Re: [Technical Errata Reported] RFC7230 (4189)

[Barry Leiba <[e-mail]>]

Still hoping for a follow-up to Roy's update below... something from
Julian, and perhaps a response from Roy to Zhong Yu's comment:

> Roy's proposal still leaves leading/trailing obs-folds inside
> field-value, which Simon's proposal tries to address.

Barry

On Fri, Feb 6, 2015 at 11:32 PM, Roy T. Fielding <[e-mail]> wrote:
> On Feb 6, 2015, at 6:28 AM, Barry Leiba wrote:
>> On Thu, Nov 27, 2014 at 2:20 AM, Julian Reschke <[e-mail]> wrote:
>>> On 2014-11-26 20:56, RFC Errata System wrote:
>>>>
>>>> The following errata report has been submitted for RFC7230,
>>>> "Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Message Syntax and Routing".
>>>>
>>>> --------------------------------------
>>>> You may review the report below and at:
>>>> http://www.rfc-editor.org/errata_search.php?rfc=7230&eid=4189
>>>>
>>>> --------------------------------------
>>>> Type: Technical
>>>> Reported by: Simon Schueppel <[e-mail]>
>>>>
>>>> Section: 3.2
>>>>
>>>> Original Text
>>>> -------------
>>>>      header-field   = field-name ":" OWS field-value OWS
>>>>
>>>>      field-name     = token
>>>>      field-value    = *( field-content / obs-fold )
>>>>      field-content  = field-vchar [ 1*( SP / HTAB ) field-vchar ]
>>>>      field-vchar    = VCHAR / obs-text
>>>>
>>>>      obs-fold       = CRLF 1*( SP / HTAB )
>>>>                     ; obsolete line folding
>>>>                     ; see Section 3.2.4
>>>>
>>>> Corrected Text
>>>> --------------
>>>>     header-field   = field-name ":" FWS field-value FWS
>>>>
>>>>     field-name     = token
>>>>     FWS            = field-ows
>>>>     field-value    = [ field-vchar *( field-ows field-vchar ) ]
>>>>     field-vchar    = VCHAR / obs-text
>>>>     field-ows      = *( SP / HTAB ) *obs-fold
>>>>
>>>>     obs-fold       = CRLF 1*( SP / HTAB )
>>>>                     ; obsolete line folding
>>>>                     ; see Section 3.2.4
>>>>
>>>> Notes
>>>> -----
>>>> the field-value rule given in Section 3.2 will not recognize several
>>>> strings recognized by specific header rules.
>>>>
>>>> Examples:
>>>>     - ", , ," recognized by legacy list rule
>>>>     - "abrowser/0.001 (C O M M E N T)" recognized by User-Agent rule
>>>>     - "gzip , chunked" recognized by Transfer-Encoding rule
>>>>     - etc.
>>>>
>>>> General Problem:
>>>>     the specified field-value rule does not allow single field-vchar
>>>> surrounded by whitespace anywhere
>>>>
>>>> Further Notes:
>>>>     -what the authors propably wanted to say:
>>>>         a string of octets is a field-value if, and only if:
>>>>             -it is *( field-vchar / SP / HTAB / obs-fold )
>>>>             -if it is not empty, it starts and ends with field-vchar
>>>>
>>>>     -the suggested correction was designed according to these criteria
>>>>
>>>> Instructions:
>>>> -------------
>>>> This erratum is currently posted as "Reported". If necessary, please
>>>> use "Reply All" to discuss whether it should be verified or
>>>> rejected. When a decision is reached, the verifying party (IESG)
>>>> can log in to change the status and edit the report, if necessary.
>>>>
>>>> --------------------------------------
>>>> RFC7230 (draft-ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging-26)
>>>> --------------------------------------
>>>> Title               : Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Message
>>>> Syntax and Routing
>>>> Publication Date    : June 2014
>>>> Author(s)           : R. Fielding, Ed., J. Reschke, Ed.
>>>> Category            : PROPOSED STANDARD
>>>> Source              : Hypertext Transfer Protocol Bis
>>>> Area                : Applications
>>>> Stream              : IETF
>>>> Verifying Party     : IESG
>
>>> Hi there,
>>>
>>> I agree that there is indeed a problem ("the specified field-value rule does
>>> not allow single field-vchar surrounded by whitespace anywhere.
>>>
>>> I'm however not sure that the proposed fix is what we want. In particular,
>>> it's not clear why we need to modify the header-field production at all.
>>>
>>> Best regards, Julian
>>>
>
>> I should do something with this errata report; can you give me more
>> input?  If it's indeed a problem, can the report be edited
>> appropriately and marked "Verified"?  If so, please tell me what the
>> edit should be.  If not, give me some explanation that I can put in
>> for marking it "Held for Document Update".
>>
>> Barry
>
> I looked at this originally and thought it made sense, but figured
> I would have to check carefully first before responding ... and
> then lost it.
>
> It should be verified as technical, but (like Julian) I think the
> fix should be limited to field-content and obs-fold:
>
> Section: 3.2
>
> Original Text
> -------------
>      field-name     = token
>      field-value    = *( field-content / obs-fold )
>      field-content  = field-vchar [ 1*( SP / HTAB ) field-vchar ]
>      field-vchar    = VCHAR / obs-text
>
>      obs-fold       = CRLF 1*( SP / HTAB )
>                     ; obsolete line folding
>                     ; see Section 3.2.4
>
> Corrected Text
> --------------
>      field-name     = token
>      field-value    = *( field-content / obs-fold )
>      field-content  = field-vchar [ 1*( SP / HTAB / field-vchar ) field-vchar ]
>      field-vchar    = VCHAR / obs-text
>
>      obs-fold       = OWS CRLF RWS
>                     ; obsolete line folding
>                     ; see Section 3.2.4
>
> This fixes the problem examples and keeps obs-fold separate from field-content.
> It would be best if some other folks could confirm the above before making
> the errata official.
>
> ....Roy
>