Internet DRAFT - draft-baryun-rfc2119-update
draft-baryun-rfc2119-update
IETF MANET Working Group A. Baryun
Internet-Draft July 30, 2012
Expires: January 31, 2013
Intended status: Best Current Practice
Intended to update RFC2119
Key Words of Conditional Language of Requirements Levels
draft-baryun-rfc2119-update-00.txt
Abstract
In many standards track documents conditional words are used to
signify the requirements in the specification. These words are
prefered to be capitalized. This document defines these conditional
words as they should be interpreted in IETF documents. Authors who
follow these guidelines should incorporate this phrase near the
beginning of their document. The additional key words to words
described in RFC2119 are; "IF, THEN", "ELSE IF", "ELSE".
Status of This Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on January 31, 2013.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
Baryun Expires January 31, 2013 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft Conditional Requirement July 2012
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with
respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this
document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in
Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without
warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.
This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
Contributions published or made publicly available before November
10, 2008. The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this
material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow
modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.
Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling
the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified
outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may
not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format
it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
than English.
1. Introduction
Many IETF RFCs have specified conditional language without
significant requirement level as used in the RFC2119 key words.
This document describe key words that will help and facilitate
to the readers, users and designers in understanding conditions,
and consequences of conditions of specifications.
2. The Conditional Key words
Note that the force of these words is modified by the requirement
level of the document in which they are used.
IF x THEN y:
the possibility that the condition of x occur, but when it does
the function y MUST occur.
ELSE IF v THEN w:
the condition v is tested only when x does not occur, but when v
occurs, the function w MUST occur.
ELSE z:
the function(s) MUST occur only when all the conditions above,
e.g. as x and v conditions do not occur
Baryun Expires January 31, 2013 [Page 2]
Internet-Draft Conditional Requirement July 2012
IF NOT x THEN y:
the possibility that the condition of x MUST NOT occur, but when
it does not occur the function y MUST occur.
3. Guidance in the use of these Imperatives (TBD)
Imperatives of the type defined in this document must be used
with care and sparingly. In particular, they MUST only be used
where it is actually required for specifying conditional behavior
which has interoperability potential. For incetance, they must not
be used to try to impose a particular conditional method on
implementors where the method is not required for interoperability.
4. Security Considerations (TBD)
These additional conditional terms are frequently used to specify
conditional behavior with security implications. The effects on
security of not implementing as "IF, THEN", "ELSE" or "ELSE IF",
or doing something the specification says MUST do under conditions
may be very subtle. I-D or RFC Document author(s) should take the
time to elaborate the security implications of not following
conditional requirements as most implementors will not have
had the benefit of the experience and discussion that produced the
specification.
5. Acknowledgments (TBD)
6. References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
Author's Address
Abdussalam Nuri Baryun
Email: abdussalambaryun@gmail.com
Baryun Expires January 31, 2013 [Page 3]
