix

All GOFF records have a 3-byte identifying prefix of the following form:

Table 1. GOFF record-type identification prefix byte
Field	Offset	Type	Description
Prefix	0	Byte(1)	X'03'. All other values are reserved. Note: The value X'03' is chosen to distinguish GOFF records from OBJ records, which begin with a byte containing X'02', and from control statements, which begin with a byte whose hex value is not less than X'40'.
Record Type	1.0-3	Bit(4)	Type of record: X'0' External Symbol Dictionary (ESD) X'1' Text (TXT) X'2' Relocation Directory (RLD) X'3' Deferred Element Length (LEN) X'4' Module End, with optional entry point specification (END) X'5-E' Reserved. X'F' Module Header (HDR)
	1.4-5	Bit(2)	Reserved.
Continuation and Continued Indicators	1.6-7	Bit(2)	These two bits indicate respectively that this record is a continuation of the preceding record, and/or continued on the succeeding record. `B'00'` This record is the initial record of the designated type (it is not a continuation record). It is not continued on the succeeding record. Note: For variable-format GOFF records, this should be the only valid combination. `B'01'` This record is the initial record of the designated type (it is not a continuation record). It is continued on the succeeding record. `B'10'` This record is a continuation of the previous record of this type, and it is not continued on the following record. `B'11'` This record is a continuation of the previous record of this type, and it is continued on the following record.
Version	2	Byte(1)	X'00' This is the initial version number for the record of this type. All other values are reserved.

These three bytes are usually referred to as the "PTV" bytes.