Re: [saag] Date formats: RFC3339 vs. RFC 5322

Paul Hoffman <paul.hoffman@vpnc.org> Tue, 13 April 2021 19:30 UTC

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From: Paul Hoffman <paul.hoffman@vpnc.org>
To: Yakov Shafranovich <yakov@nightwatchcybersecurity.com>
Cc: saag@ietf.org, art@ietf.org
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2021 12:30:21 -0700
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Subject: Re: [saag] Date formats: RFC3339 vs. RFC 5322
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On 13 Apr 2021, at 11:43, Yakov Shafranovich wrote:

> Is there a preference for Internet drafts/RFCs regarding the specific
> data/time format to be used?
>
> Right now we are referencing RFC 5322, but there has been feedback
> from multiple people that the ISO 8601 format is easier to parse. This
> is in regards to the section 3.5.5 of "draft-foudil-securitytxt-11"
> that I am working on:
> https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-foudil-securitytxt-11#section-3.5.4
>
> The options I am asking about are the following:
> - RFC 3339 (a profile of ISO 8601)
> Example: 2021-04-13T06:50:53-07:00
>
> - RFC 5322, section 3.3
> Example: Tue, 13 Apr 2021 06:50:53 -0700

Given that the date in that section of that draft is meant to be machine 
parsed, choosing RFC 5322 (neé 822) date formats is a particularly bad 
idea, given the existence of RFC 3339.

--Paul Hoffman