RFC Style Guide
draft-flanagan-7322bis-06
Network Working Group J. Levine, Ed.
Internet-Draft Temporary RFC Series Project Manager
Obsoletes: 7322 (if approved) S. Ginoza
Intended status: Informational RFC Editor
Expires: 7 April 2021 4 October 2020
RFC Style Guide
draft-flanagan-7322bis-06
Abstract
This document describes the fundamental and unique style conventions
and editorial policies currently in use for the RFC Series. It
captures the RFC Editor's basic requirements and offers guidance
regarding the style and structure of an RFC. Additional guidance is
captured on a website that reflects the experimental nature of that
guidance and prepares it for future inclusion in the RFC Style Guide.
This document obsoletes RFC 7322, "RFC Style Guide".
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
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on 7 April 2021.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2020 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
Levine & Ginoza Expires 7 April 2021 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft 7322-bis October 2020
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. RFC Editor's Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. RFC Style Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1. Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2. Punctuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2.1. RFCs as Compounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.3. DNS Names and URIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.4. Capitalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.5. Citations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.6. Abbreviation Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.7. Images and Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4. Structure of an RFC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1. First-Page Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.1.1. Author/Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.1.2. Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.1.3. ISSN: 2070-1721 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.1.4. Updates and Obsoletes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2. Document Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.3. Abstract Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.4. RFC Editor or Stream Notes Section . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.5. Status of This Memo Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.6. Copyright, Licenses, and IPR Boilerplate Section . . . . 13
4.7. Table of Contents Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.8. Body of the Memo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.8.1. Introduction Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.8.2. Requirements Language Section . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.8.3. IANA Considerations Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.8.4. Internationalization Considerations Section . . . . . 15
4.8.5. Security Considerations Section . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.8.6. References Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.9. Appendices Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.10. Acknowledgements Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.11. Contributors Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.12. Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
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