Re: Last Call: <draft-ietf-6man-rfc2460bis-08.txt> (Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification) to Internet Standard

["C. M. Heard" <[e-mail]>]

On 2017-02-18 Philip Homburg wrote:
> So the only purpose of a stronger text against inserting extension headers
> would be to prevent IETF working groups from publishing RFCs that use
> that technique.

That is not the only purpose -- some of us, at least, would like to believe
that stronger text will help to discourage practices that can have
demonstrably harmful effects -- but it is definitely an important purpose.

> Then the question becomes, why would we need to pre-emptively constrain
> ourselves?

To prevent IETF working groups from publishing RFCs that are inconsistent
with  existing standards track specifications and cause them not to work, or
more precisely, to prevent them from doing so without proper consideration
of negative side effects and how to deal with them (which may include
explicitly updating or obsoleting existing specifications).

//cmh