Re: [IETFMIBS] Enumerations with underscores

[Mark Ellison <mark at ellisonsoftware.com>]

Hi Eduardo,

On 04/30/2009 09:03 PM, Eduardo Cardona wrote:
> I couldn't find a restriction in RFC 2578, or a recommendation guideline
> in RFC 4181 that prohibits the use of underscores in integer enumerated
> values labels. 
> smilint 0.4.3 complains and NET-SNMP 5.1.x (aka. libsmi) complained
> about the existence of underscores in an enumeration
>
> Is there any clarification in some place about underscores usage?  
>
>   
In RFC 2578 on page 21, section 7.1.1,  "Integer32 and INTEGER", the 
last paragraph states:

      Finally, a label for a named-number enumeration must consist of one
      or more letters or digits, up to a maximum of 64 characters, and the
      initial character must be a lower-case letter.  (However, labels
      longer than 32 characters are not recommended.)  Note that hyphens
      are not allowed by this specification (except for use by information
      modules converted from SMIv1 which did allow hyphens).

Hyphens are specifically addressed because they were allowed in SMIv1.  
Now, while an underscore is not a hyphen it is also not a 'letter' or a 
'digit', so your SMIv2 syntax compilers are going to complain.
> Thanks for any suggestion
>
> Eduardo
>   
HTH,

Mark
http://EllisonSoftware.com/