Re: [Anima] Adam Roach's Discuss on draft-ietf-anima-bootstrapping-keyinfra-22: (with DISCUSS and COMMENT)

[Adam Roach <[e-mail]>]

On 7/11/19 3:05 PM, Michael Richardson wrote:
> <#secure method=pgpmime mode=sign>
>
> Adam Roach via Datatracker <[e-mail]> wrote:
>      > §5.8:
>
>      >> Rather than returning the audit log as a response to the POST (with a
>      >> return code 200), the MASA MAY instead return a 201 ("Created")
>      >> RESTful response ([RFC7231] section 7.1) containing a URL to the
>      >> prepared (and easily cachable) audit response.
>
>      > The DISCUSS portion of my comment on this text is that it is unclear about how
>      > the URL is to be returned. It can just as easily be interpreted as returning
>      > it in a "Location" header field as it could as returning it in the response
>      > body -- or maybe somewhere else entirely (e.g., a link relation).  This
>      > ambiguity will cause an interop issue. Please be explicit about precisely how
>      > the value is conveyed.
>
> I see how this could be confusing.
>
>      > While not part of the DISCUSS, I also have a fairly serious comment on the
>      > phrasing and citation of  "return a 201 ("Created") RESTful response
>      > ([RFC7231] section 7.1)". Section 7.1 points to the top-level discussion of
>      > Control Data header fields, rather than any general discussion of RESTful
>      > responses.  It's worth noting that the term "RESTful" never appears in RFC
>      > 7231, so it's really unclear what section this was attempting to target.
>      > Perhaps 6.3.2?
>
> Yes, that's what we are trying to target.
> I guess we also latched onto section 7.1.2 ("Location")
>
> Can you point me to another document that tries to specify the same thing.
> If we shouldn't say we are trying to be RESTful, what should we say?


"HTTP", but even that may be unnecessary in this case.

REST means... something. Exactly what depends on who you ask. In 
practice, the least controversial thing to do is avoid the term; and, if 
you're trying to describe a specific quality (e.g., idempotence), say so 
explicitly.

For this document, I don't think you really care much the purported 
properties of REST -- by any definition -- and I suspect you don't 
conform to them, for at least some number of mutually incompatible and 
religiously-held definitions of that term.

In any case, I don't think the reference adds anything to the text, 
regardless of whether it points to 7.1.2 or to 6.3.2. So I would propose 
something along the lines of:

    Rather than returning the audit log as a response to the POST (with 
a 200
    (OK) response code), the MASA MAY instead return a 201 (Created) 
response
    containing a "Location" header field that indicates the location of the
    prepared audit response. This allows the audit response to appear at a
    location that enables caching.


If that says something other than what you meant, let me know, and I'll 
try to fix it.

/a