INTERNET-DRAFT H. Flanagan RFC Editor Intended Status: Informational S. Ginoza Expires: March 8, 2014 RFC Editor September 4, 2013 RFC Style Guide draft-flanagan-style-02 Abstract This document is a summary of the style conventions and editorial policies that apply to the RFC document series. It captures the RFC Editor's fundamental requirements and offers guidance regarding the format and structure of an RFC. While in Internet-Draft format, it should be considered for discussion purposes only. Guidance provided by this document will not be applied until published as an RFC. Please send your comments to rfc-interest@rfc-editor.org. Status of this Memo This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/1id-abstracts.html The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html Copyright and License Notice Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 1] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License. Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2. RFC Editorial Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3. RFC Style Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.1. Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.2. Punctuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.3. Capitalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.4. Citations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.5. Abbreviation Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.6. Protocol Data Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4. Structure of an RFC Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4.1. First-Page Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4.2. Full Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 4.3. Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 4.4. RFC Editor or Stream Manager Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4.5. Status of This Memo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4.6. Copyright, Licenses, and IPR Boilerplate . . . . . . . . . 12 4.7. Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4.8. Body of the Memo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4.8.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4.8.2. Requirement Words (RFC 2119) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4.8.3. IANA Considerations Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 4.8.4. Security Considerations Section . . . . . . . . . . . 14 4.8.5. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 4.9. Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 4.10. Acknowledgments Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 4.11. Contributors Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 4.12. "Author's Address" Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 4.13. Running Headers and Footers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 4.13.1. Running Headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 4.13.2. Running Footers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Appendix A. Related Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 A.1. Dispute Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 A.2. Returning an I-D to the Stream Manager . . . . . . . . . . 22 A.3. Revising This Document and Associated Web Pages . . . . . . 22 Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 2] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 3] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 1. Introduction The ultimate goal of the RFC publication process is to produce documents that are readable, clear, consistent, and reasonably uniform. This document describes the fundamental and unique style conventions and editorial policies for the RFC document series [RFC4844]. It is intended as a stable, infrequently-updated reference for authors, editors, and reviewers. The RFC Editor also maintains a web portion of the Style Guide that provides guidelines about conventions and policies that are not as fundamental to the RFC document series, or that change more frequently; see Appendix A for more details. Style rules referred to in this document are considered fundamental to the RFC series; the RFC Editor will work to ensure these rules are met before publication. For example, an RFC must be correctly formatted, it must have the necessary boilerplate, and it must generally have the "appearance" of previous RFCs in the series. As new style issues arise, the RFC Editor will first address them on the web portion of the style guide [StyleWeb]. These may become part of the greater Style Guide when it is revised. The basic format conventions for RFCs were established in the 1970s by the original RFC Editor, Jon Postel [Postel] [RFC2555]. Postel's instructions to authors were quite simple: read a recent RFC and emulate its style. However, it has been found necessary to formalize and document the RFC style rules and provide more guidance to authors in order to maintain the consistency and readability of the documents in the Series. The world of technical publishing has generally accepted rules for grammar, punctuation, capitalization, sentence length and complexity, parallelism, etc. The RFC Editor generally follows these accepted rules as defined by the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) [CMOS], with a few important exceptions to avoid ambiguity in complex technical prose and to handle mixtures of text and computer languages. This document presents these exceptions where they are required. All RFCs begin as an Internet-Draft, and a well-written and properly constructed Internet-Draft [IDGuide] provides a strong basis for a good RFC. The RFC Editor accepts Internet-Drafts from specified streams for publication [RFC4844] and applies the rules and guidelines for the RFC Series during the editorial process. 2. RFC Editorial Philosophy Authors may find it helpful to understand the RFC Editor's goals Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 4] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 during the publication process, namely: - Prepare the document to RFC style and format. - Make the document as clear, consistent, and readable as possible. - Look for larger content/clarity issues; flag any unclear passages for author review. - Point out inconsistencies (e.g., terms that appear in various forms, text that appears multiple times, or inconsistent capitalization). We strive for consistency within: a. the document, b. a set of documents, and c. the series of RFCs on the subject matter. The editorial process of the RFC Editor is not an additional technical review of the document. Where the RFC Editor may suggest changes in wording for clarity and readability, it is up to the author, working group, or stream manager (e.g., the ISE, IESG, IRSG, or IAB Chair) to determine if the changes have an impact on the technical meaning in the document. If the original wording is a more accurate representation of the technical content being described in the document, it takes precedence over editorial conventions. In the world at large, the activity of editing often creates a tension between author and editor. The RFC Editor attempts to minimize this conflict for RFC publication, while continually striving to produce a uniformly excellent document series. We refer to this fundamental tension as "editorial balance", and maintaining this balance is a continuing concern for the RFC Editor. There is a prime directive that must rule over grammatical conventions: do not change the intended meaning of the text. If a document is submitted to the RFC Editor that proves to be uneditable due to consistently unclear and poorly written text, the document will be returned to the stream for revision. See more details in Appendix A.2. 3. RFC Style Conventions 3.1. Language Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 5] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 * The RFC publication language is English. This may be either American or British as long as an individual document is internally consistent. Where both American and British English are used within a document or cluster of documents, the text will be modified to be consistent with American English. 3.2. Punctuation * No overstriking (or underlining) is allowed. * When a sentence ended by a period is immediately followed by another sentence, there should be two blank spaces after the period. * A comma is used before the last item of a series, e.g., "TCP service is reliable, ordered, and full-duplex" ^ ^ * When quoting literal text, punctuation is placed outside quotation marks, e.g., 'Search for the string "Error Found"'. When quoting general text, such as general text from another RFC, punctuation may be included within the quotation marks, e.g., RFC 4844 indicates that "RFCs are available free of charge to anyone via the Internet." Quotes are not necessary when block quotes are used. * Angle brackets are required around URIs [RFC3986], e.g., . Note that URIs must not be used in place of proper references. * The author's choice on hyphenation of compound words (e.g., "multi-tier" vs. "multitier") is generally followed, as long as it is consistent and the word does not appear in the dictionary [WEBSTERS] unhyphenated. The usage must be consistent within the document. Do not use hyphenation at the right margin to split existing words. However, hyphenated word sequences (e.g., "Internet- Draft") may be split at the hyphen across successive lines. Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 6] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 3.3. Capitalization * Capitalization must be consistent within the document and should be consistent with related RFCs. Refer to the online "Table of decisions on consistent usage of terms in RFCs" [PubProcess]. * Per CMOS guidelines, the major words in RFC titles and section titles should be capitalized (this is sometimes called "title case"). Minor words such as articles or prepositions should be lower-cased (e.g., "and", "of"). Typically, all words in a title will be capitalized, except for internal articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. * Section titles that are in sentence form will follow typical sentence capitalization. * Titles of figures may be in sentence form or use title case. 3.4. Citations * References and citations must match. That is, there must be a reference for each citation used, and vice versa. * Citations must be enclosed in square brackets, e.g., "[CITE1]". * A citation/reference tag must not contain spaces or hyphens. Example: "[RFC2119]", not "[RFC 2119]". However, the proper textual naming of an RFC contains a space. Example: "See RFC 2119 [BCP14] for more information." 3.5. Abbreviation Rules Abbreviations must be expanded in document titles and upon first use in the body of the document, which includes the Abstract. The full expansion of the text should be followed by the abbreviation itself in parentheses. The exception is abbreviations that are so common that the readership of RFCs can be expected to recognize them immediately; examples include (but are not limited to) TCP, IP, SNMP, and FTP. The online list of abbreviations [ABBR] provides guidance. Some cases are marginal, and the RFC Editor will make the final judgment, weighing obscurity against complexity. Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 7] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 Note: The online list of abbreviations is not exhaustive or definitive. It is a list of abbreviations appearing in RFCs and sometimes reflects discussions with authors, WG chairs, and/or ADs. Note that some abbreviations have multiple expansions. Additionally, this list includes some terms that look like abbreviations but are actually fixed names for things, and hence cannot and should not be expanded. These are noted as "No expansion". 3.6. Protocol Data Definitions The RFC series adopted a diagrammatic approach to representing data structures such as protocol headers. Furthermore, the research community adopted the "big-endian" [IEN137] convention, in which the bits and bytes are shown in network byte order, byte zero is the first byte shown, and bit zero is the most significant bit in a word or a field. This is also known as "network byte order". Protocol definitions should be displayed in this format. For example, RFC 791 [RFC791] contains the following definition of the IP header format. 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ |Version| IHL |Type of Service| Total Length | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Identification |Flags| Fragment Offset | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Time to Live | Protocol | Header Checksum | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Source Address | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Destination Address | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Options | Padding | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Example Internet Datagram Header 4. Structure of an RFC Document A published RFC will contain the elements in the following list. Some of these sections are required, as noted. Those sections marked with "*" will be supplied by the RFC Editor during the editorial process when necessary. The rules for each of these elements are Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 8] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 described in more detail below. First-page header * [Required] Title [Required] Abstract [Required] RFC Editor or Stream Manager Note * [Upon request] Status of this Memo * [Required] Copyright and License Notice * [Required] Table of Contents [Required] Body of the Memo [Required] 1. Introduction [Required] 2. Requirement Words (RFC 2119) 3. ... MAIN BODY OF THE TEXT 6. ... 7. IANA Considerations [Required in I-D] 8. Security Considerations [Required] 9. References Appendix A. Appendix B. Acknowledgments Contributors Author's Address [Required] Within the body of the memo, the order shown above is strongly recommended. Exceptions may be made with the approval of the stream manager. Outside the body of the memo, the order above is required. The section numbers above are for illustrative purposes; they are not intended to correspond to required numbering in an RFC. The elements preceding the body of the memo should not be numbered. Typically, the body of the memo will have numbered sections and the appendices will be labeled with letters. Any sections that appear after the appendices should not be numbered or labeled (e.g., see "Contributors" above). 4.1. First-Page Header Headers will follow the format as described in "RFC Streams, Headers, and Boilerplates" [RFC5741] and its successors. In addition, the following conventions will apply: Author/Editor The determination of who should be listed as an author or editor on an RFC is dependent on Stream policy. The RFC Editor provides guidelines for number and format of the author-related components Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 9] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 of an RFC. The author's name (initials followed by family name) appears on the first line of the heading. Some variation, such as additional initials or capitalization of family name, is acceptable but the author should be consistent once they've selected a name format. The total number of authors or editors on the first page is generally limited to five individuals and their affiliations. If there is a request for more than five authors, the stream manager needs to consider if one or two editors should have primary responsibility for this document, with the other individuals listed in the Contributors or Acknowledgements section. There must be a direct correlation of authors and editors in the header and Authors' Address section. These are the individuals that must sign off on the document during the AUTH48 process and respond to inquiries, such as errata. Organization The author's organization is indicated on the line following the author's name. For multiple authors, each author name appears on its own line, followed by that author's organization. When more than one author is affiliated with the same organization, the organization can be "factored out", appearing only once following the corresponding Author lines. However, such factoring is inappropriate when it would force an unacceptable reordering of author names. If an author cannot or will not provide an affiliation for any reason, "Independent", "Retired", or some other term that appropriately describes the author's affiliation may be used. Alternatively, a blank line may be included in the document header when no affiliation is provided. "ISSN: 2070-1721" The RFC Series has been assigned an International Standard Serial Number of 2070-1721 [ISO3297]. It will be included by the RFC Editor. Updates and Obsoletes When an RFC obsoletes or updates a previously published RFC or RFCs, this information is in the header. For example: "Updates: nnnn" or "Updates: nnnn, ..., nnnn" Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 10] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 "Obsoletes: nnnn" or "Obsoletes: nnnn, ... , nnnn" If the document updates or obsoletes more than one document, numbers will be listed in ascending order. Authors often also include a statement in the Introduction that reads similarly to the following: This document obsoletes RFC XXXX. This helps clarify the status of the document and its relation to the RFC it has updated or obsoleted. 4.2. Full Title The title must be centered below the rest of the heading, preceded by two blank lines and followed by one blank line. Choosing a good title for an RFC can be a challenge. A good title should fairly represent the scope and purpose of the document without being either too general or too specific and lengthy. Abbreviations or acronyms in a title must generally be expanded when first encountered (see Section 3.5). It is often helpful to follow the expansion with the parenthesized abbreviation, as in the following example: Encoding Rules for the Common Routing Encapsulation Extension Protocol (CREEP) The RFC title may be subject to policy considerations in addition to the requirement that it provide a concise and technically sound summary of the document contents. For example, at various times in the history of the IETF, the word "Policies" as well as the phrase "The Directory" were banned from RFC titles, for various reasons. An RFC that documents a particular company's private protocol should bear a title of the form "Foo's ... Protocol" (where Foo is a company name), to clearly differentiate it from a protocol of more general applicability. 4.3. Abstract Every RFC must have an Abstract of a maximum of 20 lines. Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 11] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 The Abstract should provide a concise and comprehensive overview of the purpose and contents of the entire document, to give a technically knowledgeable reader a general overview of the function of the document. Composing a useful Abstract generally requires thought and care. Usually an Abstract should begin with a phrase like "This memo ..." or "This document ...". A satisfactory Abstract can often be constructed in part from material within the Introduction section, but an effective Abstract may be shorter, less detailed, and perhaps broader in scope than the Introduction. Simply copying and pasting the first few paragraphs of the Introduction is allowed, but it may result in an Abstract that is both incomplete and redundant. Note also that an Abstract is not a substitute for an Introduction; the RFC should be self-contained as if there were no Abstract. Similarly, the Abstract should be complete in itself. It will appear in isolation in publication announcements and in the online index of RFCs. Therefore, the Abstract must not contain citations. 4.4. RFC Editor or Stream Manager Notes The RFC Editor or a stream manager may request that an editorial note be added to an RFC. A note is generally added to explain anything unusual about the process that led to the document's publication or to note a correction. Additionally, the RFC Editor may choose to include a note to highlight special circumstances surrounding an RFC. 4.5. Status of This Memo The RFC Editor will supply an appropriate "Status of This Memo" section as defined in RFC 5741 [RFC5741]. 4.6. Copyright, Licenses, and IPR Boilerplate The full copyright and license notices are available on the IETF Trust Legal Provisions Documents website. [IETFTrust] 4.7. Table of Contents A Table of Contents (TOC) is required in all RFCs. It must be positioned after the Copyright notice and before the Introduction. 4.8. Body of the Memo Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 12] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 Following the TOC is the body of the memo. Each RFC must include an "Introduction" section that (among other things) explains the motivation for the RFC and (if appropriate) describes the applicability of the document, e.g., whether it specifies a protocol, provides a discussion of some problem, is simply of interest to the Internet community, or provides a status report on some activity. The body of the memo and the Abstract must be self-contained and separable. This may result in some duplication of text between the Abstract and the Introduction; this is acceptable. 4.8.1. Introduction The Introduction section should always be the first section following the TOC (except in the case of MIB module documents). While we recommend "Introduction", authors sometimes choose alternate titles such as "Overview" or "Background". For MIB module documents, common practice has been for "The Internet-Standard Management Framework" [MIBboiler] text to appear as Section 1. 4.8.2. Requirement Words (RFC 2119) Some documents use certain capitalized words ("MUST", "SHOULD", etc.) to specify precise requirement levels for technical features. RFC 2119 [BCP14] defines a default interpretation of these capitalized words in IETF documents. If this interpretation is used, RFC 2119 must be cited (as specified in RFC 2119) and included as a normative reference. Otherwise, the correct interpretation must be specified in the document. This section must appear as part of the body of the text (as defined by this document). It must appear as part of, or subsequent to, the Introduction section. These words are considered part of the technical content of the document and are intended to provide guidance to implementers about specific technical features, generally governed by considerations of interoperability. RFC 2119 says: Imperatives of the type defined in this memo must be used with care and sparingly. In particular, they must only be used where it is actually required for interoperation or to limit behavior which has potential for causing harm (e.g., limiting retransmissions). For example, they must not be used to try to impose a particular method on implementers where the method is Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 13] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 not required for interoperability. To simply specify a necessary logical relationship, the normal lowercase words should be used. On the other hand, if the capitalized words are used in a document, choose and use them carefully and consistently. To forestall confusion between uppercase conformance terms and their lowercase equivalents, some authors use words and phrases such as "mandatory", "ought to", and "might" instead of "MUST", "SHOULD", and "MAY". 4.8.3. IANA Considerations Section See "Guidelines for Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs" [BCP26]. The RFC Editor will update text accordingly after the IANA assignments have been made. It is helpful for authors to clearly identify where text should be updated to reflect the newly assigned values. For example, we recommend the use of "TBD1", "TBD2", etc., in the IANA Considerations section and in the body of the document. If the authors have provided values to be assigned by IANA, the RFC Editor will verify that the values inserted by the authors match those that have actually been registered on the IANA site. When writing a given value, consistent use of decimal or hexadecimal is recommended. If any of the IANA-related information is not clear, the RFC Editor will work with IANA to send queries to the authors to ensure that assignments and values are properly inserted. The RFC Editor will remove an IANA Considerations section that says there are no IANA considerations (although such a section is required in the Internet-Draft preceding the RFC). 4.8.4. Security Considerations Section All RFCs must contain a section that discusses the security considerations relevant to the specification; see [BCP72] for more information. 4.8.5. References The reference list is solely for recording reference entries. Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 14] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 Introductory text is not allowed. The RFC style uses one of the many variants on reference styles. See the examples in this document, and note the ordering for multiple authors: the last author listed is treated differently when referencing RFCs and I-Ds. The RFC Editor ensures that references to other RFCs refer to the most current RFC available on that topic (unless provided with reason not to do so). It is acceptable for an obsoleted document to be listed as long as the most recent document is referenced also. A reference to an RFC that has been assigned an STD [RFC1311], BCP [RFC1818], or FYI [FYI90] sub-series number must include the sub- series number of the document. Note: the FYI series was ended by RFC 6360. RFCs that were published with an FYI sub-series number and still maintain the FYI number must include the sub-series number in the reference. Reference lists must indicate whether each reference is normative or informative, where normative references are essential to implementing or understanding the content of the RFC, and informative references provide additional information. For example, the reference section might be split into two subsections: s. References s.1. Normative References xxx xxx s.2. Informative References xxx xxx References will generally appear in alphanumeric order by citation tag. Normative references to Internet-Drafts will cause publication of the RFC to be suspended until the referenced draft is also ready for publication; the RFC Editor will then replace the reference by an RFC reference and publish both documents simultaneously. URLs and DNS Names in RFCs Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 15] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 The use of URLs in references is acceptable as long as the URL is the most stable and direct reference possible. The URL will be verified as valid during the RFC editorial process. Personal web pages are not considered stable and will not be accepted as a normative reference. DNS names, whether or not in URLs, that are used as generic examples in RFCs should use the particular examples defined in RFC 2606 [RFC2606], "Reserved Top-Level DNS Names", to avoid accidental conflicts. If a dated URL is available for a referenced webpage, its use is required. Referencing RFCs The following format is required for citing RFCs. For 1 Author: [RFCXXXX] Last name, First initial., "RFC Title", BCP/FYI/STD ## (if applicable), RFC ####, Date of Publication. Example: [RFC3080] Rose, M., "The Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol Core", RFC 3080, March 2001. For 2 Authors: [RFCXXXX] Last name, First initial. and First initial, Last name, "RFC Title", BCP/FYI/STD ## (if applicable), RFC ####, Date of Publication. Example: [RFC6323] Renker, G. and G. Fairhurst, "Sender RTT Estimate Option for the Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP)", RFC 6323, July 2011. For 3 or more Authors: [RFCXXXX] Last name, First initial., Last name, First initial., and First initial. Last name, "RFC Title", BCP/FYI/STD ## (if applicable), RFC ####, Date of Publicaiton. Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 16] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 Example: [RFC6429] Bashyam, M., Jethanandani, M., and A. Ramaiah, "TCP Sender Clarification for Persist Condition", RFC 6429, December 2011. Referencing Internet-Drafts References to Internet-Drafts can only appear as Informative references. Given that several revisions of an I-D may be produced in a short time frame, references must include the publication date (month and year), the full Internet-Draft file name (including the version number), and the use the phrase "Work in Progress". If the I-D referenced has a version published as an RFC, references must also include the RFC. Example: [RFC-STYLE] Flanagan, H., and S. Ginoza, "RFC Style Guide", draft-flanagan-style-01 (Work in Progress), August 2013. Referencing Errata The following format is required when a reference to an errata report is necessary: [Err1912] RFC Errata, Errata ID 1912, RFC 2978, . 4.9. Appendices Many RFC documents have Appendices, which may be extensive. We recommend placing references before the Appendices. 4.10. Acknowledgments Section This optional section may be used instead of or in addition to a Contributors section. It is often used by authors to publicly thank those who have provided feedback regarding a document and to note any documents from which text was borrowed. 4.11. Contributors Section This optional section acknowledges those who have made significant contributions to the document. In a similar fashion to the Author section, the RFC Editor does Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 17] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 not make the determination as to who should be listed as a contributor to an RFC. The determination of who should be listed as a contributor on an RFC is determined by stream policy. The Contributors section may include brief statements about the nature of particular contributions ("Sam contributed Section 3"), and it may also include affiliations of listed contributors. At the discretion of the author(s), contact addresses may also be included in the Contributors section, for those contributors whose knowledge makes them useful future contacts for information about the RFC. Any contact information should be formatted similar to how the information is formatted in the Author's Address section. 4.12. "Author's Address" Section This required section gives contact information for the author(s) listed in the first-page header. Contact information must include at least one, and ideally would include all, of a postal address including the English short name as maintained by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency, a telephone number, and a long-lived email address [ISO3166]. The purpose of this section is to (1) unambiguously define author identity (e.g., the John Smith who works for FooBar Systems) and to (2) provide contact information for future readers who have questions or comments. Note that some professional societies offer long-lived email addresses for their members. Use of these long-lived addresses is recommended. The practice of munged addresses (i.e., altering an email address to make it less readable to bots and web crawlers to avoid spam) is not appropriate in an archival document series. Author contact information is provided so that readers can easily contact the author with questions and/or comments. Address munging is not allowed in RFCs. 4.13. Running Headers and Footers RFCs always include running headers and footers (except that the first page has no running header). These are generally extracted from the standard header for the stream. 4.13.1. Running Headers The running header in one line (on page 2 and all subsequent pages) has the RFC number on the left (RFC nnnn), the title (possibly an abbreviated title) in the center, and the publication Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 18] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 date (Month Year) on the right. 4.13.2. Running Footers All pages contain a one-line running footer, with the author's last name on the left, the category centered, and the page number on the right as "[Page nn]". If there is one author, the author's last name appears as "name". If there are two authors, the form "name & name" may be used; for more than two authors, use the form "name, et al." The headers and footers must be separated from the body by at least one and preferably two blank lines. 5. IANA Considerations No IANA actions required 6. Security Considerations No security considerations. Normative References [StyleWeb] RFC Editor, "Style Web Page", Informative References [ABBR] RFC Editor Abbreviations List, . [BCP14] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. [BCP26] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226, May 2008. [BCP72] Rescorla, E. and B. Korver, "Guidelines for Writing RFC Text on Security Considerations", BCP 72, RFC 3552, July 2003. [BCP78] Bradner, S., Ed., and J. Contreras, Ed., "Rights Contributors Provide to the IETF Trust", BCP 78, RFC 5378, Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 19] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 November 2008. [BCP79] Bradner, S., Ed., "Intellectual Property Rights in IETF Technology", BCP 79, RFC 3979, March 2005. Narten, T., "Clarification of the Third Party Disclosure Procedure in RFC 3979", BCP 79, RFC 4879, April 2007. [CMOS] Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. [FYI90] Malkin, G. and J. Reynolds, "FYI on FYI: Introduction to the FYI Notes", FYI Notes, RFC 1150, March 1990. Housley, R., "Conclusion of FYI RFC Sub-Series", RFC 6360, August 2011. [PubProcess] RFC Editor, "Publication Process", . [IDGuide] IETF, "Guidelines to Authors of Internet Drafts". . [IEN137] Cohen, D. "On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace", Internet Experimental Note (IEN) 137, 1 April 2980. A longer version is published in IEEE Computer Magazine, pp. 47-55, October 1981. [IETFTrust] IETF Trust, "Trust Legal Provisions (TLP) Documents", . [ISO3166] ISO, "Country Codes - ISO 3166", . [ISO3297] Technical Committee ISO/TC 46, Information and documentation, Subcommittee SC 9, Identification and description, "Information and documentation - International standard serial number (ISSN)", 09 2007. [POLICY] RFC Editor, "RFC Editorial Guidelines and Procedures", . [Postel] Jon Postel, original RFC Editor: see . [RFC20] Cerf, V., "ASCII format for network interchange", RFC 20, October 1969. Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 20] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 [RFC791] Postel, J., "Internet Protocol", RFC 791, September 1981. [RFC1311] Postel, J., "Introduction to the STD Notes", RFC 1311, March 1992. [RFC1818] Postel, J., Li, T., and Y. Rekhter, "Best Current Practices", RFC 1818, August 1995. [RFC2026] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996. [RFC2223] Postel, J. and J. Reynolds, "Instructions to RFC Authors", RFC 2223, October 1997. [RFC2555] RFC Editor, et al., "30 Years of RFCs", RFC 2555, April 1999. [RFC2606] Eastlake 3rd, D. and A. Panitz, "Reserved Top Level DNS Names", BCP 32, RFC 2606, June 1999. [RFC3986] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66, RFC 3986, January 2005. [RFC4844] Daigle, L., Ed., and Internet Architecture Board, "The RFC Series and RFC Editor", RFC 4844, July 2007. [RFC5741] Daigle, L., Ed., and Kolkman, O., Ed., and IAB, "RFC Streams, Headers, and Boilerplates", RFC 5741, December 2009. [RFC6635] Kolkman, O., Ed., Halpern, J., Ed., and IAB, "RFC Editor Model (Version 2)", RFC 6635, June 2012. [RFCcopy] RFC Editor, "COPYRIGHTS AND PATENT RIGHTS IN RFCs", . [MIBboiler] IETF OPS Area, "Boilerplate for IETF MIB Documents", . [WEBSTERS] Merriam-Webster Online, . Appendix A. Related Procedures The following procedures are related to the application and updating of the RFC Style Guide. Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 21] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 A.1. Dispute Resolution At times, an author may have a disagreement with the RFC Production Center (RPC) over the application of style guide conventions. In such cases, the authors should discuss their concerns with the RPC. If no agreement can be reached between the RPC and the authors, the RFC Series Editor will, with input from the appropriate stream manager, make a final determination If further resolution is required, the dispute resolution process as described in the RFC Editor Model [RFC6635] will be followed. A.2. Returning an I-D to the Stream Manager For a given document, if the RFC Editor determines that it cannot be edited without serious risk of altering the meaning of the technical content or if the RFC Editor does not have the resources to provide the level of editing it needs, it may be sent back to the stream manager with a request to improve the clarity, consistency, and/or readability of the document. This is not to be considered a dispute with the author. A.3. Revising This Document and Associated Web Pages The RFC Series is continually evolving as a document series. This document focuses on the fundamental and stable requirements that must be met by an RFC. From time to time, the RFC Editor may offer less formal recommendations that authors may apply at their discretion; these recommendations may be found on the RFC Editor website "Guidelines for RFC Style" [StyleWeb]. When a new recommendation is made regarding the overall structure and formatting of the RFCs, it will be published on that page and accepted for a period of time before the RFC Editor determines whether it should become part of the fundamental requirements in the RFC Style Guide or remain as a less formal recommendation. That period of time will vary in part depending on the frequency with which authors encounter and apply the guidance. Acknowledgements This document refers heavily to RFC 2223 and RFC 2223bis, and as such we are grateful to the authors of those documents for their time and effort in to the RFC Series. Robert T. Braden USC Information Sciences Institute Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 22] INTERNET DRAFT RFC Style Guide Setpember 4, 2013 Joyce Reynolds Jon Postel Contributors Alice Russo RFC Production Center Authors' Addresses Heather Flanagan RFC Series Editor EMail: rse@rfc-editor.org Sandy Ginoza RFC Production Center EMail: rfc-editor@rfc-editor.org Flanagan & Ginoza Expires March 8, 2014 [Page 23]