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Checking references for intended status: Best Current Practice ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (See RFCs 3967 and 4897 for information about using normative references to lower-maturity documents in RFCs) ** Obsolete normative reference: RFC 2141 (Obsoleted by RFC 8141) ** Obsolete normative reference: RFC 3406 (Obsoleted by RFC 8141) Summary: 2 errors (**), 0 flaws (~~), 1 warning (==), 1 comment (--). Run idnits with the --verbose option for more detailed information about the items above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Network Working Group P. Saint-Andre 3 Internet-Draft Cisco Systems, Inc. 4 Intended status: Best Current Practice April 19, 2013 5 Expires: October 21, 2013 7 A Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespace for Examples 8 draft-saintandre-urn-example-05 10 Abstract 12 This document defines a Uniform Resource Name (URN) namespace 13 identifier enabling generation of URNs that are appropriate for use 14 in documentation and in URN-related testing and experimentation. 16 Status of This Memo 18 This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the 19 provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. 21 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 22 Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute 23 working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- 24 Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. 26 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months 27 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any 28 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference 29 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 31 This Internet-Draft will expire on October 21, 2013. 33 Copyright Notice 35 Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the 36 document authors. All rights reserved. 38 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal 39 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents 40 (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of 41 publication of this document. Please review these documents 42 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect 43 to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must 44 include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of 45 the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as 46 described in the Simplified BSD License. 48 Table of Contents 49 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 50 2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 51 3. Completed Namespace Definition Template . . . . . . . . . . . 3 52 4. Namespace Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 53 5. Community Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 54 6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 55 7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 56 8. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 57 Appendix A. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 58 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 60 1. Introduction 62 The Uniform Resource Name (URN) technology [RFC2141] provides a way 63 to generate persistent, location-independent, resource identifiers. 64 The primary "scope" of a URN is provided by its namespace identifier 65 (NID). As specified in [RFC3406], there are three kinds of NID: 66 formal, informal, and experimental. Most of the NIDs registered to 67 date are formal: as far as is known the few informal namespaces have 68 not been widely used, and the experimental namespaces are by 69 definition unregistered. 71 The experimental namespaces take the form "X-NID" (where "NID" is the 72 desired namespace identifier). Because the "x-" convention has been 73 deprecated in general [RFC6648], it seems sensible to achieve the 74 same objective in a different way. Therefore this document registers 75 a formal namespace identifier of "example", similar to "example.com" 76 and other domain names [RFC2606]. Under the "example" NID, 77 specification authors and code developers can mint URNs for use in 78 documentation and in URN-related testing and experimentation by 79 assigning their own unique namespace-specific strings, without fear 80 of conflicts with current or future actual URNs. Such URNs are 81 intended for use as examples in documentation, testing of code for 82 URN and URI processing, URN-related experimentation, invalid URNs, 83 and other similar uses. They are not intended for testing non-URI 84 code or for building higher-level applications for use over the 85 Internet or private networks (e.g., as XML namespace names), since it 86 relatively easy to mint URIs whose authority component is a domain 87 name controlled by the person or organization that wishes to engage 88 in such testing and experimentation. 90 2. Terminology 92 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 93 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and 94 "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in 95 [RFC2119]. 97 3. Completed Namespace Definition Template 99 3.1. Namespace ID 101 The Namespace ID "example" is requested. 103 3.2. Registration Information 105 Version 1 107 Date: [to be assigned] 109 3.3. Declared Registrant of the Namespace 111 Registering organization: IETF 113 Designated contact: IESG, iesg@ietf.org 115 3.4. Declaration of Syntactic Structure 117 URNs that use the "example" NID shall have the following structure: 119 urn:example:{NSS} 121 The Namespace Specific String (NSS) is a mandatory string of ASCII 122 characters [RFC20] that conforms to the URN syntax requirements 123 [RFC2141] and that provides a name that is useful within the relevant 124 documentation example, test suite, or other application. 126 3.5. Relevant Ancillary Documentation 128 See [RFC6648] for information about deprecation of the "x-" 129 convention in protocol parameters and identifiers. 131 3.6. Identifier Uniqueness Considerations 133 Those who mint example URNs ought to strive for uniqueness in the 134 namespace specific string portion of the URN. However, such 135 uniqueness cannot be guaranteed through the assignment process. 136 Therefore it is NOT RECOMMENDED for implementers to use example URNs 137 for any purposes other than documentation, private testing, and truly 138 experimental contexts. 140 3.7. Identifier Persistence Considerations 142 Once minted, an example URN is immutable. However, it is simply a 143 string and there is no guarantee that the documentation, test suite, 144 or other application using the URN is immutable. 146 3.8. Process of Identifier Assignment 148 Assignment is completely open, since anyone can mint example URNs for 149 use in documentation, private testing, and other experimental 150 contexts. 152 3.9. Process for Identifier Resolution 154 Example URNs are not intended to be resolved, and the namespace will 155 probably never be registered with a Resolution Discovery System 156 (unless to simply inform requesters that such URNs are merely 157 examples). 159 3.10. Rules for Lexical Equivalence 161 No special considerations; the rules for lexical equivalence 162 specified in [RFC2141] apply. 164 3.11. Conformance with URN Syntax 166 No special considerations 168 3.12. Validation Mechanism 170 None 172 3.13. Scope 174 The scope of an example URN is limited to the documentation in which 175 it is found, the test in which it is used, the experiment in which it 176 appears, etc. Example URNs have no meaning outside such strictly- 177 limited contexts. 179 4. Namespace Considerations 181 No existing formal namespace enables entities to generate URNs that 182 are appropriate for use as examples in documentation and in URN- 183 related testing and experimentation. It could be argued that no such 184 formal namespace is needed, given that experimental namespaces can be 185 minted at will. However, experimental namespaces run afoul of the 186 trend away from using the "x-" convention in the names of protocol 187 parameters and identifiers [RFC6648]. Additionally, in practice 188 specification authors often mint examples using fake NIDs that go 189 unregistered because they are never intended to be used. To minimize 190 the possibility of confusion, use of this dedicated example namespace 191 is recommended for generating example URNs. 193 5. Community Considerations 195 The "example" NID is intended to provide a clean, easily-recognizable 196 space for minting examples to be used in documentation and in URN- 197 related testing and experimentation. The Namespace Specific String 198 (NSS) is best as a unique string, generated by the person, 199 organization, or other entity that creates the documentation, test 200 suite, or other application. There is no issuing authority for 201 example URNs and it is not intended that they can be resolved in any 202 meaningful way. 204 The "example" NID does not obviate the need to coordinate with 205 issuing authorities for existing namespaces (e.g., minting 206 "urn:example:xmpp:foo" instead of requesting issuance of 207 "urn:xmpp:foo"), to register new namespace identifiers if existing 208 namespaces do not match one's desired functionality (e.g., minting 209 "urn:example:sha-1:29ead03e784b2f636a23ffff95ed12b56e2f2637" instead 210 of registering the "sha-1" NID), or to respect the basic spirit of 211 URN NID assignment (e.g., setting up shadow NIDs such as 212 "urn:example:MyCompany:*" instead of using, say, HTTP URIs). 214 6. Security Considerations 216 This document introduces no additional security considerations beyond 217 those associated with the use and resolution of URNs in general. 219 7. IANA Considerations 221 This document defines a URN NID registration of "example", to be 222 added to the Uniform Resource Names (URN) Formal Namespaces registry. 223 The completed registration template can be found in under Section 3. 225 8. References 227 8.1. Normative References 229 [RFC20] Cerf, V., "ASCII format for network interchange", RFC 20, 230 October 1969. 232 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 233 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 235 [RFC2141] Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997. 237 [RFC3406] Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R., and P. Faltstrom, 238 "Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespace Definition 239 Mechanisms", BCP 66, RFC 3406, October 2002. 241 8.2. Informative References 243 [RFC2606] Eastlake, D.E. and A. Panitz, "Reserved Top Level DNS 244 Names", BCP 32, RFC 2606, June 1999. 246 [RFC6648] Saint-Andre, P., Crocker, D., and M. Nottingham, 247 "Deprecating the "X-" Prefix and Similar Constructs in 248 Application Protocols", BCP 178, RFC 6648, June 2012. 250 Appendix A. Acknowledgements 252 Thanks to Martin Duerst, Barry Leiba, and Jim Schaad for their 253 feedback, to Christer Holmberg for his Gen-ART review, and to Benoit 254 Claise, Adrian Farrel, and Stephen Farrell for their helpful input 255 during IESG review. Julian Reschke inspired the work on this 256 document, provided valuable suggestions, and shepherded the document. 258 Author's Address 260 Peter Saint-Andre 261 Cisco Systems, Inc. 262 1899 Wynkoop Street, Suite 600 263 Denver, CO 80202 264 USA 266 Email: psaintan@cisco.com