RE: Call for Community Feedback: Retiring IETF FTP Service

[Roman Danyliw <[e-mail]>]

Hi Bob!

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Moskowitz <[e-mail]>
> Sent: Monday, November 16, 2020 11:40 PM
> To: Roman Danyliw <[e-mail]>; [e-mail]
> Subject: Re: Call for Community Feedback: Retiring IETF FTP Service
> 
> I use rsync to replicate rfcs and internet drafts locally.  These are run via
> crontab every night:
> 
> 1 3 * * * rsync -tvz ftp.rfc-editor.org::rfcs/*.txt /home/common/ietf/rfcs
> 1 4 * * * rsync -tvz rsync.tools.ietf.org::tools.id/*.txt
> /home/common/ietf/drafts
> 
> Note that for drafts, I found the rsync.tools.ieft.org fqdn, but for rfcs I am still?
> using ftp.rfc-editor.org.
> 
> perhaps something like:
> 
> 1 3 * * * rsync -tvz rsync.tools.ietf.org::tools.rfcs/rfc*.txt
> /home/common/ietf/rfcs
> 
> should work?
> 
> I would be happy to shift to whatever makes best sense for the maintainers of
> the repositories.

Thanks for sharing the exactly config you are using with rsync.  I see no issue with how you are syncing your files.  It's worth mentioning that there are three possible rsync servers serving different subsets of the data.  You're gets RFCs from ftp.rfc-editor.org and IDs from rsync.tools.ietf.org.  You could also get both from a single source (say rsync.ietf.org).  For those trying to find  a server closest to the ftp directory layout, the best choice is rsync.ietf.org (which also has everything-ftp, which is the entire ftp server layout).

As a PSA, this is what is found on all three servers:

$ rsync rsync.ietf.org::
everything-ftp 	- The entire IETF FTP Archive
internet-drafts	- The Internet Draft Repository (currently active drafts)
id-archive     	- The Internet Draft Archive (both active and expired drafts)
iesg-minutes   	- IESG Minutes
proceedings    	- Repository of Proceedings
xml2rfc.bibxml 	The xml2rfc citation libraries
charter        	- Repository of WG Charters
concluded-wg-ietf-mail-archive	- Older list text archives
conflict-reviews	- Repository of Conflict Review documents
iana           	- IANA assignments
iana-timezone  	- IANA Time Zone Datatbase (see also http://www.iana.org/time-zones)
legacy-files   	- Legacy material supporting long-lived URLs
mailman-archive	- Repository of Mailing List Text Archives
rfc            	- Repository of RFCs
slides         	- Repository of Slide Documents
status-changes 	- Repository of Status Change Documents

$ rsync rsync.tools.ietf.org::
tools          	The (almost) complete tools.ietf.org site.
tools.tools    	The tools collection at tools.ietf.org.
tools.html     	Currently available htmlized drafts and RFCs.
tools.html.rfc 	Currently available htmlized RFCs.
tools.pdf      	Currently available pdf conversions of drafts and RFCs.
tools.pdf.rfc  	Currently available pdf conversions of RFCs.
tools.id       	Unpurged IETF drafts repository.
tools.meeting  	Meeting materials from IETF 59 and forward
doc.history    	Document history files (html-attribute-like lines)
doc.state.attr 	Current document status in a html-attribute-like format
doc.state.822  	Current document status in a RFC822-like format
doc.state.xml  	Current document status in an xml format
doc.versions   	Document version list files
doc.meta       	All document status files
svn.group      	Group SVN repositories
xml2rfc.bibxml 	The xml2rfc citation libraries

$ rsync ftp.rfc-editor.org::
everything-ftp 	Everything FTP
refs           	XML references for RFCs (for use with xml2rfc)
rfcs           	Contents of in-notes including subdirectories std, bcp, fyi, and ien
rfcs-text-only 	Only the text files from the directories in [rfcs]
rfc-ed-all     	Entire repository (excluding internet-drafts)
internet-drafts	Internet Drafts
ids-text-only  	Only text files from the Internet Drafts mirror
rfcs-pdf-only  	PDF versions of ASCII RFCs to ensure correct page breaks, etc

Regards,
Roman


> BTW, I like the local copies.  Many times on airplanes (not so common right
> now!), I needed something and there it was...
> 
> 
> 
> On 11/9/20 9:23 PM, Roman Danyliw wrote:
> > Hi!
> >
> > The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) is seeking community input on
> retiring the IETF FTP service (ftp://ftp.ietf.org, ftp://ops.ietf.org, ftp://ietf.org).
> A review of this service has found that FTP appears to serve a very small
> community and HTTP has become the access mechanism of choice.  Given this
> shift in community usage, reducing the operational complexity of the overall
> IETF infrastructure seems to outweigh the very limited community served with
> FTP.
> >
> > In reviewing the additional impacts of such a service retirement, the
> dependencies on FTP have been assessed.  Additionally, it has been confirmed
> that all information currently reachable through FTP will continue to be
> available through other services (HTTP, RSYNC, IMAP).
> >
> > In consultation with the Tools team (Robert, Glen, Henrik, Russ, and Alexey),
> Communications team (Greg), affected SDO liaisons, IAB Chair, and LLC ED, a
> proposed retirement plan was developed and is available at:
> >
> > https://www.ietf.org/media/documents/Retiring_IETF_FTP_Service.pdf
> >
> > The IESG appreciates any input from the community on this proposal and will
> consider all input received by December 4, 2020 (to account for the upcoming
> IETF 109 and holidays).
> >
> > Regards,
> > Roman
> > (as the IESG Tools Liaison)
> >