Re: [DNSOP] Alexey Melnikov's Discuss on draft-ietf-dnsop-dns-capture-format-08: (with DISCUSS and COMMENT)

[ - DNSOP (for clutter), +Heather / RFC Editor for sanity :-P ]

On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 9:47 AM Sara Dickinson <sara@sinodun.com> wrote:

>
>
> On 21 Nov 2018, at 14:42, Alexey Melnikov <aamelnikov@fastmail.fm> wrote:
>
>
> Thanks for the quick response.
>
>
> Hi Sara,
>
>
> 1)
>
> In 7.4.2:
>
>   | filter           | O | T | "tcpdump" [pcap] style filter for      |
>   |                  |   |   | input.                                 |
>
> This makes the [pcap] reference Normative. If you don't want to do that,
> please
> fully specify syntax in this document.
>
>
> Is that true if it is an optional field?
>
> Yes, optionallity of a field doesn't make its full specification optional.
>
>
> In which case it seems we can either include a more specific normative
> reference here to this page:
> http://www.tcpdump.org/manpages/pcap-filter.7.html
>
> or reproduce this page in an appendix. I’d prefer the former unless a
> reference to such a web page would prove problematic as a normative
> reference?
>

We discussed this on the telechat, and I took the action to try look into
this.
One of the concerns with a normative reference to the webpage is what
happens if it is updated to add a new primitive - is it allowed? If someone
implements this on Thursday, can they still claim conformance if a new
primitive is added on Friday?

What we made up on the call was to simply grab a copy of
http://www.tcpdump.org/manpages/pcap-filter.7.html (it seems to be under
the BSD license) and put it somewhere on ietf.org, so we have a stable
snapshot to reference, and ask you to point to that.
But, this was simply us making stuff up on the fly - I'm hoping that the
RFC Editor can tell us if this is sane or the worst idea ever, or what....

W

>
> Sara.
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> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/dnsop
>

-- 
I don't think the execution is relevant when it was obviously a bad idea in
the first place.
This is like putting rabid weasels in your pants, and later expressing
regret at having chosen those particular rabid weasels and that pair of
pants.
   ---maf