RFC 5741: RFC Streams, Headers, and Boilerplates | RFC Editor

Skip to content Primary navigationThe RFC SeriesFor AuthorsAbout UsHomeRFC 5741 View as: Plain Text, Compact HTML Info RFC 5741: RFC Streams, Headers, and BoilerplatesRFC seriesDecember 2009. L. Daigle, Ed., O. Kolkman, Ed., IABInformationalSubscribe23 subscribed Add to Set Added to 6 Sets Read aloud This RFC is now obsolete, see RFC 7841.Internet Architecture Board (IAB) L. Daigle, Ed. Request for Comments: 5741 O. Kolkman, Ed. Updates: 2223, 4844 For the IAB Category: Informational December 2009 ISSN: 2070-1721 RFC Streams, Headers, and Boilerplates Abstract RFC documents contain a number of fixed elements such as the title page header, standard boilerplates, and copyright/IPR statements. This document describes them and introduces some updates to reflect current usage and requirements of RFC publication. In particular, this updated structure is intended to communicate clearly the source of RFC creation and review. Status of This Memo This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes. This document is a product of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and represents information that the IAB has deemed valuable to provide for permanent record. Documents approved for publication by the IAB are not a candidate for any level of Internet Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741. Information about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5741. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2009 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (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 BSD License. Daigle, et al. Informational [Page 1] RFC 5741 RFC Streams, Headers, Boilerplates December 2009 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2. RFC Streams and Internet Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. RFC Structural Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3.1. The Title Page Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3.2. The Status of this Memo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.2.1. Paragraph 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.2.2. Paragraph 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.2.3. Paragraph 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3.2.4. Noteworthy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.3. Additional Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.4. Other Structural Information in RFCs . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 5. RFC Editor Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 6.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 6.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Appendix A. Some Example 'Status of This Memo' Boilerplates . . . 12 A.1. IETF Standards Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 A.2. IETF Experimental, with Consensus Call . . . . . . . . . . 12 A.3. IETF Experimental, No Consensus Call . . . . . . . . . . . 13 A.4. IAB Informational . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 A.5. IRTF Experimental, No Consensus Call . . . . . . . . . . . 14 A.6. Independent Submission Informational . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Appendix B. IAB Members at Time of Approval . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Appendix C. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 1. Introduction Previously, RFCs (e.g., [RFC4844]) contained a number of elements that were there for historical, practical, and legal reasons. They also contained boilerplate material to clearly indicate the status of the document and possibly contained "Notes" to indicate how the document interacts with IETF Standards Track documents. As the RFC Series has evolved over the years, there has been increasing concern over appropriate labeling of the publications to make clear the status of each RFC and the status of the work it describes. Chiefly, there is a requirement that RFCs published as part of the IETF's review process not be easily confused with RFCs that may have had a very different review and approval process. Various adjustments have been made over the years, including evolving text of "Notes" included in the published RFC. With the definition of the different RFC streams [RFC4844], it is appropriate to formalize the definition of the various pieces of standard RFC boilerplate and introduce some adjustments to ensure Daigle, et al. Informational [Page 2] RFC 5741 RFC Streams, Headers, Boilerplates December 2009 better clarity of expression of document status, aligned with the review and approval processes defined for each stream. This memo identifies and describes the common elements of RFC boilerplate structure, and provides a comprehensive approach to updating and using those elements to communicate, with clarity, RFC document and content status. Most of the historical structure information is collected from [RFC2223]. The changes introduced by this memo should be implemented as soon as practically possible after the document has been approved for publication. 2. RFC Streams and Internet Standards Users of RFCs should be aware that while all Internet Standards- related documents are published as RFCs, not all RFCs are Internet Standards-related documents. The IETF is responsible for maintaining the Internet Standards Process, which includes the requirements for developing, reviewing, and approving Standards Track and BCP RF