A field with type 'bytes' is decoded into an empty array instead of an empty buffer

[assaf-xm]

protobuf.js version: 6.8.6

Any empty 'bytes' field on a message, will be decoded into an empty javascript array. The expected behavior is that it will be decoded into an empty buffer, in order to keep consistency with the case the field has data.

• in protobuf js v5 it was decoded into an empty buffer.

[metled]

function toObject(message, options) {
...
    if (message.bytesField != null && message.hasOwnProperty("bytesField"))
        options.bytes === String ? $util.base64.encode(message.bytesField, 0, message.bytesField.length) : options.bytes === Array ? Array.prototype.slice.call(message.bytesField) : message.bytesField

[assaf-xm]

Both 'decode' and 'toObject' return the field as an empty array. So the root cause might be on the 'decode' implementation. I'm using 'toObjcet' without setting the 'bytes' option (I don't want it base64 or an array, I want it to be kept as Buffer).

[Amitcoh1]

close it please as it's already merged 👍