Network Working Group                                   M. Suignard, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                     Microsoft Corporation
Intended status: Standards Track                                M. Davis
Expires: June 23, 2007                                            Google
                                                              A. Freytag
                                                              ASMUS Inc.
                                                       December 20, 2006


         Preparation of Internationalized Strings (stringprep)
                    draft-suignard-stringprep-bis-00

Status of this Memo

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

Abstract

   This document describes a framework for preparing Unicode text
   strings in order to increase the likelihood that string input and
   string comparison work in ways that make sense for typical users
   throughout the world.  The stringprep protocol is useful for protocol
   identifier values, company and personal names, internationalized



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   domain names, and other text strings.

   This document does not specify how protocols should prepare text
   strings.  Protocols must create profiles of stringprep in order to
   fully specify the processing options.

   This document updates RFC3454 (stringprep).


Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     1.1.  Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     1.2.  Using stringprep in protocols  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   2.  Preparation Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   3.  Mapping  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     3.1.  Commonly mapped to nothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     3.2.  Case folding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   4.  Normalization  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     4.1.  Choice of normalization form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     4.2.  Normalization version  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   5.  Prohibited Output  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
     5.1.  Space characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     5.2.  Control characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     5.3.  Private use  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     5.4.  Non-character code points  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     5.5.  Surrogate codes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     5.6.  Inappropriate for plain text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     5.7.  Inappropriate for canonical representation . . . . . . . . 16
     5.8.  Change display properties or are deprecated  . . . . . . . 16
     5.9.  Tagging characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
     5.10. Hangul filler characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
     5.11. Non Identifier code points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
     5.12. Archaic characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   6.  Combining Marks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   7.  Bidirectional Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
   8.  Unassigned Code Points in Stringprep Profiles  . . . . . . . . 20
     8.1.  Categories of code points  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
     8.2.  Reasons for the difference between stored strings and
           queries  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
     8.3.  Versions of applications and stored strings  . . . . . . . 23
   9.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
     9.1.  Stringprep-specific security considerations  . . . . . . . 24
     9.2.  Generic Unicode security considerations  . . . . . . . . . 24
   10. IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
   11. Compatibility between stringprep and stringprep-bis-00 . . . . 26
     11.1. Compatibility using Unicode 3.2 code points  . . . . . . . 27
     11.2. Compatibility using the Identifier repertoire  . . . . . . 27



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   12. Considerations concerning IDN revision . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
     12.1. Permitted Character Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
     12.2. Strinprep mapping based on Unicode properties  . . . . . . 29
     12.3. Normalization stability  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
     12.4. Case folding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
   13. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
   Appendix A.     Unicode repertoires  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
   Appendix A.1.   Unassigned code points in Unicode 3.2  . . . . . . 30
   Appendix A.2.   Unassigned code points in Unicode 5.0  . . . . . . 30
   Appendix A.3.   Identifier repertoire  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
   Appendix B.     Mapping Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
   Appendix B.1.   Commonly mapped to nothing . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
   Appendix B.1.1. Commonly mapped to nothing with ZWJ/ZWNJ
                   special processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
   Appendix B.2.   Mapping for case-folding used with NFKC  . . . . . 32
   Appendix B.3.   Mapping for case-folding used with no
                   normalization  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
   Appendix B.4.   Reverse mapping for compability mode . . . . . . . 33
   Appendix C.     Prohibition tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
   Appendix C.1.   Space characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
   Appendix C.1.1. ASCII space character  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
   Appendix C.1.2. Non-ASCII space characters . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
   Appendix C.1.3. Non-ASCII space characters - Compatibility mode  . 33
   Appendix C.2.   Control characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
   Appendix C.2.1. ASCII control character  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
   Appendix C.2.2. Non-ASCII control character  . . . . . . . . . . . 34
   Appendix C.2.3. Non-ASCII control character - Compatibility
                   mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
   Appendix C.3.   Private use  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
   Appendix C.4.   Non-characters code points . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
   Appendix C.5.   Surrogate codes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
   Appendix C.6.   Inappropriate for plain text . . . . . . . . . . . 35
   Appendix C.7.   Inappropriate for canonical representation . . . . 35
   Appendix C.8.   Change display properties or are deprecated  . . . 35
   Appendix C.9.   Tagging characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
   Appendix C.10.  Hangul filler characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
   Appendix C.11.  Non identifier code points . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
   Appendix C.12.  Archaic scripts  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
   Appendix D.     Bidirectional tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
   Appendix D.1.   Characters with bidirectional property R or AL . . 36
   Appendix D.2.   Characters with bidirectional property L . . . . . 37
   Appendix D.3.   Characters with bidirectional property L . . . . . 37
   Appendix E.     Combining marks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
   Appendix E.1.   Combining mark table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
   Appendix F.     Normalization tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
   Appendix F.1.   Pre normalization mapping  . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
   Appendix F.2.   Characters added since the previous stringprep
                   version  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38



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   Appendix F.3.   Character sequences reordering . . . . . . . . . . 39
   Appendix G.     Differences between stringprep and
                   stringprep-bis-00  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
   14. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
     14.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
     14.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
   Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 50











































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1.  Introduction

   Application programs can display text in many different ways.
   Similarly, a user can enter text into an application program in a
   myriad of fashions.  Internationalized text (that is, text that is
   not restricted to the narrow set of US-ASCII characters) has many
   input and display behaviors that make it difficult to compare text in
   a consistent fashion.

   This document specifies a framework of processing rules for Unicode
   text.  Other protocols can create profiles of these rules; these
   profiles will allow users to enter internationalized text strings in
   applications and have the highest chance of getting the content of
   the strings correct.  In this case, "correct" means that if two
   different people enter what they think is the same string into two
   different input mechanisms, the strings should match on a character-
   by-character basis.

   This framework does not describe how data is transcoded from other
   character sets into Unicode.  In systems that use non-Unicode
   character sets, the transcoding algorithm is a critical part of
   enabling secure and "correct" operation of internationalized text
   strings.

   In addition to helping string matching, profiles of stringprep can
   also exclude characters that should not normally appear in text that
   is used in the protocol.  The profile can prevent such characters by
   changing the characters to be excluded to other characters, by
   removing those characters, or by causing an error if the characters
   would appear in the output.  For example, because the backspace
   character can cause unpredictable display results, a profile can
   specify that a string containing a backspace character would cause an
   error.

   A profile of stringprep converts a single string of input characters
   to a string of output characters, or returns an error if the output
   string would contain a prohibited character.  Stringprep profiles
   cannot both emit a string and return an error.

   Stringprep profiles cannot account for all of the variations that
   might occur or that a user might expect.  In particular, a profile
   will not be able to account for choice of spellings in all languages
   for all scripts because the number of alternative spellings of words
   and phrases is immense.  Users would probably expect all spelling
   equivalents to be made equivalent, or none of them to be.  Examples
   of spelling equivalents include "theater" vs. "theatre", and
   "hemoglobin" vs. "hU+00E6moglobin" in American vs. British English.
   Other examples are simplified Chinese spellings of names (for



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   example,"<U+7EDF, U+4E00, U+7801>") vs. the equivalent traditional
   Chinese spelling (for example, "<U+7D71, U+4E00, U+78BC>").
   Language-specific equivalences such as "Aepfel" vs. "U+00C4pfel",
   which are sometimes considered equivalent in German, may not be
   considered equivalent in other languages.

   This document intends to replace the current version of stringprep
   [RFC3454].  It covers issues that were raised in the context of
   Internationalized Domain Names in Applications [RFC3490].  Some of
   these issues are about bidirectional strings[IDNABidi], others about
   repertoire[IDNARepertoire], others in all aspects of stringprep
   [IDNABis].  Issues are addressed in relevant sections of this
   document.

   Much more than previous version of stringprep[RFC3454], this document
   uses Unicode character properties to group these characters in
   classes, instead of using enumerated lists of characters.  Certain
   key Unicode properties are guaranteed to always be backward
   compatible.  For the properties that may see modification, stability
   of this specification is provided by using exception lists.

1.1.  Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14, RFC
   2119[RFC2119].

   Note: A glossary of terms used in the Unicode Standard [Unicode5.0]
   and ISO/IEC 10646 [ISO10646]can be found in [Glossary].  Information
   on the 10646/Unicode character encoding model can be found in
   [CharModel].  The character repertoires of the Unicode Standard and
   ISO/IEC 10646, and many other features such as the Bidirectional
   Algorithm and Normalizations are synchronized.  Further references to
   the common set will be done using the Unicode versions.  Only
   features that are unique to either standard will be referenced as
   such.

   Character names in this document use the notation for code points and
   names from the Unicode Standard.  For example, the letter "a" may be
   represented as either "U+0061" or "LATIN SMALL LETTER A".  In the
   lists of mappings and the prohibited characters, the "U+" is left off
   to make the lists easier to read.  Sequences of characters may be
   represented using the UCS Sequence Identifiers or USI specified in
   ISO/IEC 10646 [ISO10646].  A USI has the form:

      <UID1, UID2,...UIDn>




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   where the UIDi represents the short identifiers for code points --
   most commonly the U+ notation mentioned above.  The comments for
   character ranges are shown in square brackets (such as "[CONTROL
   CHARACTERS]") and do not come from the standards.

1.2.  Using stringprep in protocols

   The stringprep protocol does not stand on its own; it has to be used
   by other protocols at precisely-defined places in those other
   protocols.  For example, a protocol that has strings that come from
   the entire Unicode [Unicode5.0] character repertoire might specify
   that only strings that have been processed with a particular profile
   of stringprep are legal.  Another example would be a protocol that
   does string comparison as a step in the protocol; that protocol might
   specify that such comparison is done only after processing the
   strings with a specific profile of stringprep.

   When two protocols that use different profiles of stringprep
   interoperate, there may be conflict about what characters are and are
   not allowed in the final string.  Thus, protocol developers should
   strongly consider re-using existing profiles of stringprep.

   When developers wish to allow users as wide of a range of characters
   as possible in input text strings, they should, where possible, cause
   stringprep to convert characters from the input string to a canonical
   form instead of prohibiting them.

   Although it would be easy to use the stringprep process to "correct"
   perceived mis-features or bugs in the current character standards,
   stringprep profiles SHOULD NOT do so.

   A profile of stringprep can create tables different from those in the
   appendixes of this document, but it will be an exception when they
   do.  The intention of stringprep is to define the tables and have the
   profiles of stringprep select among those defined tables.

   A profile of stringprep MUST include all of the following:

   o  The intended applicability of the profile

   o  The character repertoire that is the input and output to
      stringprep (which is Unicode 5.0 for this version of stringprep)

   o  The mapping tables from this document used (as described in
      section 3)

   o  Any additional mapping tables specific to the profile




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   o  The Unicode normalization used, if any (as described in section 4)

   o  The tables from this document of characters that are prohibited as
      output (as described in section 5)

   o  The bidirectional string testing used, if any (as described in
      section 6)

   o  Any additional characters that are prohibited as output specific
      to the profile

   Each profile MUST state the character repertoire on which the profile
   will operate.  Appendix A lists the Unicode repertoire that can be
   selected.  No repertoire is ever complete, and it is expected that
   characters will be added to the Unicode repertoire for the
   foreseeable future.  Section 7 of this document describes how to
   handle characters that are assigned in later versions of the Unicode
   repertories.  A Subsection of appendix A also references unassigned
   code points for the Unicode repertoire.

   This document is for Unicode version 5.0, and should not be
   considered to automatically apply to later Unicode versions.  The
   IETF, through an explicit standards action, may update this document
   as appropriate to handle later Unicode versions.

   This document references the unassigned code points in the range 0 to
   10FFFF for Unicode 5.0 in appendix A.  It also references in the same
   appendix unassigned code points for Unicode 3.2 to allow profiles to
   emulate behavior specified by previous version of stringprep[RFC3454]

   Each profile of stringprep MUST be registered with IANA.  The
   registration procedure is described in the IANA Considerations
   appendix; basically, the IESG must review each profile of stringprep.
   Protocol developers are strongly encouraged to look through the IANA
   profile registry when creating new profiles for stringprep, and to
   re-use logic from earlier profiles where possible in new profiles.
   In some cases, an existing profile can be reused by a different
   protocol.


2.  Preparation Overview

   The steps for preparing strings are:

   1.  Map -- For each character in the input, check if it has a mapping
       and, if so, replace it with its mapping.  This is described in
       section 3.




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   2.  Normalize -- Possibly normalize the result of step 1 using
       Unicode normalization.  This is described in section 4.

   3.  Prohibit -- Check for any characters that are not allowed in the
       output.  If any are found, return an error.  This is described in
       section 5.

   4.  Check combining marks -- Check for any starting combining marks.
       If such an occurence is found, return an error.  This is
       described in section 6.

   5.  Check bidi -- Possibly check for right-to-left characters, and if
       any are found, make sure that the whole string satisfies the
       requirements for bidirectional strings.  If the string does not
       satisfy the requirements for bidirectional strings, return an
       error.  This is described in section 7.

   The above steps MUST be performed in the order given to comply with
   this specification.

   The mappings described in section 3, and the optional Unicode
   normalization described in section 4, can be one-to-none, one-to-one,
   one-to-many, many-to-one, or many-to-many.  That is, some characters
   might be eliminated or replaced by more than one character, and the
   output of this step might be shorter or longer than the input.
   Because of this, the system using stringprep MUST be prepared to
   receive a longer or shorter string than the one input in the
   stringprep algorithm.

   A profile MAY elect to simplify the preparation by using a Unicode
   repertoire which is stable through the mapping and normalization
   processes and does not contain any prohibited characters.  In such
   case the preparation steps become:

   1.  Map -- All characters map to themselves by definition.

   2.  Normalize -- If normalized output is required by the profile,
       this step is still required even if the repertoire is stable
       through normalization.  There are several reasons for this
       (combining marks, Hangul syllables, etc...).

   3.  Prohibit -- No characters are prohibited by definition.

   4.  Check combining marks -- As specified above.

   5.  Check bidi -- As specificied above.

   Appendix A.3 describes such an Unicode repertoire named "Identifier



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   repertoire" which can be conveniently referenced by profiles used for
   identifiers.  For convenience, this document references its own
   definition of the repertoire in A.3, but the intent is to track the
   developments made by [IDNARepertoire] or similar initiatives when
   they become finalized.


3.  Mapping

   Each character in the input stream MUST be checked against a mapping
   table.  The mapping table SHOULD come from this document, although
   the mapping table MAY be added to or altered by the profile.  The
   mapping tables are subsections of appendix B.

   The lists in appendix B MUST be used by implementations of this
   specification.  If there are any discrepancies between the lists in
   appendix B and subsections below, the lists in appendix B always
   takes precedence.

   For any individual character, the mapping table MAY specify that a
   character be mapped to nothing, or mapped to one other character, or
   mapped to a string of other characters.

   Mapped characters are not re-scanned during the mapping step.  That
   is, if character A at position X is mapped to character B, character
   B which is now at position X is not checked against the mapping
   table.

3.1.  Commonly mapped to nothing

   Some characters are commonly deleted from the input (that is, they
   are mapped to nothing) because their presence or absence in protocol
   identifiers should not typically make two strings different.  The
   list is referenced in appendix B.1.

   Typically, U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER (ZWNJ) and U+200D ZERO WIDTH
   JOINER (ZWJ) should not make two strings different and as such are
   part of the list referenced in appendix B.1.  However, because in
   certain languages U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER (ZWNJ) and U+200D ZERO
   WIDTH JOINER (ZWJ) may carry meaning, some profiles MAY want to adopt
   a special rule by preserving the ZWNJ or ZWJ in the following
   contexts:

   ZWNJ breaking a cursive connection in Arabic--  An Arabic Right-
      Joining character, followed by zero or more Transparent
      characters, followed by a ZWNJ, followed by zero or more
      Transparent characters, followed by a Left-Joining character.




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   ZWNJ used in a conjunct context--  A Letter, followed by zero or more
      Combining Marks, followed by a Virama, followed by a ZWNJ,
      followed by zero or more Combining Marks, followed by a Letter.

   ZWJ used in a conjunct context--  A Letter, followed by zero or more
      Combining Marks, followed by a Virama, followed by a ZWJ, followed
      by zero or more Combining Marks, followed by a Letter.

   These contexts imply that a single script is used within the
   expression, excluding the Combining Marks and Viramas which may use
   "Common" or "Inherited" script values.

   The character script value is determined by the "Scripts.txt" file in
   the Unicode Character Database[UCD].

   The character properties "Right-Joining" (R), "Transparent" (T), and
   "Left-Joining" (L) are specified by the ArabicShaping.txt file in the
   Unicode Character Database[UCD].

   The character property "Letter" is the union of all General Category
   values: "Lu", "Ll", "Lt", "Lm", and "Lo" specified in the
   UnicodeData.txt file in the Unicode Character Database[UCD].

   The character property "Combining Mark" is the concatenation of all
   General Category values: "Mc", "Mn", and "Me" specified in the
   UnicodeData.txt file in the Unicode Character Database[UCD].

   The character property "Virama" is determined by having the
   Canonical_Combining_Class value equal to 9.  That class is specified
   in the UnicodeData.txt file in the Unicode Character Database[UCD].

   The profiles that MAY want to process the ZWJ and ZWNJ according to
   these contexts while mapping the other characters to nothing MUST use
   the table and property referencing specified in appendix B.1.1.

3.2.  Case folding

   If a profile is going to map characters for case-insensitive
   comparison, that profile SHOULD map using either appendix B.2 or
   appendix B.3. appendix B.2 is for profiles that also use Unicode
   normalization form KC, while appendix B.3 is for profiles that do not
   use Unicode normalization.  The referenced tables map from uppercase
   to lowercase characters.  Note that this could have been "change all
   lowercase characters into uppercase characters".  However, the upper-
   to-lower folding was chosen because there is a tradition of using
   lowercase in current Internet applications and protocols.

   If a profile creates its own mapping tables for case folding, they



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   SHOULD be based on the Case Mappings specified by the Unicode
   Standard[Unicode5.0], and SHOULD map from uppercase characters to
   lowercase.  The "CaseFolding.txt" file from the Unicode Character
   Database[UCD] SHOULD be used to prepare the mapping table.  The
   profile SHOULD do full case mapping (that is, using statuses C and
   F).

   If the profile is using Unicode normalization form KC (as described
   in section 4 of this document), an additional property,
   FC_NFKC_Closure, is required.  The values specified in the
   "DerivedNormalizationProps.txt" file in the Unicode Character
   Database[NormProps]provides the set of mappings that constitute the
   FC_NFKC_Closure list.

   Appendix B.3 references the CaseFolding.txt file associated with
   Unicode 5.0; appendix B.2 also references the CaseFolding.txt file
   from the Unicode Character Database[UCD], but augmented by the
   entries in the "DerivedNormalizationProps.txt" file[NormProps] with a
   FC_NFKC value.

   Authors of profiles of this document need to consider the effects of
   changing the mapping of any currently-assigned character when
   updating their profiles.  Adding a new mapping for a currently-
   assigned character, or changing an existing mapping, could cause a
   variance between the behavior of systems that have been updated and
   systems that have not been updated.

   Appendix B.4 specifies a reverse mapping table for Unicode 3.2
   characters which have a new case folding as a result of applying
   Unicode 5.0 case folding tables.  Applying that mapping table after
   the previous mapping provides a result compatible with Unicode 3.2
   case folding.


4.  Normalization

   The output of the mapping step is optionally normalized using one of
   the Unicode normalization forms, as described in [UAX15].  A profile
   can specify one of three options for Unicode normalization:

   o  no normalization

   o  Unicode normalization with form C using the Normalization Process
      for Stable Strings (NPSS).  This process adds further stability
      requirements on normalization.

   o  Unicode normalization with form KC using the Normalization Process
      for Stable Strings (NPSS).  This process add further stability



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      requirements on normalization.

   A profile MAY choose to do no normalization.  However, such a profile
   can easily yield results that will be surprising to typical users,
   depending on the input mechanism they use.  For example, some input
   mechanisms enter compatibility characters that look exactly like the
   underlying characters, but have different code points.  Another
   example of where Unicode normalization helps create predictable
   results is with characters that have multiple combining diacritics:
   normalization orders those diacritics in a predictable fashion.

   On the other hand, Unicode normalization requires fairly large tables
   and somewhat complicated character reordering logic.  The size and
   complexity should not be considered daunting except in the most
   restricted of environments, and needs to be weighed against the
   problems of user surprise from comparing un-normalized strings.  Note
   that the tables used for normalization are not given in this
   document, but instead must be derived from the Unicode Character
   Database, as described in [UAX15] and [UCD].

4.1.  Choice of normalization form

   If a profile is going to use a Unicode normalization as one of the
   options mentioned above, it MUST use Unicode normalization form C or
   KC (NFC or NFKC).  Form KC maps many "compatibility characters" to
   their equivalents.  Some user interface systems make it possible to
   enter compatibility characters instead of the base equivalents.
   Thus, using form KC instead of form C will cause more strings that
   users would expect to match to actually match.  For most cases
   involving string preparation in the context of identifier (such as
   domain names), the form KC is preferred.

   However, there are cases where the compatibility mapping provided by
   the form KC may not be desirable because it prevents full
   representation of some national character set and of some special
   purpose repertoire (for example the mathematical letters).  In
   addition, NFC is the preferred normalization form for
   Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs)[RFC3987].  For all
   these reasons, some profiles may use form C instead of form KC.

   Finally, because case folding is not closed under form KC, the case
   folding required in the stringprep mapping step is more complex when
   that normalization form is used.  See section 3.2.

4.2.  Normalization version

   A profile that specifies Unicode normalization SHOULD use the
   normalization in [UAX15] that is associated with the version of the



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   Unicode character set specified for the profile.  However, because
   the normalization associated with Unicode 3.2 has some well known
   issues identified in [UAX15] (see its corrigendum section), it is
   recommended to use the version 5.0 of the normalization even for
   Unicode 3.2 repertoire.

   The composition process described in [UAX15] requires a fixed
   composition version of Unicode to ensure that strings normalized
   under one version of Unicode remain normalized under all future
   versions of Unicode.  In addition, the NPSS required by stringprep
   insures that processing unassigned code points through the
   normalization returns an error.

   Despite best efforts, the Unicode normalization has seen changes that
   may introduce compatibility issues between this version of stringprep
   and older version[RFC3454] if not handled correctly.  A profile MAY
   elect to emulate old behavior while still using the latest version of
   the Unicode normalization by following these steps prior to the
   normalization process:

   o  Map the characters specified in appendix F.1.

   o  Filter out characters that were not assigned by the previous
      version.  Appendix F.2 lists characters added since Unicode 3.2
      which should be filtered out.

   o  Reorder the sequences listed in appendix F.3 as described in the
      same appendix.

   None of these steps are needed if the profile is only applicable to
   the Unicode 5.0 repertoire.


5.  Prohibited Output

   Before the text can be emitted, it MUST be checked for prohibited
   code points.  There are a variety of prohibited code points, as
   described in this section.  A profile of this document MAY use all or
   some of the tables in appendix C.

   The stringprep process never emits both an error and a string.  If an
   error is detected during the checking for prohibited code points,
   only an error is returned.

   Note that the subsections below describe how the tables in appendix C
   were formed.  They are here for people who want to understand more,
   but they should be ignored by implementers.  Implementations that use
   tables MUST map based on the tables themselves, not based on the



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   descriptions in this section of how the tables were created.

   The lists in appendix C MUST be used by implementations of this
   specification.  If there are any discrepancies between the lists in
   appendix C and subsections below, the lists in appendix C always take
   precedence.

   Some code points listed in one section may also appear in other
   sections.

   It is important to note that a profile of this document MAY prohibit
   additional characters.

   Each subsection of this section has a matching subsection in appendix
   C. For example, the characters listed in section 5.1 are listed in
   appendix C.1.

5.1.  Space characters

   Space characters can make accurate visual transcription of strings
   nearly impossible and could lead to user entry errors in many ways.
   Note that the list below is split into two tables in appendix C:
   Table C.1.1 contains the ASCII code points, while Table C.1.2
   contains the non-ASCII code points.  Most profiles of this document
   that want to prohibit space characters will want to include both
   tables.

   For compatibility with the previous version of stringprep, Table
   C.1.3 is an alternate to C.1.2 containing the non-ASCII code points
   with some characters removed or added.

5.2.  Control characters

   Control characters (or characters with control function) cannot be
   seen and can cause unpredictable results when displayed.  Note that
   the list below is split into two tables in appendix C: Table C.2.1
   contains the ASCII code points, while Table C.2.2 contains the non-
   ASCII code points.  Most profiles of this document that want to
   prohibit control characters will want to include both tables.

   For compatibility with the previous version of stringprep, Table
   C.2.3 is an alternate to C.2.2 containing the non-ASCII code points
   with some characters removed or added.

5.3.  Private use

   Because private-use characters do not have defined meanings, they are
   likely to be prohibited.  The private-use characters are specified in



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   appendix C.3.

5.4.  Non-character code points

   Non-character code points are code points that have been allocated in
   Unicode but are not assigned to characters.  They are private use
   code points not intended for interchange.  They are described in
   appendix C.4.

5.5.  Surrogate codes

   The surrogate code points are permanently reserved for use as
   surrogate code values in the UTF-16 encoding, will never be assigned
   to characters in the Unicode repertoire, and are therefore
   prohibited.  They are described in appendix C.5.

5.6.  Inappropriate for plain text

   The interlinear annotation characters U+FFF9-U+FFFB do not appear in
   regular text.  Note that there are also control characters. (see 5.2)

   The Object Replacement character (U+FFFC) is a placeholder for an an
   otherwise unspecified object.  The replacement character (U+FFFD)
   might be used when a string is displayed on a system with incomplete
   rendering capabilities.  Based on these considerations, all these
   characters are likely to be prohibited.  They are referenced in
   appendix C.6.

5.7.  Inappropriate for canonical representation

   The ideographic description characters provide a mechanism for the
   standard interchange of text referencing unencoded ideographs.  They
   cannot be used to represent an alternate formal encoding of an
   ideograph.  Based on this, most profiles should exclude them.  These
   characters are described in appendix C.7.

5.8.  Change display properties or are deprecated

   These characters can cause changes in display or the order in which
   characters appear when rendered, or are deprecated in Unicode.  These
   characters are described in appendix C.8.

   Some of these characters are also part of the Control character
   category. (see 5.2)







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5.9.  Tagging characters

   The tagging characters are format characters (General Category =
   "Cf"), included in the TAG code point range (E0000-E007F).  Some
   profiles may want to treat them separately from control characters.
   These characters are described in appendix C.9.

5.10.  Hangul filler characters

   The Hangul filler characters are letter characters (General Category
   = "Lo"), that stands for missing Jamos to make a well-formed Korean
   syllable.  Most profiles may want to exclude them as they are used in
   context inappropriate for identifiers.  These characters are
   described in appendix C.10.

5.11.  Non Identifier code points

   Some profiles may want to further restrict their Unicode repertoire
   by removing all characters that should not be used in identifiers
   according to the Unicode UAX#31 Identifier and Pattern Syntax.  These
   non identifier code points are determined by not having the
   XID_Continue property in the Unicode Character Database[UCD].  These
   characters are described in appendix C.11.

   This definition of non identifier code points includes all other
   categories of prohibited code points specified up to this point.

5.12.  Archaic characters

   Some profiles may want to exclude characters which are rarely found
   or not all in modern use.  This is determined by their script
   property.  Appendix C.12 provides a list of these archaic scripts.


6.  Combining Marks

   Combining mark is a special character class that typically combines
   with its possible preceding combining marks back to the first non
   combining character.  See the Unicode Standard[Unicode5.0] for
   further details.

   In most contexts, it is undesirable to have a combining mark appear
   as the first character of a string as it may combine with a character
   preceding the string, therefore out of context.

   A profile MAY choose to exclude combining marks.  However many
   scripts and writing systems requires them even for their most basic
   support.  Therefore excluding the combining marks and ignoring the



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   requirement below is stringly discouraged.

   For the purpose of the requirement below, a "MCat" character is a
   character that has the Unicode General Category value of either
   Spacing Combining Mark (Mc), or Nonspacing Mark (Mn), or Enclosing
   Mark (Me)

   In any profile that includes these characters, the following
   requirement MUST be met:

   o  A string must not start with a MCat character.

   The stringprep process never emits both an error and a string.  If an
   error is detected during the checking of that requirement, only an
   error is returned.

   Table E.1 references all these combining marks.


7.  Bidirectional Characters

   Most characters are displayed from left to right, but some are
   displayed from right to left.  This feature of Unicode is called
   "bidirectional text", or "bidi" for short.  The Unicode standard has
   an extensive discussion of how to reorder glyphs for display when
   dealing with bidirectional text such as Arabic or Hebrew.  See [UAX9]
   for more information.  In particular, all Unicode text is stored in
   logical order.

   A profile MAY choose to ignore bidirectional text.  However, ignoring
   bidirectional text can cause display ambiguities.  For example, it is
   quite easy to create two different strings with the same characters
   (but in different order) that are correctly displayed identically.
   Therefore, in order to avoid most problems with ambiguous
   bidirectional text display, profile creators should strongly consider
   including the bidirectional character handling described in this
   section in their profile.

   The stringprep process never emits both an error and a string.  If an
   error is detected during the checking of bidirectional strings, only
   an error is returned.

   [Unicode5.0] defines several bidirectional categories; each character
   has one bidirectional category assigned to it.  For the purposes of
   the requirements below, the following categories are specified:






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   RCat character  It is a character that has Unicode bidirectional
      categories "R" or "AL".  These are characters belonging to right
      to left scripts such as Hebrew, Arabic, Thaana, etc...

   LCat character  It is a character that has Unicode bidirectional
      category "L".  These are characters belonging to left to right
      script such as Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, etc...

   NSMCat  It is a character that has Unicode bidirectional category
      "NSM".  These are combining marks.

   Note that there are many characters which fall in neither of the
   above definitions; Latin digits (U+0030 through U+0039) are examples
   of this because they have bidirectional category "EN".

   In any profile that specifies bidirectional character handling, all
   three of the following requirements MUST be met:

   1.  The characters in section 5.8 MUST be prohibited.

   2.  If a string contains any RCat character, the string MUST NOT
       contain any LCat character.

   3.  If a string contains any RCat character, a RCat character MUST be
       the first character of the string, and a RCat character MUST be
       either the last character of the string or followed only by
       NSMCat characters.

   Note that requirement 3 prohibits strings such as <U+0627, U+0031>
   ("aleph 1") but allows strings such as <U+0627, U+0031, U+0628>
   ("aleph 1 beh"), and <U+078B, U+07A8, U+0788, U+07AC, U+0780, U+07A8>
   ("Divehi in Thaana script ending with a NSMCat character).  [UAX9]
   goes into great detail about the display order of strings that
   contain particular categories of characters in particular sequences.

   Table D.1 references the characters that belong to Unicode
   bidirectional categories "R" and "AL".  Table D.2 references all the
   characters that belong to Unicode bidirectonal category "L".  Table
   D.3 references all the characters that belong to Unicode category
   "NSM".  These tables are derived from [Unicode5.0].

   Compared to the previous version of stringprep[RFC3454], this version
   adds the NSMCat category which addresses the right to left issue
   described in section 2 and 3 of [IDNABidi] and section 9 of
   [IDNABis].  As recognized by the former document in section 5,
   addressing that problem creates a new backward compatibility issues
   in as much as previously invalid strings are now valid.  However, in
   agreement with it, it is felt that it will be less harmful than



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   denying use of words commonly used in languages affected by that
   previous restriction.

   Note that the document [IDNABidi] also describes a confusable string
   issue in its section 4 which can better addressed by a repertoire
   restriction which is an IDNA generic issue covered elsewhere in
   stringprep.


8.  Unassigned Code Points in Stringprep Profiles

   This section describes two different types of strings in typical
   protocols where internationalized strings are used: "stored strings"
   and "queries".  Of course, different Internet protocols use strings
   very differently, so these terms cannot be used exactly in every
   protocol that needs to use stringprep.  In general, "stored strings"
   are strings that are used in protocol identifiers and named entities,
   such as names in digital certificates and DNS domain name parts.
   "Queries" are strings that are used to match against strings that are
   stored identifiers, such as user-entered names for digital
   certificate authorities and DNS lookups.

   All code points not assigned in the character repertoire named in a
   stringprep profile are called "unassigned code points".  Stored
   strings using the profile MUST NOT contain any unassigned code
   points.  Queries for matching strings MAY contain unassigned code
   points.  Note that this is the only part of this document where the
   requirements for queries differs from the requirements for stored
   strings.

   Using two different policies for where unassigned code points can
   appear removes the need for versioning in protocols that use
   stringprep profiles.  This is very useful since it makes the overall
   processing simpler and does not impose a "protocol" to handle
   versioning.  It is expected that the Unicode repertoire will be
   updated fairly frequently; at the time that this document is being
   written, it has happened approximately once a year.  Each time a new
   version of a repertoire appears, a new version of a profile MAY be
   created.  Some end users will want to use the new code points as soon
   as they are defined.

   The list of unassigned code points MUST be given in a profile, and
   that list MUST be used by implementations of the profile.

   The goal of the requirements in this section is to prevent
   comparisons between two strings that were both permitted to contain
   unassigned code points.  When two strings X and Y are compared and
   string Y was prepared in a way that permits unassigned code points, a



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   negative result to the comparison is not definitive; it's possible
   that the strings don't match even though they would match if a more
   recent version of the profile were used for Y. However, if both X and
   Y were prepared in a way that permits unassigned code points,
   something worse can happen: even a positive result for the comparison
   is not definitive.  It is possible that the strings do match even
   though they would not match if a more recent version of the profile
   were used (one that prohibits a code point appearing in both X and
   Y).

   Due to the way that versioning is handled in this section, stored
   strings that are embedded in structures that cannot be changed (such
   as the signed parts of digital certificates) MUST NOT contain any
   unassigned code points.

8.1.  Categories of code points

   Each code point in a repertoire named by a profile of stringprep can
   be categorized by how it acts in the process described in earlier
   sections of this document:

   o  AO -- Code points that can be in the output

   o  MN -- Code points that cannot be in the output because they never
      appear as output from mapping or normalization

   o  D -- Code points that cannot be in the output because they are
      disallowed in the prohibition step

   o  U -- Unassigned code points

   A subsequent version of a profile that references a newer version of
   a repertoire with new code points will inherently have some code
   points move from category U to either D, MN, or AO.  For backwards
   compatibility, the following rules are provided for a subsequent
   version of a profile concerning the other code points:

   o  D code points MUST NOT move to another category.

   o  AO and MN code points SHOULD NOT move to another category.
      Exceptions should be clearly documented in the new versions.

   Stored strings MUST NOT contain any code points outside of AO for the
   latest version of a profile.  That is, they are forbidden to contain
   code points from the MN, D, or U categories.

   Applications creating queries MUST treat U code points as if they
   were AO when preparing the query to be entered in the process



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   described by a profile of stringprep.  Those applications MAY
   optionally have a preprocessor that provide stricter checks: treating
   unassigned code points in the input as errors, or warning the user
   about the fact that the code point is unassigned in the version of a
   profile that the software is based on; such a choice is a local
   matter for the software.

   It should be noted that the code point categories described above are
   not the only way code point sequences are analyzed during the string
   preparation process.  The 'check bidi' and 'check combining marks'
   steps use additional code point properties to determine the validity
   of an input string.  Furthermore, the position of a code point within
   a string may also determine that validity.

   A subsequent version of a profile SHOULD minimize code point property
   changes and positional behavior that modify the result of these
   preparation steps.  If such changes are made, they MUST be identified
   in the new version of the profile.

   In general, a profile should minimize its set of AO code points to
   what is strictly required for its usage.  A subsequent version can
   easily enlarge its repertoire while the opposite is always
   problematic.  Using a repertoire that is stable through mapping and
   normalization is also preferred.  The Identifier repertoire
   referenced in appendix A.3 is such a case.

8.2.  Reasons for the difference between stored strings and queries

   Different software using different versions of a stringprep profile
   need to interoperate with maximal compatibility.  The scheme
   described in this section (stored strings MUST NOT contain unassigned
   code points, queries MAY include unassigned code points) allows that
   compatibility without introducing any known security or
   interoperability issues.

   The list below shows what happens if a query contains a code point
   from category U that is allowed in a newer version of a profile.  The
   query either matches the string that was intended, or matches no
   string at all.  In this list, the query comes from an application
   using version "oldVersion" of a profile, the stored string was
   created using version "newVersion" of the same profile, and the code
   point X was in category U in oldVersion, and has changed category to
   AO, MN, or D. There are 3 possible scenarios:

   1. X is assigned to AO --  In newVersion, X is in category AO.
      Because the application passed X through, it gets back a positive
      match with the stored string.  There is one exceptional case,
      where X is a combining mark.



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      The order of combining marks is normalized, so if another
      combining mark Y has a lower combining class than X then XY will
      be put in the canonical order YX.  (Unassigned code points are
      never reordered, so this doesn't happen in oldVersion).  If the
      query contains YX, the query will get positive match with the
      stored string.  However, no string can be stored with XY, so a
      query with XY will get a negative answer to the test for matching.

   2. X is assigned to MN --  In newVersion, X is normalized to code
      point "nX" and therefore X is now put in category MN.  This cannot
      exist in any stored string, so any query containing X will get a
      negative answer to the test for matching.  Note, however, if the
      query had contained the letter nX, it would have positively
      matched.

   3. X is assigned to D --  In newVersion, X is in category D. This
      cannot exist in any stored string, so any query containing X will
      get a negative answer to the test for matching.

   In none of the cases does the query get data for a stored string
   other than the one it actually tried to match against.

   Profiles are stable between versions in the following sense: If a
   string S has been prepared using newVersion, then it will not change
   if it is subsequently prepared using oldVersion.

8.3.  Versions of applications and stored strings

   Another way to see that this versioning system works is to compare
   what happens when an application uses a newer or older version of a
   profile.

   Newer query application -- Suppose that a querying application is
   using version newVersion and the stored string was created using
   version oldVersion.  This case is simple: there will be no characters
   in the stored string that cannot be queried by the application
   because the new profile uses a superset of the code points used for
   making the stored string.

   Newer stored string -- Suppose that a querying application is using
   oldVersion and the stored string was created using a profile that
   uses newVersion.  Because the querying application let unassigned
   code points pass through, the user can query on stored strings that
   use code points in newVersion.  No stored strings can have code
   points that are unassigned in newVersion, since that is illegal.  In
   order to get a match, the querying application has to enter the
   unassigned code points in the proper order, and has to use unassigned
   code points that would make it through both the mapping and the



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   normalization steps.


9.  Security Considerations

   Stringprep is used with Unicode characters.  There are security
   considerations that are specific to stringprep, and others that are
   generic to using Unicode.

9.1.  Stringprep-specific security considerations

   The Unicode repertoire has many characters that look similar.  In
   many cases, users of security protocols might do visual matching,
   such as when comparing the names of trusted third parties.  Because
   it is impossible to map similar-looking characters without a great
   deal of context such as knowing the fonts used, stringprep does
   nothing to map similar-looking characters together nor to prohibit
   some characters because they look like others.  User applications can
   help disambiguate some similar-looking characters by showing the user
   when a string changes between scripts.

   Most profiles of stringprep can cause changes in strings that are
   input to stringprep.  Because of this, protocols that have sets of
   non-allowed characters or sequences MUST check for the non-allowed
   characters or sequences after the stringprep processing.

   This document does not mandate the checking of bidirectional
   characters in section 6.  If the requirements in section 6 are not
   used in a profile of stringprep, it is easy to create many strings
   whose characters are in different order but are displayed
   identically.  This can cause security-related user confusion similar
   to look-alike characters, as described above.

   Stringprep does not do anything to assure that any algorithms
   translating characters from non-Unicode into Unicode produce the same
   output in all implementations.

   Some Unicode codepoints are invisible.  Protocols that allow these
   characters (that is, do not map them out or prohibit them in
   stringprep) can cause users confusion when two identical-looking
   strings do not match.

9.2.  Generic Unicode security considerations

   Using Unicode characters explicitly forces applications to use multi-
   octet characters.  Converting an application from one that uses
   single-octet characters to one that uses multi-octet characters must
   be done very carefully, particularly in an application that checks



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   for values of characters or sorts characters.

   Protocols that use stringprep usually also use encodings of Unicode,
   such as UTF-8 or UTF-16.  Some applications using those encodings
   have been known to not check for ill-formed sequences in the
   encodings, and thereby have not detected sequences of octets that
   would have been detected if they used just ASCII.  For example, in
   UTF-8 the octet sequence "0xC0 0xAB" is an ill-formed sequence for
   U+002B (plus sign).  All programs MUST reject any string that is an
   ill-formed octet sequence for the encoding being used.

   Both Unicode normalization and conversion between Unicode encodings
   can cause strings to grow or shrink.  Programs that used fixed-size
   buffers, or that make assumptions that buffers will always be greater
   than or less than particular sizes, are likely to fail in insecure
   fashions when using Unicode normalization or encoding conversions.

   Covering an extensive list of security threats and considerations on
   the use of current and future versions of Unicode is outside of the
   scope of this document.  Additional considerations are available in
   [UTR36] and [UTS39].


10.  IANA Considerations

   Stringprep profiles MUST have IETF consensus as described in
   [RFC2434].  Each profile MUST be reviewed by the IESG before it is
   registered.  The IESG MAY change a profile before registration.

   IANA has set up a registry of stringprep profiles.  This registry is
   a single text file that lists the known profiles.  Each entry in the
   registry has three fields:

   o  Profile name

   o  RFC in which the profile is defined

   o  Indicator whether or not this is the newest version of the profile

   Each version of a profile will remain listed in the registry forever.
   That is, if a new version of a profile supersedes an earlier version,
   both versions will continue to be listed in the registry, but the
   current version indicator will be turned off for the earlier version
   and turned on for the newer version.

   It is probably harmful if a large number of profiles of stringprep
   proliferate.  Therefore, the IESG may reject proposals for new
   profiles and instead suggest that protocols reuse existing profiles.



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11.  Compatibility between stringprep and stringprep-bis-00

   Despite the migration from Unicode 3.2[Unicode3.2] to Unicode
   5.0[Unicode5.0] and related properties updates, this framework can be
   used to create a new version of a profile referencing the previous
   stringprep version[RFC3454].

   The tables referenced in appendices A to F were updated from the
   previous version in a way to minimize compatibility issues with the
   previous version of stringprep[RFC3454].

   Even when the previous version of the profile classified erroneously
   code points into either space characters (map to nothing) or control
   characters, these classification were maintained if they did not
   significantly impact the preparation results.  For example:

   o  U+200B ZERO WIDTH SPACE is not a space character and should not be
      part of appendix B.1.  But the alternative is to classify it as a
      control code where it is prohibited.  In both cases it is not part
      of the output set.

   o  U+180E MONGOLIAN VOWEL SEPARATOR is actually a space character and
      should have been part of appendix B.1, but its classification as
      either a space character or a control character (compatibility
      mode) makes it prohibited.

   In addition, most profiles treat the set of prohibited characters
   described from appendix C.1 to C.9 as a whole, making classification
   in a particular appendix less critical as long these prohibited
   characters are included in the union set.

   Finally, some appendices were created to make easier to describe
   preparation steps aligned with the previous version of
   stringprep[RFC3454].

   o  appendix B.4 Reverse mapping for compatibility mode

   o  appendix C.1.3 Non-ASCII space characters - Compatibility mode

   o  appendix C.2.3 Non-ASCII control characters - Compatibility mode

   o  appendix F.1 Pre normalization mapping

   o  appendix F.2 Characters added since the previous stringprep
      version[RFC3454]

   o  appendix F.3 Character sequence reordering




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11.1.  Compatibility using Unicode 3.2 code points

   By restricting its repertoire to Unicode 3.2[Unicode3.2] a profile
   may limit significantly compatibility issues.  For example, a new
   version of the nameprep profile[RFC3491] could do the following:

   o  use the Unicode 3.2 repertoire as specified in A.1.

   o  use the mapping tables defined in B.1 and B.2 followed by the
      mapping in B.4.

   o  normalize according to the compatibility mode using appendix F.1,
      F.2 and F.3 (see section 4).

   o  prohibit output according to appendix/tables C.1.3, C.2.3, C.3,
      C.4, C.5, C.6, C.7, C.8, and C.9.

   o  check combining marks according to section 6.

   o  check bidi according to section 7.

   Following these steps provides the results:

   o  all previous prohibited characters stay prohibited

   o  additional characters are prohibited

      17B4-17B5 [KHMER INHERENT VOWELS] (deprecated)
      17A3 KHMER INDEPENDENT VOWEL QAQ
      17D3 KHMER SIGN BATHAMASAT

   o  any starting combining mark(s) result in an error.

   o  mixing of RCat characters (see section 7.) with U+0cBF KANNADA
      VOWEL SIGN I, or U+0CC6 KANNADA VOWEL SIGN E, or U+2800-U+28FF
      [BRAILLE PATTERNS] is now invalid.

   o  a RCat string may now end with NSMCat character(s).  This
      combination would have been prohibited with the previous version
      of stringprep with the bidi option.

11.2.  Compatibility using the Identifier repertoire

   A profile using a restricted repertoire such as the Identifier
   repertoire referenced in appendix A.3 can reasonably be perceived as
   a new version of an existing profile based on the prior version of
   stringprep[RFC3454] without using the compatibility mode tables.




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   For example, such a new version of nameprep profile[RFC3491] could do
   the following:

   o  use the Identifier repertoire as specified in A.3.

   o  no mapping, all characters map to themselves.

   o  normalize according to the regular NFKC, no special processing or
      tables since the repertoire is stable through normalization.

   o  No prohibit, since the repertoire contains no prohibited code
      points

   o  check combining marks according to section 6.

   o  check bidi according to section 7.

   If the preparation of this repertoire is compared with the original
   preparation of the same set through the original nameprep[RFC3491]
   (using the unassigned flag), the following differences should be
   found:

   o  any starting combining mark(s) would result in an error.

   o  mixing of RCat characters (see section 7.) with U+0cBF KANNADA
      VOWEL SIGN I, or U+0CC6 KANNADA VOWEL SIGN E is now invalid.

   o  a RCat string may now end with NSMCat character(s).  This would
      have been prohibited before.

   Therefore, using a restricted repertoire yields the same
   compatibility benefit that the restriction to a Unicode 3.2 subset
   but without the complex compatibility steps required in the first
   example.

   The appendix G shows more in details all the differences introduced
   by this new version of stringprep.


12.  Considerations concerning IDN revision

   Although stringprep is not just covering IDN needs, it is an
   important part of its mandate.  And because many concerns have been
   raised in that aspect, especially in [IDNABis], it is important to
   describe how this new version addresses these issues.  The following
   text address point by point all issues pertinent to stringprep.





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12.1.  Permitted Character Identification

   By offering the choice of the "Identifier repertoire" referenced in
   appendix A.3, this version of strinprep offers an inclusion-based
   option.  Furthermore the repertoire is stable under mapping and
   normalization which makes its implementation much simpler.  Note
   however that the normalization step is still necessary for reasons
   explained in section 2.

12.2.  Strinprep mapping based on Unicode properties

   As mentioned in the introduction, this has been one of the clear goal
   of this revision of stringprep.  This version relies very little on
   list of Unicode characters, and makes an extensive usage of Unicode
   properties.  The remaining characters lists are mostly to provide
   backward compatibility with the previous version of
   stringprep[RFC3454].

12.3.  Normalization stability

   Many concerns have been raised concerning the real or perceived lack
   of stability of the Unicode normalization process through its
   successive versions.  The description of the normalization step in
   section 4 addresses these concerns in details.  It covers several new
   mechanisms:

   o  Usage of the newly introduced "normalization Process for Stable
      Strings (NPSS).  This process returns an error for unassigned code
      points.

   o  Usage of special tables (F.1, F.2, and F.3) to duplicate the
      behavior provided by implementation following Unicode
      3.2[Unicode3.2].

   These various mechanisms provides ways for profile using stringprep
   to pick and choose behavior based on strict backward compatibility
   while offering a way for application to interact with platforms
   offering various level of normalization services.

12.4.  Case folding

   The case folding which is part of the mapping step cannot be fully
   separated from the normalization step, because case folding is not
   closed under compatibility normalization such as NFKC.  While the
   previous version of stringprep was addressing this correctly, it was
   using hard coded lists of characters derived from original Unicode
   tables, making transition to a new version unnecessarily difficult.
   This version references directly the Unicode Character Database[UCD]



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   files in appendix B.2, making any further upgrade to a new version of
   Unicode much easier.


13.  Acknowledgements

   TBD


Appendix A.  Unicode repertoires

   The following are the only repertoires covered in this document:

   o  Unicode 3.2, as defined in Unicode 3.2[Unicode3.2]

   o  Unicode 5.0, as defined in Unicode 5.0[Unicode5.0]

   o  Identifier repertoire

Appendix A.1.  Unassigned code points in Unicode 3.2

   The table A.1 is made of all unassigned code points in Unicode 5.0
   (see appendix A.2) augmented by all characters specified in appendix
   F.2 which contains all characters added between Unicode 3.2 and 5.0.

Appendix A.2.  Unassigned code points in Unicode 5.0

   The table A.2 is made of all unassigned code points in Unicode 5.0
   specified as all code points with general category Gc=Cn except for
   code points which are listed in the PropList.txt file from the
   Unicode Character Database in the category:
   "NonCharacter_Code_Point"[UCD].

Appendix A.3.  Identifier repertoire

   The table A.3 is made of all characters that have the XID_Continue
   property as referenced by the DerivedCoreProperties.txt file in the
   Unicode Character Database[UCD] and which map to themselves according
   to a mapping done using the table described in appendix B.2.


Appendix B.  Mapping Tables

   The following are the combination of tables and references for the
   mapping process from section 3.  When explicitly specified the tables
   have three columns:





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   o  the code point that is mapped from

   o  the zero or more code points that it is mapped to

   o  Character name

   The columns are separated by semicolons.  Note that the second column
   may be empty, or it may have one code point, or it may have more than
   one code point, with each code point separated by a space.

Appendix B.1.  Commonly mapped to nothing

   The table B.1 is created by first using the following table:

      00AD; ; SOFT HYPHEN
      034F; ; COMBINING GRAPHEME JOINER
      1806; ; MONGOLIAN TODO SOFT HYPHEN
      200B; ; ZERO WIDTH SPACE
      200C; ; ZERO WIDTH NON JOINER
      200D; ; ZERO WIDTH JOINER
      2060; ; WORD JOINER
      FEFF; ; ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE

   In addition, the variation selector code points listed in the
   PropList.txt file from the Unicode Character Database[UCD] in the
   category: "Variation_Selector" are also added to the table B.1.

Appendix B.1.1.  Commonly mapped to nothing with ZWJ/ZWNJ special
                 processing

   The table B.1.1 is created by first using the following table:

      00AD; ; SOFT HYPHEN
      034F; ; COMBINING GRAPHEME JOINER
      1806; ; MONGOLIAN TODO SOFT HYPHEN
      200B; ; ZERO WIDTH SPACE
      2060; ; WORD JOINER
      FEFF; ; ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE

   In addition, the variation selector code points listed in the
   PropList.txt file from the Unicode Character Database[UCD] in the
   category: "Variation_Selector" are also added to the table B.1.1.

   The additional requirements expressed in 5.1 use the following
   Unicode properties:

   o  The character script value is determined by the "Scripts.txt" file
      in the Unicode Character Database[UnicodeScripts].



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   o  The character properties "Right-Joining" (R), "Transparent" (T),
      and "Left-Joining" (L) are specified by the ArabicShaping.txt file
      in the Unicode Character Database.

   o  The character property "Letter" is the union of all General
      Category values: "Lu", "Ll", "Lt", "Lm", and "Lo" specified in the
      UnicodeData.txt file in the Unicode Character Database[UCD].

   o  The character property "Combining Mark" is the concatenation of
      all General Category values: "Mc", "Mn", and "Me" specified in the
      UnicodeData.txt file in the Unicode Character Database[UCD].

   o  The character property "Virama" is determined by having the
      Canonical_Combining_Class value equal to 9.  That class is
      specified in the UnicodeData.txt file in the Unicode Character
      Database[UCD].

Appendix B.2.  Mapping for case-folding used with NFKC

   The mapping table is constructed as by using the following steps:

   1.  For each code point entry in the "CaseFolding.txt" file from the
       Unicode Character Database[UCD] with either a "C" or "F" status
       field, replace the entry code point with the sequence of code
       points specified in the third field.

   2.  For each code point entry in the "DerivedNormalizationProps.txt"
       file[NormProps] with a "CF_NFKC", replace the entry code point
       with the sequence of code points specified in the third field.

   3.  Other code points map to themselves.

   If a code point entry is present in both the "CaseFolding.txt" file
   and the "DerivedNormalizationProps.txt" file, the latter entry
   supersedes the former (example: U+03F9 GREEK CAPITAL LUNATE SIGMA
   SYMBOL).

Appendix B.3.  Mapping for case-folding used with no normalization

   The mapping table is constructed as following:

   1.  For each code point entry in the "CaseFolding.txt" file from the
       Unicode Character Database[UCD]with either a "C" or "F" status
       field, replace the entry code point with the sequence of code
       points specified in the third field.

   2.  Other code points map to themselves.




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Appendix B.4.  Reverse mapping for compability mode

   The mapping table is constructed for the following code points:

      04CF CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER PALOCHKA
      214E TURNED SMALL F
      2184 LATIN SMALL LETTER REVERSED C
      2D00-2D25 [GEORGIAN SUPPLEMENT KHUTSURI]

   by mapping them back to their Simple_Uppercase_Mapping value as
   specified in the UnicodeData.txt file in the Unicode Character
   Database[UCD].


Appendix C.  Prohibition tables

   The tables in this appendix consist of lines with one prohibited code
   point per line.  The format of the lines are the value of the code
   point, a semicolon, and a comment which is the name of the code
   point.

Appendix C.1.  Space characters

Appendix C.1.1.  ASCII space character

   The table C.1.1 consists of a single code point:

      0020; SPACE

Appendix C.1.2.  Non-ASCII space characters

   The table C.1.2 consists of all character code points with General
   Category value (Gc) equal to "Zs" as determined by the file
   UnicodeData.txt in the Unicode Character Database[UCD],

   with the following exception:

        0020; SPACE

Appendix C.1.3.  Non-ASCII space characters - Compatibility mode

   The table C.1.3 consists of all character code points with General
   Category value (Gc) equal to "Zs" as determined by the file
   UnicodeData.txt in the Unicode Character Database[UCD],

   with the following addition:

        200B ZERO WIDTH SPACE



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   and exceptions:

        0020; SPACE
        180E; MONGOLIAN VOWEL SEPARATOR

Appendix C.2.  Control characters

Appendix C.2.1.  ASCII control character

   The table C.2.1 consists of all character code points with General
   Category value (Gc) equal to "Cc" as determined by the file
   UnicodeData.txt in the Unicode Character Database[UCD], within the
   ASCII range (0000-007F).

Appendix C.2.2.  Non-ASCII control character

   The table C.2.2 consists of all character code pointss with General
   Category value (Gc) equal to "Cc", "Cf", "Zl", and "Zp" as determined
   by the file UnicodeData.txt in the Unicode Character Database[UCD],

   with the following exceptions:

      0000-001F; [CONTROL CHARACTERS]
      007F; DELETE
      00AD; SOFT HYPHEN
      E0001; LANGUAGE TAG
      E0020-E007F; [TAGGING CHARACTERS]

Appendix C.2.3.  Non-ASCII control character - Compatibility mode

   The table C.2.2 consists of all character code pointss with General
   Category value (Gc) equal to "Cc", "Cf", "Zl", and "Zp" as determined
   by the file UnicodeData.txt in the Unicode Character Database[UCD],

   with the following additions:

      180E; MONGOLIAN VOWEL SEPARATOR (not a control)
      FFFC; OBJECT REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (not a control)

   and exceptions:

      0000-001F; [CONTROL CHARACTERS]
      007F; DELETE
      00AD; SOFT HYPHEN
      E0001; LANGUAGE TAG
      E0020-E007F; [TAGGING CHARACTERS]





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Appendix C.3.  Private use

   The table C.3 consists of the following code points:

      E000-F8FF;     [PRIVATE USE, PLANE 0]
      F0000-FFFFD;   [PRIVATE USE, PLANE 15]
      100000-10FFFD; [PRIVATE USE, PLANE 16]

Appendix C.4.  Non-characters code points

   The table C.4 is made of the non-character code points as referenced
   by the PropList.txt file from the Unicode Character Database[UCD] in
   the category: "Noncharacter_Code_Point".

Appendix C.5.  Surrogate codes

   The table C.5 consists of the following code points:

      D800-DFFF; [SURROGATE CODES]

Appendix C.6.  Inappropriate for plain text

   The table C.6 consists of the following code points:

      FFF9; INTERLINEAR ANNOTATION ANCHOR
      FFFA; INTERLINEAR ANNOTATION SEPARATOR
      FFFB; INTERLINEAR ANNOTATION TERMINATOR
      FFFC; OBJECT REPLACEMENT CHARACTER
      FFFD; REPLACEMENT CHARACTER

Appendix C.7.  Inappropriate for canonical representation

   The table C.7 is made of the code points as referenced by the
   PropList.txt file from the Unicode Character Database[UCD] in the
   categories: "IDS_Binary_Operator" and "IDS_Trinary_Operator".

Appendix C.8.  Change display properties or are deprecated

   The table C.8 is made of the code points as referenced by the
   PropList.txt file from the Unicode Character Database[UCD] in the
   categories: "Bidi_Control" and "Deprecated".

Appendix C.9.  Tagging characters

   The table C.9 consists of all characters with General Category value
   (Gc) equal to "Cf" as determined by the file UnicodeData.txt, from
   the Unicode Character Database [UCD]and included within the TAG range
   (E0000-E007F).



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Appendix C.10.  Hangul filler characters

   The table C.10 consists of the following code points:

      115F ; HANGUL CHOSEONG FILLER
      1160 ; HANGUL JUNGSEONG FILLER
      3164 ; HANGUL FILLER
      FFA0 ; HALFWIDTH HANGUL FILLER

Appendix C.11.  Non identifier code points

   The table C.11 consists of all characters that do not have the
   XID_Continue property as referenced by the DerivedCoreProperties.txt
   file in the Unicode Character Database[UCD].  These are characters
   that are not letters, marks, or decimal numbers.

Appendix C.12.  Archaic scripts

   The table C.12 consists of all characters that have the following
   script values as referenced by the Scripts.txt file in the Unicode
   Character Database[UnicodeScripts].

      Cprt; Cypriot syllabary
      Dsrt; Deseret alphabet
      Glag; Glagolitic alphabet
      Goth; Gothic alphabet
      Ital; Old Italic alphabet
      Khar; Kharoshthi abjad
      Linb; Linear-B syllabary
      Xpeo; Old Persian cuneiform
      Phag; Phags-pa alphabet
      Phnx; Phoenician alphabet
      Runr; Runic alphabet
      Shaw; Shavian alphabet
      Ugar; Ugaritic cuneiform


Appendix D.  Bidirectional tables

Appendix D.1.  Characters with bidirectional property R or AL

   The table D.1 consists of all character code points with Bidi_Class
   value equal to "R" and "Al" as determined by the file UnicodeData.txt
   in the Unicode Character Database[UCD].







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Appendix D.2.  Characters with bidirectional property L

   The table D.2 consists of all character code points with Bidi_Class
   value equal to "L" as determined by the file UnicodeData.txt in the
   Unicode Character Database[UCD].

Appendix D.3.  Characters with bidirectional property L

   The table D.3 consists of all character code points with Bidi_Class
   value equal to "NSM" as determined by the file UnicodeData.txt in the
   Unicode Character Database[UCD].


Appendix E.  Combining marks

   The following specifies the combining marks.

Appendix E.1.  Combining mark table

   The table E.1 consists of all character code points with General
   Category value (Gc) equal to "Mc", "Mn", and "Me" as determined by
   the file UnicodeData.txt in the Unicode Character Database[UCD].


Appendix F.  Normalization tables

   The following tables provide the data set to ensure full
   compatibility with previous version of this framework.

Appendix F.1.  Pre normalization mapping

   The following is the mapping table from section 4.  The table has two
   columns:

   o  the code point that is mapped from

   o  the code point that is mapped to

   o  comment


   2F868;2136A; would be mapped to 36FC since Unicode 4.0
   2F874; 5F33; would be mapped to 5F53 since Unicode 4.0
   2F91F; 43AB; would be mapped to 243AB since Unicode 4.0
   2F95F; 7AAE; would be mapped to 7AEE since Unicode 4.0
   2F9BF; 4D57; would be mapped to 45D7 since Unicode 4.0





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Appendix F.2.  Characters added since the previous stringprep version

   The following is the list in code points and code point ranges of all
   characters added since Unicode 3.2.  Some of them are inappropriate
   for use in stringprep, such as the variation selectors in the range
   U+E0100-U+E01FF which are mapped to nothing in the mapping process.

     0221, 0234-024F, 02AE-02AF, 02EE-02FF,
     0350-035F, 037B-037D, 03F7-03FF,
     04CF, 04F6-04F7, 04FA-04FF,
     0510-0513, 05A2, 05BA, 05C5-05C7,
     0600-0603, 060B, 060D-0615, 061E, 0656-065E, 06EE-06EF, 06FF,
     072D-072F, 074D-076D, 07C0-07FA,
     0904, 097B-097F, 09BD, 09CE,
     0A01, 0A03, 0A8C, 0AE1-0AE3, 0AF1,
     0B35, 0B71, 0BB6, 0BE6, 0BF3-0BFA,
     0CBC-0CBD, 0CE2-0CE3, 0CF1-0CF2,
     0FD0-0FD1,
     10F9-10FA, 10FC,
     1207, 1247, 1287, 12AF, 12CF, 12EF,
     130F, 131F, 1347, 135F-1360, 1380-1399,
     17DD, 17F0-17F9,
     1900-191C, 1920-192B, 1930-193B, 1940, 1944-194F, 1950-196D,
       1970-1974, 1980-19A9, 19B0-19C9, 19D0-19D9, 19DE-19FF,
     1A00-1A1B, 1A1E-1A1F,
     1B00-1B4B, 1B50-1B7C,
     1D00-1DCA, 1DFE-1DFF,
     2053-2056, 2058-205E, 2090-2094, 20B2-20B5, 20EC-20EF,
     213B-213C, 214E, 2184,
     23CF-23E7,
     24FF,
     2614-2615, 2618, 267E-267F, 268A-269C, 26A0-26B2,
     27C0-27CA,
     2B00-2B1A, 2B20-2B23,
     2C00-2C2E, 2C30-2C5E, 2C60-2C6C, 2C74-2C77, 2C80-2CEA, 2CF9-2CFF,
     2D00-2D25, 2D30-2D65, 2D6F, 2D80-2D96, 2DA0-2DA6, 2DA8-2DAE,
       2DB0-2DB6, 2DB8-2DBE, 2DC0-2DC6, 2DC8-2DCE, 2DD0-2DD6, 2DD8-2DDE,
     2E00-2E17, 2E1C-2E1D,
     31C0-31CF,
     321D-321E, 3250, 327C-327E, 32CC-32CF,
     3377-337A, 33DE-33DF, 33FF,
     4DC0-4DFF,
     9FA6-9FBB,
     A700-A71A, A720-A721,
     A800-A82B, A840-A877,
     FA70-FAD9,
     FDFD,
     FE10-FE19, FE47-FE48,



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     10000-1000B, 1000D-10026, 10028-1003A, 1003C-1003D, 1003F-1004D,
       10050-1005D, 10080-100FA,
     10100-10102, 10107-10133, 10137-1013F, 10140-1018A,
     10380-1039D, 103C3, 103C8-103D5,
     10426-10427, 1044E-1047F, 10480-1049D, 104A0-104A9,
     10800-10805, 10808, 1080A-10835, 10837-10838, 1083C, 1083F,
     10900-10919, 1091F,
     10A00-10A03, 10A05-10A06, 10A0C-10A13, 10A15-10A17, 10A19-10A33,
       10A38-10A3A, 10A3F-10A47, 10A50-10A58,
     12000-1236E, 12400-12462, 12470-12473,
     1D200-1D245,
     1D300-1D356, 1D360-1D371
     1D4C1,
     1D6A4-1D6A5,
     1D7CA-1D7CB,
     E0100-E01EF

Appendix F.3.  Character sequences reordering

   To ensure full compatibility with previous version of this framework
   some profiles may elect, prior to normalization, to reorder the
   sequences made of a character from the "First character" column,
   followed by one or more characters with a non-zero Canonical
   Combining Class property (intervening characters), followed by the
   character from the 'Last character" column located in the same row.

   +---------------------------+---------------------------------------+
   | First character           | Last character                        |
   +---------------------------+---------------------------------------+
   | 09C7 BENGALI VOWEL SIGN E | 09BE BENGALI VOWEL SIGN AA or 09D7    |
   |                           | BENGALI AU LENGTH MARK                |
   | 0B47 ORIYA VOWEL SIGN E   | 0B3E ORIYA VOWEL SIGN AA or 0B56      |
   |                           | ORIYA AI LENGTH MARK or 0B57 ORIYA AU |
   |                           | LENGTH MARK                           |
   | 0BC6 TAMIL VOWEL SIGN E   | 0BBE TAMIL VOWEL SIGN AA or 0BD7      |
   |                           | TAMIL AU LENGTH MARK                  |
   | 0BC7 TAMIL VOWEL SIGN EE  | 0BBE TAMIL VOWEL SIGN AA              |
   | 0B92 TAMIL LETTER O       | 0BD7 TAMIL AU LENGTH MARK             |
   | 0CC6 KANNADA VOWEL SIGN E | 0CC2 KANNADA VOWEL SIGN UU or 0CD5    |
   |                           | KANNADA LENGTH MARK or 0CD6 KANNADA   |
   |                           | AI LENGTH MARK                        |
   | 0CBF KANNADA VOWEL SIGN I | 0CD5 KANNADA LENGTH MARK              |
   | or 0CCA KANNADA VOWEL     |                                       |
   | SIGN O                    |                                       |
   | 0D47 MALAYALAM VOWEL SIGN | 0D3E MALAYALAM VOWEL SIGN AA          |
   | EE                        |                                       |
   | 0D46 MALAYALAM VOWEL SIGN | 0D3E MALAYALAM VOWEL SIGN AA or 0D57  |
   | E                         | MALAYALAM AU LENGTH MARK              |



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   | 1025 MYANMAR LETTER U     | 102E MYANMAR VOWEL SIGN II            |
   | 0DD9 SINHALA VOWEL SIGN   | 0DCF SINHALA VOWEL SIGN AELA-PILLA or |
   | KOMBUVA                   | 0DDF SINHALA VOWEL SIGN GAYANUKITTA   |
   | 1100-1112 HANGUL CHOSEONG | 1161-1175 HANGUL JUNGSEONG A..I [21   |
   | KIYEOK..HIEUH [19         | instances]                            |
   | instances]                |                                       |
   | [HangulSyllableType=LV]   | 11A8-11C2 HANGUL JONGSEONG            |
   |                           | KIYEOK..HIEUH [27 instances]          |
   +---------------------------+---------------------------------------+

   [:HangulSyllableType=LV:] is specified as the set of Hangul syllables
   that do not have a syllable-final character (also known as
   Jongseong).  The determination of the structure of a Hangul syllable
   is done by following the process specified by the Hangul Syllable
   Decomposition in the Unicode standard [Unicode5.0].

   The reordering consists in moving the intervening combining marks
   after the character from the "Last character" column.

   The Canonical Combining Class property value for each code point is
   specified by the Canonical_Combining_Class value within the
   UnicodeData.txt file in the Unicode Character Database[UCD].


Appendix G.  Differences between stringprep and stringprep-bis-00

   This appendix describes in details differences with the previous
   version of stringprep[RFC3454].

   Unicode repertoire

   Added a Unicode 5.0 repertoire and an Identifier repertoire.

   Map to nothing

   o  Added E0100-E01FF [VARIATION SELECTOR-17 TO 256] (new) to the
      list.

   Case Folding

   o  04C0 CYRILLIC LETTER PALOCHKA now maps to 04CF CYRILLIC SMALL
      LETTER PALOCHKA (new) instead of itself.

   o  10A0..10C5 [GEORGIAN CAPITAL LETTERS] now map to 2D00-2D25
      [GEORGIAN SUPPLEMENT KHUTSURI] (new) instead of themselves.

   o  2132 TURNED CAPITAL F now maps to 214E TURNED SMALL F (new)
      instead of itself.



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   o  2183 ROMAN NUMERAL REVERSED ONE HUNDRED now maps to 2184 LATIN
      SMALL LETTER REVERSED C (new) instead of itself.

   o  Case mapping added for new characters: 023A, 023B, 023D, 0241,
      0243-0236, 0248, 024A, 024C, 024E,03F7, 03F9-03FA, 03FD-03FF,
      04F6, 04FA, 04FC, 04FE, 0510, 0512, 1D2C-1D2E, 1D30-1D3A, 1D3C-
      1D42, 213B, 2C00-2C2E, 2C60, 2C62-2C64, 2C67, 2C69, 2C6B, 2C75,
      2C80, 2C82, 2C84, 2C86, 2C88, 2C8A, 2C8C, 2C8E, 2C90, 2C92, 2C94,
      2C96, 2C98, 2C9A, 2C9C, 2C9E, 2CA0, 2CA2, 2CA4, 2CA6, 2CA8, 2CAA,
      2CAC, 2CAE, 2CB0, 2CB2, 2CB4, 2CB6, 2CB8, 2CBA, 2CBC, 2CBE, 2CC0,
      2CC2, 2CC4, 2CC6, 2CC8, 2CCA, 2CCC, 2CCE, 2CD0, 2CD2, 2CD4, 2CD6,
      2CD8, 2CDA, 2CDC, 2CDE, 2CE0, 2CE2, 3250, 32CC, 32CE-32CF, 337A,
      33DE, 33DF, 10426-10427, 1D7CA.

   Note that Unicode 3.2 did not guarantee the stability of case
   folding.  Unicode 5.0 does guarantee the future stability, so that
   subsequent versions will only add case foldings for new characters.

   Space characters.  In compatibility mode (C.1.3), there is no change.
   In regular mode (C.1.2), changes are as follows:

   o  Added

   180E MONGOLIAN VOWEL SEPARATOR (space)

   o  Removed

   200B ZERO WIDTH SPACE (not a space but control)

   Control characters.  In compatibility mode (C.2.3), only additions
   are made to the Control character list.  In regular mode (C.2.2),
   both additions and removals are done.

   o  Added the following characters:

      0600-0603 [ARABIC SUBTENDING MARKS] (new)
      17B4-17B5 [KHMER INHERENT VOWELS] (deprecated)
      200B ZERO WIDTH SPACE (not a space but control)
      200E LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK (bidi control)
      200F RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK (bidi control)
      202A LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDING (bidi control)
      202B RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING (bidi control)
      202C POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING (bidi control)
      202D LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE (bidi control)
      202E RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE (bidi control)






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   o  Removed the following characters:

      180E MONGOLIAN VOWEL SEPARATOR (not a control)
      FFFC OBJECT REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (not a control)

   Deprecated characters (C.8)

   o  Added the following characters:

      17A3 KHMER INDEPENDENT VOWEL QAQ
      17D3 KHMER SIGN BATHAMASAT

   Character with bidirectional property R or AL (D.1)

   o  Added the following characters with property R (new):

      05C6 HEBREW PUNCTUATION NUN HAFUKHA
      07C0-07C9 [NKO DIGITS]
      07CA-07E7 [NKO LETTERS]
      07E8-07EA [NKO ARCHAIC LETTERS]
      07F4 NKO HIGH TONE APOSTROPHE
      07F5 NKO LOW TONE APOSTROPHE
      07FA NKO LAJANYALAN
      10800-10805 [CYPRIOT SYLLABLES A to JA]
      10808 CYPRIOT SYLLABLE JO
      1080A-10835 [CYPRIOT SYLLABLES KA to WO]
      10837-10838 [CYPRIOT SYLLABLES XA to XE]
      1083C CYPRIOT SYLLABLE ZA
      1083F CYPRIOT SYLLABLE ZO
      10900-10919 [PHOENICIAN LETTERS]
      10A00 KHAROSHTHI LETTER A
      10A10-10A13 [KHAROSHTHI LETTERS KA to GHA]
      10A15-10A17 [KHAROSHTHI LETTERS CA to JA]
      10A19-10A33 [KHAROSHTHI LETTERS NYA to TTTHA]
      10A40-10A43 [KHAROSHTHI DIGITS]
      10A44-10A47 [KHAROSHTHI NUMBERS]
      10A50-10A58 [KHAROSHTHI PUNCTUATION]

   o  Added the following characters with property AL (new):

      0600-0603 [ARABIC SUBTENDING MARKS]
      060B AFGHANI SIGN
      060D ARABIC DATE SEPARATOR
      061E ARABIC TRIPLE DOT PUNCTUATION MARK
      06EE-06EF [EXTENDED ARABIC LETTERS FOR PARKARI]
      06FF ARABIC LETTER HEH WITH INVERTED V
      072D-072F [SYRIAC PERSIAN LETTERS]
      074D-074F [SYRIAC SODGIAN LETTERS]



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      0750-076D [EXTENDED ARABIC LETTERS]

   Character with bidirectional property L (D.2)

   o  Changed the bidirectional property to L for the following
      characters:

      0CBF KANNADA VOWEL SIGN I (from NSM in 3.2)
      0CC6 KANNADA VOWEL SIGN E (from NSM in 3.2)
      2800-28FF [BRAILLE PATTERNS] (from ON in 3.2)

   o  Added the following new COMMON characters with property L:

      213C, 26AC, 10100, 10102, 10107-10133, 10137-1013F, 1D360-1D371,
      1D4C1, 1D6A4-1D6A5, 1D7CA-1D7CB

   o  Added the following new LATIN characters with property L:

      0221, 0234-024F, 02AE-02AF, 1D00-1D25, 1D2C-1D5C, 1D62-1D65,
      1D6B-1D77, 1D79-1DBE, 2090-2094, 2132, 214E, 2184, 2C60-2C6C,
      2C74-2C77

   o  Added the following new GREEK characters with property L:

      037B-037D, 03F7-03FF, 1D26-1D2A, 1D5D-1D61, 1D66-1D6A, 1DBF

   o  Added the following new CYRILLIC characters with property L:

      04CF, 04F6-04F7, 04FA-04FF, 0510-0513, 1D2B, 1D78

   o  Added the following new DEVANAGARI characters with property L:

      0904, 097B-097F

   o  Added the following new BENGALI characters with property L:

      09BD, 09CE

   o  Added the following new GURMUKHI characters with property L:

      0A03

   o  Added the following new GUJARATI characters with property L:

      0A8C, 0AE1






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   o  Added the following new ORIYA characters with property L:

      0B35,0B71

   o  Added the following new TAMIL characters with property L:

      0BB6, 0BE6

   o  Added the following new KANNADA characters with property L:

      0CBD

   o  Added the following new TIBETAN characters with property L:

      0FD0-0FD1

   o  Added the following new GEORGIAN characters with property L:

      10F9-10FA, 10FC, 2D00-2D25

   o  Added the following new ETHIOPIC characters with property L:

      1207, 1247, 1287, 12AF, 12CF, 12EF, 130F, 131F, 1347, 1360,
      1380-138F, 2D80-2D96, 2DA0-2DA6, 2DA8-2DAE, 2DB0-2DB6,
      2DB8-2DBE, 2DC0-2DC6, 2DC8-2DCE, 2DD0-2DD6, 2DD8-2DDE

   o  Added the following new script LIMBU characters with property L:

      1900-191C, 1923-1926, 1930-1931, 1933-1938, 1946-194F

   o  Added the following new script TAI LE characters with property L:

      1950-196D, 1970-1974

   o  Added the following new script NEW TAI LUE characters with
      property L:

      1980-19A9, 19B0-19C9, 19D0-19D9

   o  Added the following new scripT BUGINESE characters with property
      L:

      1A00-1A16, 1A19-1A1B, 1A1E-1A1F

   o  Added the following new script BALINESE characters with property
      L:

      1B04-1B33, 1B35, 1B3B, 1B3D-1B41, 1B43-1B4B, 1B50-1B6A, 1B74-1B7C



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   o  Added the following new script GLAGOLITIC characters with property
      L:

      2C00-2C2E, 2C30-2C5E

   o  Added the following new script COPTIC characters with property L:

      2C80-2CE4

   o  Added the following new script TIFINAGH characters with property
      L:

      2D30-2D65, 2D6F

   o  Added the following new HAN characters with property L:

      9FA6-9FBB, FA70-FAD9

   o  Added the following new script SYLOTI NAGRI characters with
      property L:

      A800-A801, A803-A805, A807-A80A, A80C-A824, A827

   o  Added the following new script PHAGS-PA characters with property
      L:

      A840-A873

   o  Added the following new script LINEAR B characters with property
      L:

      10000-1000B, 1000D-10026, 10028-1003A, 1003C-1003D, 1003F-1004D,
      10050-1005D, 10080-100FA

   o  Added the following new script UGARATIC characters with property
      L:

      10380-1039D, 1039F

   o  Added the following new script OLD PERSIAN characters with
      property L:

      103A0-103C3, 103C8-103D5

   o  Added the following new DESERET characters with property L:

      10426-10427, 1044E-1044F




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   o  Added the following new script SHAVIAN characters with property L:

      10450-1047F

   o  Added the following new script OSMANYA characters with property L:

      10480-1049D, 104A0-104A9

   o  Added the following new script CUNEIFORM characters with property
      L:

      12000-1236E, 12400-12462, 12470-12473

   Check combining marks.  This is a preparation step in stringprep.
   This will obviously restrict any repertoire containing NSMCat
   characters further than any profile based on the former version of
   stringprep[RFC3454].

   Check Bidi.  Allowing NSMCat at the end of Rcat string relaxes
   restrictions.


14.  References

14.1.  Normative References

   [NormProps]
              The Unicode Consortium, "Unicode Derived Normalization
              Properties",  , June 2006, <http://www.unicode.org/Public/
              5.0.0/ucd/DerivedNormalizationProps.txt>.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [UAX15]    Davis, M. and M. Duerst, "Unicode Normalization Forms",
              Unicode Standard Annex #15, March 2001,
              <http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr15/
              tr15-22.html>.

   [UAX9]     Davis, M., "The Bidirectional Algorithm", Unicode Standard
              Annex #9, September 2006,
              <http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr9/tr9-17.html>.

   [UCD]      The Unicode Consortium, "Unicode Character Database",  ,
              July 2006,
              <http://www.unicode.org/Public/5.0.0/ucd/UCD.html>.

   [Unicode3.2]



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              The Unicode Consortium, "The Unicode Standard Version
              3.2",  is defined by The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0
              (Reading, MA, Addison-Wesley, 2000. ISBN 0-201-61633-5),
              as amended by the Unicode Standard Annex #27: Unicode 3.1
              (http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr27/) and by the Unicode
              Standard Annex #28: Unicode 3.2
              (http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr28/)., March 2002.

   [Unicode5.0]
              The Unicode Consortium, "The Unicode Standard Version
              5.0", Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA , October 2006.

   [UnicodeScripts]
              The Unicode Consortium, "Unicode Scripts data file",  ,
              March 2006,
              <http://www.unicode.org/Public/5.0.0/ucd/Scripts.txt>.

14.2.  Informative References

   [CharModel]
              Whistler, K., Davis, M., and A. Freytag, "Character
              Encoding Model.", Unicode Technical Report #17,
              September 2004,
              <http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr17/tr17-5.html>.

   [Glossary]
              The Unicode Consortium, "Unicode Glossary", Unicode
              Glossary , September 2006,
              <http://www.unicode.org/glossary/>.

   [IDNABidi]
              Alvestrand, H. and C. Karp, "An IDNA problem in right-to-
              left scripts", Internet-Draft , October 2006, <http://
              www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/
              draft-alvestrand-idna-bidi-00.txt>.

   [IDNABis]  Klensin, J., "Proposed Issues and Changes for IDNA - An
              Overview", Internet-Draft , October 2006, <http://
              www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/
              draft-klensin-idnabis-issues-00.txt>.

   [IDNARepertoire]
              Falstrom, P., "The Unicode Codepoints and IDN", Internet-
              Draft , October 2006, <http://www.ietf.org/
              internet-drafts/draft-faltstrom-idnabis-tables-01.txt>.

   [ISO10646]
              International Organization for Standardization,



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              "Information Technology - Universal Multiple-Octet Coded
              Character Set (UCS)", ISO Standard 10646-1, with
              amendments 1 and 2, 2003.

   [RFC2434]  Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
              IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 2434,
              October 1998.

   [RFC3454]  Hoffman, P. and M. Blanchet, "Preparation of
              Internationalized Strings ("stringprep")", RFC 3454,
              December 2002.

   [RFC3490]  Faltstrom, P., Hoffman, P., and A. Costello,
              "Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA)",
              RFC 3490, March 2003.

   [RFC3491]  Hoffman, P. and M. Blanchet, "Nameprep: A Stringprep
              Profile for Internationalized Domain Names (IDN)",
              RFC 3491, March 2003.

   [RFC3987]  Duerst, M. and M. Suignard, "Internationalized Resource
              Identifiers (IRIs)", RFC 3987, January 2005.

   [UTR36]    Davis, M. and M. Suignard, "Unicode Security
              Considerations", Unicode Technical Report #36,
              August 2006,
              <http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr36/tr36-5.html>.

   [UTS39]    Davis, M. and M. Suignard, "Unicode Security Mechanisms",
              Unicode Technical Standard #36, August 2006,
              <http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr39/tr39-2.html>.


Authors' Addresses

   Michel Suignard (editor)
   Microsoft Corporation
   One Microsoft Way
   Redmond, WA  98052
   U.S.A.

   Phone: +1 425 882-8080
   Email: michelsu@microsoft.com
   URI:   http://www.suignard.com







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   Mark Davis
   Google
   U.S.A.

   Email: mark.davis@macchiato.com or mark.davis@google.com


   Asmus Freytag
   ASMUS Inc.
   U.S.A.

   Email: asmus@unicode.org
   URI:   http://home.ix.netcom.com/~asmus-inc/






































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Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

   This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
   contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
   retain all their rights.

   This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
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   ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
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Acknowledgment

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   Administrative Support Activity (IASA).





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