Policy Considerations for Changes to RFCs
draft-carpenter-rswg-rfc-changes-01

RSWG                                                     B. E. Carpenter
Internet-Draft                                         Univ. of Auckland
Intended status: Informational                          24 February 2024
Expires: 27 August 2024

               Policy Considerations for Changes to RFCs
                  draft-carpenter-rswg-rfc-changes-01

Abstract

   This document describes policies applicable when the text of an RFC
   is modified after it has been approved for publication.

About This Document

   This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.

   Status information for this document may be found at
   https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-carpenter-rswg-rfc-changes/.

   Discussion of this document takes place on the RSWG Working Group
   mailing list (mailto:rswg@rfc-editor.org), which is archived at
   https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/rswg/.

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   Copyright (c) 2024 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Policy Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   5.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   6.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   Appendix A.  Change Log [RFC Editor: please remove] . . . . . . .   4
     A.1.  Draft-00  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     A.2.  Draft-01  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4

1.  Introduction

   It is very common that the text of an RFC needs to altered after a
   draft has been approved for publication by the relevant approving
   body for the relevant RFC stream, as defined in [RFC8729].  There are
   three principal causes of such changes:

   1.  Editorial changes made by RPC staff, for example to correct
       grammatical errors or to respect the style guide.

   2.  Changes made after those editorial changes, during final
       processing before publication, at the request of the authors,
       document shepherd, or members of the approving body.  These are
       colloquially called "AUTH48" changes for historical reasons.
       They are currently logged in a publicly archived mailing list.

   3.  Changes made after initial publication of the RFC, when
       significant editorial or technical errors have been reported by a
       reader and then approved by a member of the approving body.
       These are currently known as "verified errata" and they currently
       result in the posting of an updated (but unofficial) revised HTML
       version of the RFC.

   Changes made as a result of general changes in RFC format, or of
   changes to the tools and markup formats used to produce RFCs, are not
   in scope for this document, as long as they do not alter the wording
   of the RFC.

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2.  Policy Considerations

   Whether a change is made during editing, during final processing, or
   to correct an error in the published version, the following
   principles must be respected:

   1.  The changed version must be formally approved by a member of the
       original approving body.  Each RFC stream may require a consensus
       process or further approvals, which the stream will administer
       itself by an internal process.  (This does not preclude informal
       contact between interested parties and the RPC.)

   2.  This process must be visible to the community, for example via an
       on-line discussion forum or a mailing list with a public archive.
       (This principle does not require announcement emails, but does
       not forbid them either.)

   3.  Each stream must provide a dispute resolution mechanism in case
       community members disagree with the changes made.  This
       explicitly does not concern the RPC; such disputes must be
       resolved by the stream itself.  Disputes with the RPC itself are
       a separate matter discussed in Section 4.4 of [RFC9280].

   Note that these principles apply regardless of whether post-
   publication changes result in an official republication of the whole
   RFC, which is a separate issue.  Thus they apply to the current
   "errata" system and to its possible replacement, as well as to the
   "AUTH48" system.

3.  IANA Considerations

   No IANA actions are needed.

4.  Security Considerations

   This document does not directly affect the security of the Internet.

5.  Acknowledgements

   Useful comments were received from Eliot Lear, and other members of
   the RSWG.

6.  Informative References

   [RFC8729]  Housley, R., Ed. and L. Daigle, Ed., "The RFC Series and
              RFC Editor", RFC 8729, DOI 10.17487/RFC8729, February
              2020, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8729>.

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   [RFC9280]  Saint-Andre, P., Ed., "RFC Editor Model (Version 3)",
              RFC 9280, DOI 10.17487/RFC9280, June 2022,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9280>.

Appendix A.  Change Log [RFC Editor: please remove]

A.1.  Draft-00

   *  Original version

A.2.  Draft-01

   *  Clarifications, references.

Author's Address

   Brian E. Carpenter
   The University of Auckland
   School of Computer Science
   The University of Auckland
   PB 92019
   Auckland 1142
   New Zealand
   Email: brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com

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