Binary Application Record Encoding (BARE)
draft-devault-bare-01

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Internet Engineering Task Force                               D. DeVault
Internet-Draft                                                 SourceHut
Intended status: Informational                          20 November 2020
Expires: 24 May 2021

               Binary Application Record Encoding (BARE)
                         draft-devault-bare-01

Abstract

   The Binary Application Record Encoding (BARE) is a data format used
   to represent application records for storage or transmission between
   programs.  BARE messages are concise and have a well-defined schema,
   and implementations may be simple and broadly compatible.  A schema
   language is also provided to express message schemas out-of-band.

Comments

   Comments are solicited and should be addressed to the mailing list at
   ~sircmpwn/public-inbox@lists.sr.ht and/or the author(s).

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 24 May 2021.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2020 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights

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   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components
   extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text
   as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.2.  Use-cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Specification of the BARE Message Encoding  . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Primitive Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.2.  Aggregate Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     2.3.  User-Defined Types  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     2.4.  Invariants  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   3.  BARE Schema Language Specification  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     3.1.  Lexical Analysis  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     3.2.  ABNF Grammar  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     3.3.  Semantic Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   4.  Application Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   5.  Future Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   8.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   Appendix A.  Example message schema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   Appendix B.  Example Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15

1.  Introduction

   The purpose of the BARE message encoding, like hundreds of others, is
   to encode application messages.  The goals of such encodings vary
   (leading to their proliferation); BARE's goals are the following:

   *  Concise messages

   *  A well-defined message schema

   *  Broad compatibility with programming environments

   *  Simplicity of implementation

   This document specifies the BARE message encoding, as well as a
   schema language which may be used to describe the layout of a BARE
   message.  The schema of a message must be agreed upon in advance by
   each party exchanging a BARE message; message structure is not
   encoded into the representation.  The schema language is useful for
   this purpose, but not required.

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1.1.  Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].