diff --git a/remotefilelog/datapack.py b/remotefilelog/datapack.py
--- a/remotefilelog/datapack.py
+++ b/remotefilelog/datapack.py
@@ -145,28 +145,7 @@
         # Read chain data
         deltachain = []
         for node, deltabaseoffset, offset, size in chain:
-            rawentry = self._data[offset:offset + size]
-            self._pagedin += len(rawentry)
-
-            # <2 byte len> + <filename>
-            lengthsize = 2
-            filenamelen = struct.unpack('!H', rawentry[:2])[0]
-            filename = rawentry[lengthsize:lengthsize + filenamelen]
-
-            # <20 byte node> + <20 byte deltabase>
-            nodestart = lengthsize + filenamelen
-            deltabasestart = nodestart + NODELENGTH
-            node = rawentry[nodestart:deltabasestart]
-            deltabasenode = rawentry[deltabasestart:deltabasestart + NODELENGTH]
-
-            # <8 byte len> + <delta>
-            deltastart = deltabasestart + NODELENGTH
-            rawdeltalen = rawentry[deltastart:deltastart + 8]
-            deltalen = struct.unpack('!Q', rawdeltalen)[0]
-
-            delta = rawentry[deltastart + 8:deltastart + 8 + deltalen]
-            delta = lz4decompress(delta)
-
+            filename, node, deltabasenode, delta = self._readentry(offset, size)
             deltachain.append((filename, node, filename, deltabasenode, delta))
 
         # If we've read a lot of data from the mmap, free some memory.
@@ -174,6 +153,42 @@
 
         return deltachain
 
+    def _readentry(self, offset, size, getmeta=False):
+        rawentry = self._data[offset:offset + size]
+        self._pagedin += len(rawentry)
+
+        # <2 byte len> + <filename>
+        lengthsize = 2
+        filenamelen = struct.unpack('!H', rawentry[:2])[0]
+        filename = rawentry[lengthsize:lengthsize + filenamelen]
+
+        # <20 byte node> + <20 byte deltabase>
+        nodestart = lengthsize + filenamelen
+        deltabasestart = nodestart + NODELENGTH
+        node = rawentry[nodestart:deltabasestart]
+        deltabasenode = rawentry[deltabasestart:deltabasestart + NODELENGTH]
+
+        # <8 byte len> + <delta>
+        deltastart = deltabasestart + NODELENGTH
+        rawdeltalen = rawentry[deltastart:deltastart + 8]
+        deltalen = struct.unpack('!Q', rawdeltalen)[0]
+
+        delta = rawentry[deltastart + 8:deltastart + 8 + deltalen]
+        delta = lz4decompress(delta)
+
+        if getmeta:
+            if self.VERSION == 0:
+                meta = {}
+            else:
+                metastart = deltastart + 8 + deltalen
+                metalen = struct.unpack_from('!I', rawentry, metastart)[0]
+
+                rawmeta = rawentry[metastart + 4:metastart + 4 + metalen]
+                meta = shallowutil.parsepackmeta(rawmeta)
+            return filename, node, deltabasenode, delta, meta
+        else:
+            return filename, node, deltabasenode, delta
+
     def add(self, name, node, data):
         raise RuntimeError("cannot add to datapack (%s:%s)" % (name, node))