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CBOR data definition language: a notational convention to express CBOR data structures.
draft-greevenbosch-appsawg-cbor-cddl-05

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Replaced".
Authors Christoph Vigano , Henk Birkholz , Ruinan Sun
Last updated 2015-03-09
Replaced by draft-ietf-cbor-cddl, draft-ietf-cbor-cddl, RFC 8610
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draft-greevenbosch-appsawg-cbor-cddl-05
Network Working Group                                          C. Vigano
Internet-Draft                                       Universitaet Bremen
Intended status: Informational                               H. Birkholz
Expires: September 10, 2015                               Fraunhofer SIT
                                                                  R. Sun
                                                     Huawei Technologies
                                                          March 09, 2015

 CBOR data definition language: a notational convention to express CBOR
                            data structures.
                draft-greevenbosch-appsawg-cbor-cddl-05

Abstract

   This document proposes a notational convention to express CBOR data
   structures (RFC 7049).  Its main goal is to provide an easy and
   unambiguous way to express structures for protocol messages and data
   formats that use CBOR.

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 http://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 September 10, 2015.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2015 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
   (http://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 and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must

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   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  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.1.  Requirements notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     1.2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   2.  The Style of Data Structure Specification . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.1.  Groups and Composition in CDDL  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       2.1.1.  Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       2.1.2.  Syntax  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     2.2.  Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       2.2.1.  Values  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       2.2.2.  Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       2.2.3.  Representation Types  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       2.2.4.  Root type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   3.  Syntax  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     3.1.  General conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     3.2.  Occurrence  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     3.3.  Predefined names for types  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     3.4.  Arrays  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     3.5.  Maps  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
       3.5.1.  Structs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
       3.5.2.  Tables  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
     3.6.  Tags  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   4.  Examples  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     4.1.  Moves in a computer game  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     4.2.  Fruit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
     4.3.  RFC 7071  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  23
     4.4.  Examples from JSON Content Rules  . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
   5.  Making Use of CDDL  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29
     5.1.  As a guide to a human user  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29
     5.2.  For automated checking of CBOR data structure . . . . . .  29
     5.3.  For data analysis tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29
   6.  Open Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  30
   7.  Resolved Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  30
   8.  Security considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31
   9.  IANA considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31
   10. Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31
   11. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31
     11.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31
     11.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  32
   Appendix A.  Cemetery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  32
   Appendix B.  Nursery  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  32
     B.1.  Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  32
       B.1.1.  Annotation .size  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  33

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       B.1.2.  Annotation .bits  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  33
       B.1.3.  Annotation .regexp  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  34
   Appendix C.  Change Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  34
   Appendix D.  ABNF grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  35
   Appendix E.  Standard Prelude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  37
   Appendix F.  The CDDL tool  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  39
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  39

1.  Introduction

   In this document, a notational convention to express CBOR [RFC7049]
   data structures is defined.

   The main goal for the convention is to provide a unified notation
   that can be used when defining protocols that use CBOR.

   The CBOR notational convention has the following goals:

   (G1)  Provide an unambiguous description of the overall structure of
         a CBOR data structure.

   (G2)  Flexibility to express the freedoms of choice in the CBOR data
         format.

   (G3)  Possibility to restrict format choices where appropriate [_1].

   (G4)  Able to express common CBOR datatypes and structures.

   (G5)  Human and machine readable and processable.

   (G6)  Automatic checking of data format compliance.

   (G7)  Extraction of specific elements from CBOR data for further
         processing.

   This document has the following structure:

   The syntax of CDDL is defined in Section 3.  Examples of CDDL and
   related CBOR data instances are defined in Section 4.  Section 5
   discusses usage of CDDL.  Examples are provided early in the text to
   better illustrate concept definitions.  A formal definition of CDDL
   using ABNF grammar is provided in Appendix D.  Finally, a prelude of
   standard CDDL definitions available in every CBOR specification is
   listed in Appendix E.

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1.1.  Requirements notation

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC
   2119, BCP 14 [RFC2119].

1.2.  Terminology

   New terms are introduced in _cursive_.  CDDL text in the running text
   is in "typewriter".

2.  The Style of Data Structure Specification

   CDDL focuses on styles of specification that are in use in the
   community employing the data model as pioneered by JSON and now
   refined in CBOR.

   There are a number of more or less atomic elements of a CBOR data
   model, such as numbers, simple values (false, true, nil), strings;
   CDDL does not focus on specifying their structure [_3].  CDDL of
   course also allows adding a CBOR tag to a data item.

   The more important components of a data structure definition language
   are the data types used for composition: arrays and maps in CBOR
   (called arrays and objects in JSON).  While these are only two
   representation formats, they are used to specify four loosely
   distinguishable styles of composition:

   o  A _vector_, an array of elements that are mostly of the same
      semantics.  The set of signatures associated with a signed data
      item is a typical application of a vector.

   o  A _record_, an array the elements of which have different,
      positionally defined semantics, as detailed in the data structure
      definition.  A 2D point, specified as an array of an x coordinate
      (which comes first) and a y coordinate (coming second) is an
      example of a record, as is the pair of exponent (first) and
      mantissa (second) in a CBOR decimal fraction.

   o  A _table_, a map from a domain of map keys to a domain of map
      values, that are mostly of the same semantics.  A set of language
      tags, each mapped to a string translated to that specific
      language, is an example of a table.  The key domain is usually not
      limited to a specific set by the specification, but open for the
      application, e.g., in a table mapping IP addresses to MAC
      addresses, the specification does not attempt to foresee all
      possible IP addresses.

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   o  A _struct_, a map from a domain of map keys as defined by the
      specification to a domain of map values the semantics of each of
      which is bound to a specific map key.  This is what most people
      have in mind when they think about JSON objects; CBOR adds the
      ability to use map keys that are not just strings.  Structs can be
      used to solve similar problems as records; the use of explicit map
      keys facilitates optionality and extensibility.

   Two important concepts provide the foundation for CDDL:

   1.  Instead of defining all four types composition in CDDL
       separately, or even defining one kind for arrays (vectors and
       records) and one kind for maps (tables and structs), there is
       only one kind of composition in CDDL: the _group_ (Section 2.1).

   2.  The other important concept is that of a _type_.  The entire CDDL
       specification defines a type (the one defined by its first
       _rule_), which formally is the set of CBOR instances that are
       acceptable for this specification.  CDDL predefines a number of
       basic types such as "uint" (unsigned integer) or "tstr" (text
       string), often making use of a simple formal notation for CBOR
       data items.  Each value that can be expressed as a CBOR data item
       also is a type in its own right, e.g. "1".  A type can be built
       as a _choice_ of other types, e.g., an "int" is either a "uint"
       or a "nint" (negative integer).  Finally, a type can be built as
       an array or a map from a group.

2.1.  Groups and Composition in CDDL

   CDDL Groups are lists of name/value pairs (group _entries_).

   In an array context, only the value of the entry is represented; the
   name is annotation only (and can be left off if not needed).  In a
   map context, the names become the map keys ("member keys").

   In an array context, the sequence of elements in the group is
   important, as it is the information that allows associating actual
   array elements with entries in the group.  In a map context, the
   sequence of entries in a group is not relevant (but there is still a
   need to write down group entries in a sequence).

   A group can be placed in (round) parentheses, and given a name by
   using it in a rule:

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                             pii = (
                               age: int,
                               name: tstr,
                               employer: tstr,
                             )

                          Figure 1: A basic group

   Or a group can just be used in the definition of something else:

                             person = {(
                               age: int,
                               name: tstr,
                               employer: tstr,
                             )}

                     Figure 2: Using a group in a map

   which, given the above rule for pii, is identical to:

                                person = {
                                  pii
                                }

                      Figure 3: Using a group by name

   Note that the (curly) braces signify the creation of a map; the
   groups themselves are neutral as to whether they will be used in a
   map or an array.

   The parentheses for groups are optional, so it would be slightly more
   natural to express Figure 2 as:

                             person = {
                               age: int,
                               name: tstr,
                               employer: tstr,
                             }

   Groups can be used to factor out common parts of structs, e.g.,
   instead of writing:

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                          person = {
                            age: int,
                            name: tstr,
                            employer: tstr,
                          }

                          dog = {
                            age: int,
                            name: tstr,
                            leash-length: float,
                          }

   one can choose a name for the common subgroup and write:

                          person = {
                            identity,
                            employer: tstr,
                          }

                          dog = {
                            identity,
                            leash-length: float,
                          }

                          identity = (
                            age: int,
                            name: tstr,
                          )

                 Figure 4: Using a group for factorization

   Note that the contents of the braces in the above definitions
   constitute (anonymous) groups, while "identity" is a named group.

2.1.1.  Usage

   Groups are the instrument used in composing data structures with
   CDDL.  It is a matter of style in defining those structures whether
   to define groups (anonymously) right in their contexts or whether to
   define them in a separate rule and to reference them with their
   respective name (possibly more than once).

   With this, one is allowed to define all small parts of their data
   structures and compose bigger protocol units with those or to have
   only one big protocol data unit that has all definitions ad hoc where
   needed.

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2.1.2.  Syntax

   The composition syntax intends to be concise and easy to read:

   o  The start of a group can be marked by '('

   o  The end of a group can be marked by ')'

   o  Definitions of entries inside of a group are noted as follows:
      _keytype => valuetype,_ (read "keytype maps to valuetype").  The
      comma is actually optional (not just in the final entry), but it
      is considered good style to set it.  The double arrow can be
      replaced by a colon to optimize for the common case of using a
      string as a key (see Section 3.5.1).

   An entry consists of a _keytype_ and a _valuetype_:

   o  _keytype_ is either an atom used as the actual key or a valuetype.
      This may be needed when using groups in a table context, where the
      actual keys are of lesser importance than the key types, e.g in
      contexts verifying incoming data.

   o  _valuetype_ is either a valuetype derived from the major types
      defined in [RFC7049], a convenience valuetype defined in this
      document (Appendix E) or the name of a group defined in the
      protocol file.

2.2.  Types

2.2.1.  Values

   Values such as numbers and strings can be used in place of a type.
   (For instance, this is a very common thing to do for a keytype,
   common enough that CDDL provides additional convenience syntax for
   this.)

2.2.2.  Choices

   Many places that allow a type also allow a choice between types,
   delimited by a "/" (slash).  The entire choice construct can be put
   into parentheses if this is required to make the construction
   unambiguous (please see Appendix D for the details).

   Choices of values can be used to express enumerations:

            attire = "bow tie" / "necktie" / "Internet attire"
            protocol = 6 / 17

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2.2.2.1.  Ranges

   Instead of naming all the values that make up a choice, CDDL allows
   building a _range_ out of two values that are in an ordering
   relationship (TO DO: define precisely).  A range can be inclusive of
   both ends given (denoted by joining two values by ".."), or include
   the first and exclude the second (denoted by instead using "...").

         device-address = byte
         max-byte = 255
         byte = 0..max-byte ; inclusive range
         first-non-byte = 256
         byte1 = 0...first-non-byte ; byte1 is equivalent to byte

   CDDL currently only allows ranges between numbers.

2.2.2.2.  Turning a group into a choice

   Some choices are built out of large numbers of values, often
   integers, each of which is best given a semantic name in the
   specification.  Instead of naming each of these integers and then
   accumulating these into a choice, CDDL allows building a choice from
   a group by prefixing it with a "&" character:

              terminal-color = &basecolors
              basecolors = (
                black: 0, red: 1,  green: 2,  yellow: 3,
                blue: 4,  magenta: 5,  cyan: 6,  white: 7,
              )
              extended-color = &(
                basecolors,
                orange: 8,  pink: 9,  purple: 10,  brown: 11,
              )

   As with the use of groups in arrays (Section 3.4), the membernames
   have only documentary value (in particular, they might be used by a
   tool when displaying integers that are taken from that choice).

2.2.3.  Representation Types

   CDDL allows the specification of a data item type by referring to the
   CBOR representation (major and minor numbers).  How this is used
   should be evident from the prelude (Appendix E).

   It may be necessary to make use of representation types outside the
   prelude, e.g., a specification could start by making use of an
   existing tag in a more specific way, or define a new tag not defined
   in the prelude:

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      my_breakfast = #6.55799(breakfast)   ; cbor-any is too general!
      breakfast = cereal / porridge
      cereal = #6.998(tstr)
      porridge = #6.999([liquid, solid])
      liquid = milk / water
      milk = 0
      water = 1
      solid = tstr

2.2.4.  Root type

   There is no special syntax to identify the root of a CDDL data
   structure definition: that role is simply taken by the first rule
   defined in the file.

   This is motivated by the usual top-down approach for defining data
   structures, decomposing a big data structure unit into smaller parts;
   however, except for the root type, there is no need to strictly
   follow this sequence.

3.  Syntax

   In this section, the overall syntax of CDDL is shown, alongside some
   examples just illustrating syntax.  (The definition will not attempt
   to be overly formal; refer to Appendix D for the details.)

3.1.  General conventions

   The basic syntax is somewhat inspired by ABNF [RFC5234], with

   o  rules, whether they define groups or types, are defined with a
      name, followed by an equals sign "=" and the actual definition
      according to the respective syntactic rules of that definition.

   o  A name can consist of any of the characters from the set {'A',
      ..., 'Z', 'a', ..., 'z', '0', ..., '9', '_', '-', '@', '.'},
      starting with an alphabetic character (including '@' and '_') and
      ending in one or a digit.

      *  Names are case sensitive.

      *  It is preferred style to start a name with a lower case letter.

      *  The hyphen is preferred over the underscore (except in a
         "bareword" (Section 3.5.1), where the semantics may actually
         require an underscore).

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      *  The period may be useful for larger specifications, to express
         some module structure (as in "tcp.throughput" vs.
         "udp.throughput").

      *  A number of names are predefined in the CDDL prelude, as listed
         in Appendix E.

      *  Rule names (types or groups) do not appear in the actual CBOR
         encoding, but names used as "barewords" in member keys do.

   o  Comments are started by a ';' (semicolon) character and finish at
      the end of a line (LF or CRLF).

   o  outside strings, whitespace (spaces, newlines, and comments) is
      used to separate syntactic elements for readability (and to
      separate identifiers or numbers that follow each other); it is
      otherwise completely optional.

   o  Hexadecimal numbers are preceded by '0x' (without quotes, lower
      case x), and are case insensitive.  Similarly, binary numbers are
      preceded by '0b'.

   o  Strings are enclosed by double quotation '"' characters.  They
      follow the conventions for strings as defined in [RFC7159],
      section 7.  (TO DO: This still needs to be fully realized in the
      ABNF and in the CDDL tool.)

   o  CDDL uses UTF-8 [RFC3629] for its encoding.

   Example:

                            ; This is a comment
                            person = { g }

                            g = (
                              "name": tstr,
                              age: int,
                            )

3.2.  Occurrence

   An optional _occurrence_ indicator can be given in front of a group
   entry.  It is either one of the characters '?' (optional), '*' (zero
   or more), or '+' (one or more), or is of the form n*m, where n and m
   are optional unsigned integers and n is the lower limit (default 0)
   and m is the upper limit (default no limit) of occurrences.

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   If no occurrence indicator is specified, the group entry is to occur
   exactly once (as in 1*1).

   Note that CDDL, outside directives/annotations [TO DO], does not make
   any prescription as to whether arrays or maps use the definite length
   or indefinite length encoding.  I.e., there is no correlation between
   leaving the size of an array "open" in the spec and the fact that it
   is then interchanged with definite or indefinite length.

3.3.  Predefined names for types

   CDDL predefines a number of names.  This subsection summarizes these
   names, but please see Appendix E for the exact definitions.

   The following keywords for primitive datatypes are defined:

   "bool"  Boolean value (major type 7, additional information 20 or
      21).

   "uint"  An unsigned integer (major type 0).

   "nint"  A negative integer (major type 1).

   "int"  An unsigned integer or a negative integer.

   "float16"  IEEE 754 half-precision float (major type 7, additional
      information 25).

   "float32"  IEEE 754 single-precision float (major type 7, additional
      information 26).

   "float64"  IEEE 754 double-precision float (major type 7, additional
      information 27).

   "float"  One of float16, float32, or float64.

   "bstr"  A byte string (major type 2).

   "tstr"  Text string (major type 3)

   (Note that there are no predefined names for arrays or maps; these
   are defined with the syntax given below.)

   In addition, a number of types are defined in the prelude that are
   associated with CBOR tags, such as "tdate", "bigint", "regexp" etc.

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3.4.  Arrays

   Array definitions surround a group with square brackets.

   For each entry, an occurrence indicator as specified in Section 3.2
   is permitted.

   For example:

                     unlimited-people = [* person]
                     one-or-two-people = [1*2 person]
                     at-least-two-people = [2* person]
                     person = (
                         name: tstr,
                         age: uint,
                     )

   The group "person" is defined in such a way that repeating it in the
   array each time generates alternating names and ages, so these are
   four valid values for a data item of type "unlimited-people":

      ["roundlet", 1047, "psychurgy", 2204, "extrarhythmical", 2231]
      []
      ["aluminize", 212, "climograph", 4124]
      ["penintime", 1513, "endocarditis", 4084, "impermeator", 1669,
       "coextension", 865]

3.5.  Maps

   The syntax for specifying maps merits special attention, as well as a
   number of optimizations and conveniences, as it is likely to be the
   focal point of many specifications employing CDDL.  While the syntax
   does not strictly distinguish struct and table usage of maps, it
   caters specifically to each of them.

3.5.1.  Structs

   The "struct" usage of maps is similar to the way JSON objects are
   used in many JSON applications.

   A map is defined in the same way as defining an array (see
   Section 3.4), except for using curly braces "{}" instead of square
   brackets "[]".

   An occurrence indicator as specified in Section 3.2 is permitted for
   each group entry.

   The following is an example of a structure:

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         Geography = [
           city           : tstr,
           gpsCoordinates : GpsCoordinates,
         ]

         GpsCoordinates = {
           longitude      : uint,            ; multiplied by 10^7
           latitude       : uint,            ; multiplied by 10^7
         }

   When encoding, the Geography structure is encoded using a CBOR array
   with two entries, whereas the GpsCoordinates are encoded as a CBOR
   map with two key-value pairs.

   Types used in a structure can be defined in separate rules or just in
   place (potentially placed inside parentheses, such as for choices).
   E.g.:

                           located-samples = {
                             sample-point: int,
                             samples: [+ float],
                           }

   where "located-samples" is the datatype to be used when referring to
   the struct, and "sample-point" and "samples" are the keys to be used.
   This is actually a complete example: an identifier that is followed
   by a colon can be directly used as the text string for a member key
   (we speak of a "bareword" member key), as can a double-quoted string
   or a number.  (When other types, in particular multi-valued ones, are
   be used as keytypes, they are followed by a double arrow, see below.)

   If a text string key does not match the syntax for an identifier (or
   if the specifier just happens to prefer using double quotes), the
   text string syntax can also be used in the member key position,
   followed by a colon.  The above example could therefore have been
   written with quoted strings in the member key positions.

   All the types defined can be used in a keytype position by following
   them with a double arrow.  A string also is a (single-valued) type,
   so another form for this example is:

                         located-samples = {
                           "sample-point" => int,
                           "samples" => [+ float],
                         }

   A better way to demonstrate the double-arrow use may be:

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             located-samples = {
               sample-point: int,
               samples: [+ float],
               * equipment-type => equipment-tolerances,
             }
             equipment-type = [name: tstr, manufacturer: tstr]
             equipment-tolerances = [+ [float, float]]

   The example below defines a struct with optional entries: display
   name (as a text string), the name components first name and family
   name (as a map of text strings), and age information (as an unsigned
   integer).

                          PersonalData = {
                            ? displayName: tstr,
                            NameComponents,
                            ? age: uint,
                          }

                          NameComponents = (
                            ? firstName: tstr,
                            ? familyName: tstr,
                          )

   Note that the group definition for NameComponents does not generate
   another map; instead, all four keys are directly in the struct built
   by PersonalData.

   In this example, all key/value pairs are optional from the
   perspective of CDDL.  With no occurrence indicator, an entry is
   mandatory.

   If the addition of more entries not specified by the current
   specification is desired, one can add this possibility explicitly:

                          PersonalData = {
                            ? displayName: tstr,
                            NameComponents,
                            ? age: uint,
                            * tstr => any
                          }

                          NameComponents = (
                            ? firstName: tstr,
                            ? familyName: tstr,
                          )

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   The cddl tool (Appendix F) generated as one acceptable instance for
   this specification:

         {"familyName": "agust", "antiforeignism": "pretzel",
          "springbuck": "illuminatingly", "exuviae": "ephemeris",
          "kilometrage": "frogfish"}

   TO DO: define a more concise way of saying "here is an extension
   point"

3.5.2.  Tables

   A table can be specified by defining a map with entries where the
   keytype is not single-valued, e.g.:

                         square-roots = {* x => y}
                         x = int
                         y = float

   Here, the key in each key/value pair has datatype x (defined as int),
   and the value has datatype y (defined as float).

   If the specification does not need to restrict one of x or y (i.e.
   the application is free to choose per entry), it can be replaced by
   the predefined name "any".

   As another example, the following could be used as a conversion table
   converting from an integer or float to a string:

                         tostring = {* x => tstr}
                         x = int / float

3.6.  Tags

   A type can make use of a CBOR tag (major type 6) by using the
   representation type notation, giving #6.nnn(type) where nnn is an
   unsigned integer giving the tag number and "type" is the type of the
   data item being tagged.

   For example, the following line from the CDDL prelude (Appendix E)
   defines "biguint" as a type name for a positive bignum N:

                           biguint = #6.2(bstr)

   The tags defined by [RFC7049] are included in the prelude.
   Additional tags since registered need to be added to a CDDL
   specification as needed; e.g., a binary UUID tag could be referenced
   as "buuid" in a specification after defining

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                            buuid = #6.37(bstr)

   In the following example, usage of the tag 32 for URIs is optional:

                        my_uri = #6.32(tstr) / tstr

4.  Examples

   This section contains various examples of structures defined using
   the CBOR notational convention.

4.1.  Moves in a computer game

   A multiplayer computer game uses CBOR to exchange moves between the
   players.  To ensure a good gaming experience, the move information
   needs to be exchanged quickly and frequently.  Therefore, the game
   uses CBOR to send its information in a compact format.  Figure 5
   shows definition of the CBOR information exchange format.

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    UpdateMsg = [* {
      move_no        : uint,                  ; increases for each move
      player_info    : PlayerInfo,            ; general information
      moves          : Moves,                ; moves in this message
    }]

    PlayerInfo = {
      alias          : tstr,
      player_id      : uint,
      experience     : uint,                  ; beginner: 0; expert: 3
      gold           : uint,
      supplies       : Supplies,
      avg_strength   : float16,
    }

    Supplies = {
      wood  => uint
      iron  => uint
      grain  => uint
    }

    wood = 0
    iron = 1
    grain = 2

    Moves = [* Move]

    Move = (
      unit_id        : uint,
      unit_strength  : uint,               ; between 0 and 100
      2*2 source_pos : uint,               ; (x,y)
      2*2 target_pos : uint,               ; (x,y)
    )

     Figure 5: CDDL definition of an information exchange format for a
                               computer game

   The CDDL tool generates this as a possible instance:

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     [{"move_no": 3985, "player_info":
       {"alias": "timbrologist", "player_id": 699, "experience": 2699,
        "gold": 328, "supplies": {0: 1768, 1: 3087, 2: 1401},
        "avg_strength": 0.9712613869888417},
       "moves": [[1702, 458, 38, 399, 327, 304],
                 [3145, 4454, 1175, 3441, 74, 1542],
                 [4099, 4062, 2808, 8, 3174, 3048],
                 [367, 3649, 756, 3644, 3725, 2769]]},
      {"move_no": 199, "player_info":
       {"alias": "cipo", "player_id": 4309, "experience": 4094,
        "gold": 4114, "supplies": {0: 873, 1: 4706, 2: 1733},
        "avg_strength": 0.37808379403466696},
       "moves": [[1977, 3129, 3890, 4000, 1555, 377],
                 [2646, 286, 3363, 4381, 3815, 1039]]},
      {"move_no": 2226, "player_info":
       {"alias": "Stacey", "player_id": 1055, "experience": 207,
        "gold": 285, "supplies": {0: 3325, 1: 1515, 2: 3304},
        "avg_strength": 0.8590028130444863},
       "moves": [[869, 4126, 2382, 3155, 1523, 2621]]}]

   Notice that the supplies have been encoded as a map with integer
   keys.  In this example, using string keys would also have been
   suitable; the example just illustrates the possibility to use other
   datatypes for keys, leading to more efficient encoding.

   The tool-generated binary CBOR for the instance about cannot express
   yet that the floating point values are 16-bit:

   83                                   # array(3)
      a3                                # map(3)
         67                             # text(7)
            6d6f76655f6e6f              # "move_no"
         19 0f91                        # unsigned(3985)
         6b                             # text(11)
            706c617965725f696e666f      # "player_info"
         a6                             # map(6)
            65                          # text(5)
               616c696173               # "alias"
            6c                          # text(12)
               74696d62726f6c6f67697374 # "timbrologist"
            69                          # text(9)
               706c617965725f6964       # "player_id"
            19 02bb                     # unsigned(699)
            6a                          # text(10)
               657870657269656e6365     # "experience"
            19 0a8b                     # unsigned(2699)
            64                          # text(4)
               676f6c64                 # "gold"

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            19 0148                     # unsigned(328)
            68                          # text(8)
               737570706c696573         # "supplies"
            a3                          # map(3)
               00                       # unsigned(0)
               19 06e8                  # unsigned(1768)
               01                       # unsigned(1)
               19 0c0f                  # unsigned(3087)
               02                       # unsigned(2)
               19 0579                  # unsigned(1401)
            6c                          # text(12)
               6176675f737472656e677468 # "avg_strength"
            fb 3fef1492c29f8275         # primitive(4606923564386321013)
         65                             # text(5)
            6d6f766573                  # "moves"
         84                             # array(4)
            86                          # array(6)
               19 06a6                  # unsigned(1702)
               19 01ca                  # unsigned(458)
               18 26                    # unsigned(38)
               19 018f                  # unsigned(399)
               19 0147                  # unsigned(327)
               19 0130                  # unsigned(304)
            86                          # array(6)
               19 0c49                  # unsigned(3145)
               19 1166                  # unsigned(4454)
               19 0497                  # unsigned(1175)
               19 0d71                  # unsigned(3441)
               18 4a                    # unsigned(74)
               19 0606                  # unsigned(1542)
            86                          # array(6)
               19 1003                  # unsigned(4099)
               19 0fde                  # unsigned(4062)
               19 0af8                  # unsigned(2808)
               08                       # unsigned(8)
               19 0c66                  # unsigned(3174)
               19 0be8                  # unsigned(3048)
            86                          # array(6)
               19 016f                  # unsigned(367)
               19 0e41                  # unsigned(3649)
               19 02f4                  # unsigned(756)
               19 0e3c                  # unsigned(3644)
               19 0e8d                  # unsigned(3725)
               19 0ad1                  # unsigned(2769)
      a3                                # map(3)
         67                             # text(7)
            6d6f76655f6e6f              # "move_no"
         18 c7                          # unsigned(199)

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         6b                             # text(11)
            706c617965725f696e666f      # "player_info"
         a6                             # map(6)
            65                          # text(5)
               616c696173               # "alias"
            64                          # text(4)
               6369706f                 # "cipo"
            69                          # text(9)
               706c617965725f6964       # "player_id"
            19 10d5                     # unsigned(4309)
            6a                          # text(10)
               657870657269656e6365     # "experience"
            19 0ffe                     # unsigned(4094)
            64                          # text(4)
               676f6c64                 # "gold"
            19 1012                     # unsigned(4114)
            68                          # text(8)
               737570706c696573         # "supplies"
            a3                          # map(3)
               00                       # unsigned(0)
               19 0369                  # unsigned(873)
               01                       # unsigned(1)
               19 1262                  # unsigned(4706)
               02                       # unsigned(2)
               19 06c5                  # unsigned(1733)
            6c                          # text(12)
               6176675f737472656e677468 # "avg_strength"
            fb 3fd832865ea1b216         # primitive(4600482572053623318)
         65                             # text(5)
            6d6f766573                  # "moves"
         82                             # array(2)
            86                          # array(6)
               19 07b9                  # unsigned(1977)
               19 0c39                  # unsigned(3129)
               19 0f32                  # unsigned(3890)
               19 0fa0                  # unsigned(4000)
               19 0613                  # unsigned(1555)
               19 0179                  # unsigned(377)
            86                          # array(6)
               19 0a56                  # unsigned(2646)
               19 011e                  # unsigned(286)
               19 0d23                  # unsigned(3363)
               19 111d                  # unsigned(4381)
               19 0ee7                  # unsigned(3815)
               19 040f                  # unsigned(1039)
      a3                                # map(3)
         67                             # text(7)
            6d6f76655f6e6f              # "move_no"

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         19 08b2                        # unsigned(2226)
         6b                             # text(11)
            706c617965725f696e666f      # "player_info"
         a6                             # map(6)
            65                          # text(5)
               616c696173               # "alias"
            66                          # text(6)
               537461636579             # "Stacey"
            69                          # text(9)
               706c617965725f6964       # "player_id"
            19 041f                     # unsigned(1055)
            6a                          # text(10)
               657870657269656e6365     # "experience"
            18 cf                       # unsigned(207)
            64                          # text(4)
               676f6c64                 # "gold"
            19 011d                     # unsigned(285)
            68                          # text(8)
               737570706c696573         # "supplies"
            a3                          # map(3)
               00                       # unsigned(0)
               19 0cfd                  # unsigned(3325)
               01                       # unsigned(1)
               19 05eb                  # unsigned(1515)
               02                       # unsigned(2)
               19 0ce8                  # unsigned(3304)
            6c                          # text(12)
               6176675f737472656e677468 # "avg_strength"
            fb 3feb7cf377a65699         # primitive(4605912429042751129)
         65                             # text(5)
            6d6f766573                  # "moves"
         81                             # array(1)
            86                          # array(6)
               19 0365                  # unsigned(869)
               19 101e                  # unsigned(4126)
               19 094e                  # unsigned(2382)
               19 0c53                  # unsigned(3155)
               19 05f3                  # unsigned(1523)
               19 0a3d                  # unsigned(2621)

                 Figure 6: CBOR instance for game example

4.2.  Fruit

   Figure 7 contains an example for a CBOR structure that contains
   information about fruit.

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    fruitlist = [* Fruit]

    Fruit = {
      name                 : tstr,
      colour               : [* color],
      avg_weight           : float16,
      price                : uint,
      international_names  : International,
      rfu                  : bstr,           ; reserved for future use
    }

    International = {
      "DE"                 : tstr,           ; German
      "EN"                 : tstr,           ; English
      "FR"                 : tstr,           ; French
      "NL"                 : tstr,           ; Dutch
      "ZH-HANS"            : tstr,           ; Chinese
    }

    color = &(
      black: 0, red: 1,  green: 2,  yellow: 3,
      blue: 4,  magenta: 5,  cyan: 6,  white: 7,
    )

                     Figure 7: Example CBOR structure

4.3.  RFC 7071

   [RFC7071] defines the Reputon structure for JSON using somewhat
   formalized English text.  Here is a (somewhat verbose) equivalent
   definition using the same terms, but notated in CDDL:

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                 reputation-object = {
                   reputation-context,
                   reputon-list
                 }

                 reputation-context = (
                   application: tstr
                 )

                 reputon-list = (
                   reputons: reputon-array
                 )

                 reputon-array = [* reputon]

                 reputon = {
                   rater-value,
                   assertion-value,
                   rated-value,
                   rating-value,
                   ? conf-value,
                   ? normal-value,
                   ? sample-value,
                   ? gen-value,
                   ? expire-value,
                   * ext-value,
                 }

                 rater-value = ( rater: tstr )
                 assertion-value = ( assertion: tstr )
                 rated-value = ( rated: tstr )
                 rating-value = ( rating: float16 )
                 conf-value = ( confidence: float16 )
                 normal-value = ( normal-rating: float16 )
                 sample-value = ( sample-size: uint )
                 gen-value = ( generated: uint )
                 expire-value = ( expires: uint )
                 ext-value = ( tstr => any )

   An equivalent, more compact form of this example would be:

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                        reputation-object = {
                          application: tstr
                          reputons: [* reputon]
                        }

                        reputon = {
                          rater: tstr
                          assertion: tstr
                          rated: tstr
                          rating: float16
                          ? confidence: float16
                          ? normal-rating: float16
                          ? sample-size: uint
                          ? generated: uint
                          ? expires: uint
                          * tstr => any
                        }

   Note how this rather clearly delineates the structure somewhat
   shrouded by so many words in section 6.2.2. of [RFC7071].  Also, this
   definition makes it clear that several ext-values are allowed (by
   definition with different member names); RFC 7071 could be read to
   forbid the repetition of ext-value ("A specific reputon-element MUST
   NOT appear more than once" is ambiguous.)

   The CDDL tool (which hasn't quite been trained for polite
   conversation) says:

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                {
                  "application": "tridentiferous",
                  "reputons": [
                    {
                      "rater": "loamily",
                      "assertion": "Dasyprocta",
                      "rated": "uncommensurableness",
                      "rating": 0.05055809746548934,
                      "confidence": 0.7484706448605812,
                      "normal-rating": 0.8677887734049299,
                      "sample-size": 4059,
                      "expires": 3969,
                      "bearer": "nitty",
                      "faucal": "postulnar",
                      "naturalism": "sarcotic"
                    },
                    {
                      "rater": "precreed",
                      "assertion": "xanthosis",
                      "rated": "balsamy",
                      "rating": 0.36091333590593955,
                      "confidence": 0.3700759808403371,
                      "sample-size": 3904
                    },
                    {
                      "rater": "urinosexual",
                      "assertion": "malacostracous",
                      "rated": "arenariae",
                      "rating": 0.9210673488013762,
                      "normal-rating": 0.4778762617112776,
                      "sample-size": 4428,
                      "generated": 3294,
                      "backfurrow": "enterable",
                      "fruitgrower": "flannelflower"
                    },
                    {
                      "rater": "pedologistically",
                      "assertion": "unmetaphysical",
                      "rated": "elocutionist",
                      "rating": 0.42073613384304287,
                      "misimagine": "retinaculum",
                      "snobbish": "contradict",
                      "Bosporanic": "periostotomy",
                      "dayworker": "intragyral"
                    }
                  ]
                }

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4.4.  Examples from JSON Content Rules

   Although JSON Content Rules [I-D.newton-json-content-rules] seems to
   address a more general problem than CDDL, it is still a worthwhile
   resource to explore for examples (beyond all the inspiration the
   format itself has had for CDDL).

   Figure 2 of the JCR I-D looks very similar, if slightly less noisy,
   in CDDL:

                            root = [2*2 {
                              precision: tstr,
                              Latitude: float,
                              Longitude: float,
                              Address: tstr,
                              City: tstr,
                              State: tstr,
                              Zip: tstr,
                              Country: tstr
                            }]

                     Figure 8: JCR, Figure 2, in CDDL

   Apart from the lack of a need to quote the member names, text strings
   are called "tstr" in CDDL.  (Alternatively, adding a simple rule
   "string = tstr" would allow to stick with the familiar here.)

   The CDDL tool creates the below example instance for this:

    [{"precision": "pyrosphere", "Latitude": 0.5399712314350172,
      "Longitude": 0.5157523963028087, "Address": "resow",
      "City": "problemwise", "State": "martyrlike", "Zip": "preprove",
      "Country": "Pace"},
     {"precision": "unrigging", "Latitude": 0.10422704368372193,
      "Longitude": 0.6279808663725834, "Address": "picturedom",
      "City": "decipherability", "State": "autometry", "Zip": "pout",
      "Country": "wimple"}]

   Figure 4 of the JCR I-D in CDDL:

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                             root = { image }

                             image = (
                               Image: {
                                 size,
                                 Title: tstr,
                                 thumbnail,
                                 IDs: [* int]
                               }
                             )

                             size = (
                               Width: 0..1280
                               Height: 0..1024
                             )

                             thumbnail = (
                               Thumbnail: {
                                 size,
                                 Url: uri
                               }
                             )

   This shows how the group concept can be used to keep related elements
   (here: width, height) together, and to emulate the JCR style of
   specification.  (It also shows using a tag from the prelude, "uri" -
   this could be done differently.)  The more compact form of Figure 5
   of the JCR I-D could be emulated like this:

                    root = {
                      Image: {
                        size, Title: tstr,
                        Thumbnail: { size, Url: uri },
                        IDs: [* int]
                      }
                    }

                    size = (
                      Width: 0..1280,
                      Height: 0..1024,
                    )

   The CDDL tool creates the below example instance for this:

    {"Image": {"Width": 566, "Height": 516, "Title": "leisterer",
      "Thumbnail": {"Width": 1111, "Height": 176, "Url": 32("scrog")},
      "IDs": []}}

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5.  Making Use of CDDL

   In this section, we discuss several potential ways to employ CDDL.

5.1.  As a guide to a human user

   CDDL can be used to efficiently define the layout of CBOR data, such
   that a human implementer can easily see how data is supposed to be
   encoded.

   Since CDDL maps parts of the CBOR data to human readable names, tools
   could be built that use CDDL to provide a human friendly
   representation of the CBOR data, and allow them to edit such data
   while remaining compliant to its CDDL definition.

5.2.  For automated checking of CBOR data structure

   CDDL has been specified such that a machine can handle the CDDL
   definition and related CBOR data.  For example, a machine could use
   CDDL to check whether or not CBOR data is compliant to its
   definition.

   The need for thoroughness of such compliance checking depends on the
   application.  For example, an application may decide not to check the
   data structure at all, and use the CDDL definition solely as a means
   to indicate the structure of the data to the programmer.

   On the other end, the application may also implement a checking
   mechanism that goes as far as checking that all mandatory map pairs
   are available.

   The matter in how far the data description must be enforced by an
   application is left to the designers and implementers of that
   application, keeping in mind related security considerations.

   In no case the intention is that a CDDL tool would be "writing code"
   for an implementation.

5.3.  For data analysis tools

   In the long run, it can be expected that more and more data will be
   stored using the CBOR data format.

   Where there is data, there is data analysis and the need to process
   such data automatically.  CDDL can be used for such automated data
   processing, allowing tools to verify data, clean it, and extract
   particular parts of interest from it.

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   Since CBOR is designed with constrained devices in mind, a likely use
   of it would be small sensors.  An interesting use would thus be
   automated analysis of sensor data.

6.  Open Issues

   CDDL already is usable in its present form, as Section 4.3 should
   have demonstrated.  However, additional examples should be developed,
   and some experience be gained with the usefulness of tools built
   around CDDL.

   At least the following issues need further consideration:

   o  The precise semantics of occurrence indicators as defined in
      Section 3.2 should be checked.  E.g., what exactly is the
      semantics of an occurrence indicators on a group name in a map?
      Does this mean the entire group can occur in this way, or do the
      occurrence values just filter down to the individual group entries
      (which is what the current tool does)?

   o  Build good use cases that demonstrate vector, record, table and
      struct usage.

   o  There probably are some security considerations.

7.  Resolved Issues

   o  To indicate optionality, occurrence indicators are now always
      used: Mandatory fields in structures are unadorned group entries;
      optional group entries are prefixed by the "?" occurrence
      indicator.

   o  We used to use the '.' character as a wildcard for datatypes.
      This originated from the "map(tstr,.)" notation, but maybe hard to
      read in notations such as "aField: .;".  We now have replaced '.'
      with a new prelude rule called "any", such that the example
      becomes "aField: any;", and the map notation "{tstr => any}".

   o  The key/value pairs in maps have no fixed ordering.  However,
      there may be situations where fixing the ordering may be of use.
      For example, an decoder could look for values related with integer
      keys 1, 3 and 7.  If the order was fixed and the decoder
      encounters the key 4 without having encountered key 3, it can
      conclude that key 3 is not available without doing more
      complicated bookkeeping.  Unfortunately, neither JSON nor CBOR
      support this, so no attempt was made to support this in CDDL
      either.

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   o  CDDL distinguishes the various CBOR number types, but there is
      only one number type in JSON.  There is no effect in specifying a
      precision (float16/float32/float64) when using CDDL for specifying
      JSON data structures.  (The current validator implementation
      Appendix F does not handle this properly, either.)

8.  Security considerations

   This document presents a content rules language for expressing CBOR
   data structures.  As such, it does not bring any security issues on
   itself, although specification of protocols that use CBOR naturally
   need security analysis when defined.

   Topics that could be considered in a security considerations section
   that uses CDDL to define CBOR structures include the following:

   o  Where could the language maybe cause confusion in a way that will
      enable security issues?

9.  IANA considerations

   This document does not require any IANA registrations.

10.  Acknowledgements

   CDDL was originally conceived by Bert Greevenbosch, who also wrote
   the original five versions of this document.

   Inspiration was taken from the C and Pascal languages, MPEG's
   conventions for describing structures in the ISO base media file
   format, Relax-NG and its compact syntax [RELAXNG], and in particular
   from Andrew Lee Newton's "JSON Content Rules"
   [I-D.newton-json-content-rules].

   Useful feedback came from Carsten Bormann, Joe Hildebrand, Sean
   Leonard and Jim Schaad.

   The CDDL tool was written by Carsten Bormann, building on previous
   work by Troy Heninger and Tom Lord.

11.  References

11.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

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   [RFC3629]  Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO
              10646", STD 63, RFC 3629, November 2003.

   [RFC5234]  Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
              Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234, January 2008.

   [RFC7049]  Bormann, C. and P. Hoffman, "Concise Binary Object
              Representation (CBOR)", RFC 7049, October 2013.

   [RFC7159]  Bray, T., "The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data
              Interchange Format", RFC 7159, March 2014.

11.2.  Informative References

   [RELAXNG]  OASIS, "RELAX-NG Compact Syntax", November 2002,
              <http://relaxng.org/compact-20021121.html>.

   [RFC7071]  Borenstein, N. and M. Kucherawy, "A Media Type for
              Reputation Interchange", RFC 7071, November 2013.

   [I-D.newton-json-content-rules]
              Newton, A., "A Language for Rules Describing JSON
              Content", draft-newton-json-content-rules-04 (work in
              progress), December 2014.

Appendix A.  Cemetery

   The following ideas are buried for now:

   o  <...> as syntax for enumerations.  We view values to be very
      specific types, so that an enumeration can be denoted as a choice
      using "/" as the delimiter of choices.  Because of this, no
      evidence is present that a separate syntax for enumerations is
      needed.

Appendix B.  Nursery

   This appendix describes advanced features that are still under heavy
   review.

B.1.  Annotations

   An _annotation_ allows to annotate a _target_ type with a _control_
   type via an _annotator_.

   The syntax for an annotated type is "target .annotator control",
   where annotators are special identifiers prefixed by a dot.  (Note
   that _target_ or _control_ might need to be parenthesized.)

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   Three annotators are defined at his point.  Note that the CDDL tool
   does not currently support combining multiple annotations on a single
   target.

B.1.1.  Annotation .size

   A ".size" annotation controls the size of the target in bytes by the
   control type.  Examples:

                   full-address = [[+ label], ip4, ip6]
                   ip4 = bstr .size 4
                   ip6 = bstr .size 16
                   label = bstr .size (1..63)

                  Figure 9: Annotation for size in bytes

   In the CDDL tool, the target must be a byte string for now.

B.1.2.  Annotation .bits

   A ".bits" annotation indicates that, in the byte string given as a
   target, only the bits numbered by a number in the control type are
   allowed to be set.  (Bits are counted the usual way, bit number "n"
   being set in "str" meaning that "(str[n >> 3] & (1 << (n & 7))) !=
   0".)

                      tcpflagbytes = bstr .bits flags
                      flags = &(
                        fin: 8,
                        syn: 9,
                        rst: 10,
                        psh: 11,
                        ack: 12,
                        urg: 13,
                        ece: 14,
                        cwr: 15,
                        ns: 0,
                      ) / (4..7) ; data offset bits

              Figure 10: Annotation for what bits can be set

   The CDDL tool generates the following ten example instances for this
   type:

      h'906d' h'01fc' h'8145' h'01b7' h'013d' h'409f' h'018e' h'c05f'
      h'01fa' h'01fe'

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   These examples do not illustrate that the above CDDL specification
   does not explicitly specify a size of two bytes: A valid all clear
   instance of flag bytes could be "h''" or "h'00'" or even "h'000000'"
   as well.

   TO DO: Do we need another variant that counts bits like in RFC box
   notation?  (This doesn't always perfectly mesh with byte strings.)

B.1.3.  Annotation .regexp

   A ".regexp" annotation indicates that the text string given as a
   target needs to match the PCRE regular expression given as a value in
   the control type, where that regular expression is anchored on both
   sides.  (If anchoring is not desired for a side, ".*" needs to be
   inserted there.)

                 nai = tstr .regexp "\\w+@\\w+(\\.\\w+)+"

                 Figure 11: Annotation with a PCRE regexp

   The CDDL tool proposes:

                       "N1@CH57HF.4Znqe0.dYJRN.igjf"

Appendix C.  Change Log

   Changes from version 00 to version 01:

   o  Removed constants

   o  Updated the tag mechanism

   o  Extended the map structure

   o  Added examples

   Changes from version 01 to version 02:

   o  Fixed example

   Changes from version 02 to version 03:

   o  Added information about characters used in names

   o  Added text about an overall data structure and order of definition
      of fields

   o  Added text about encoding of keys

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   o  Added table with keywords

   o  Strings and integer writing conventions

   o  Added ABNF

   Changes from version 03 to version 04:

   o  Removed optional fields for non-maps

   o  Defined all key/value pairs in maps are considered optional from
      the CDDL perspective

   o  Allow omission of type of keys for maps with only text string and
      integer keys

   o  Changed order of definitions

   o  Updated fruit and moves examples

   o  Renamed the "Philosophy" section to "Using CDDL", and added more
      text about CDDL usage

   o  Several editorials

   Changes from version 04 to version 05:

   o  Added text about alternative datatypes and any datatype

   o  Fixed typos

   o  Restructured syntax and semantics

Appendix D.  ABNF grammar

   The following is a formal definition of the CDDL syntax in Augmented
   Backus-Naur Form (ABNF, [RFC5234]).

   cddl = S 1*rule
   rule = typename S "=" S type S
        / groupname S "=" S group S

   typename = id
   groupname = id

   type = type1 S *("/" S type1 S)

   type1 = type2 [S (rangeop / annotator) S type2]

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        / "#" "6" ["." uint] "(" S type S ")" ; note no space!
        / "#" DIGIT ["." uint]                ; major/ai
        / "#"                                 ; any
        / "{" S group S "}"
        / "[" S group S "]"
        / "&" S "(" S group S ")"
        / "&" S groupname

   type2 = value
         / typename
         / "(" type ")"

   rangeop = "..." / ".."

   annotator = "." id

   group = "(" S *grpent S ")"
         / *grpent

   grpent = [occur S] [memberkey S] type1 optcom
          / [occur S] groupname optcom ; always preempted by previous...

   memberkey = type1 S "=>"
             / bareword S ":"
             / value S ":"

   bareword = id

   optcom = S ["," S]

   occur = [uint] "*" [uint]
         / "+"
         / "?"

   uint = ["0x" / "0b"] "0"
        / ["0x" / "0b"] DIGIT1 *DIGIT

   value = number
         / string

   int = ["-"] uint

   ; This is a float if it has fraction or exponent; int otherwise
   number = int ["." fraction] ["e" exponent ]
   fraction = 1*DIGIT
   exponent = int

   string = %x22 *SCHAR %x22

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   SCHAR = %x20-21 / %x23-7E / SESC
   SESC = "\" %x20-7E

   id = EALPHA *(*("-" / ".") (EALPHA / DIGIT))
   ALPHA = %x41-5A / %x61-7A
   EALPHA = %x41-5A / %x61-7A / "@" / "_"
   DIGIT = %x30-39
   DIGIT1 = %x31-39
   S = *WS
   WS = SP / NL
   SP = %x20
   NL = COMMENT / CRLF
   COMMENT = ";" *(SP / VCHAR) CRLF
   VCHAR = %x21-7E
   CRLF = %x0A / %x0D.0A

                           Figure 12: CDDL ABNF

   TO DO: This doesn't allow non-ASCII characters in the text strings
   yet; there is no value notation for byte strings; representation
   indicators are missing as well.

Appendix E.  Standard Prelude

   The following prelude is automatically added to each CDDL file.
   (Note that technically, it is a postlude, as it does not disturb the
   selection of the first rule as the root of the definition.)

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                  any = #

                  uint = #0
                  nint = #1
                  int = uint / nint

                  bstr = #2
                  tstr = #3

                  tdate = #6.0(tstr)
                  time = #6.1(number)
                  number = int / float
                  biguint = #6.2(bstr)
                  bignint = #6.3(bstr)
                  bigint = biguint / bignint
                  integer = int / bigint
                  decfrac = #6.4([e10: int, m: integer])
                  bigfloat = #6.5([e2: int, m: integer])
                  eb64url = #6.21(any)
                  eb64legacy = #6.21(any)
                  eb16 = #6.21(any)
                  encoded-cbor = #6.24(bstr)
                  uri = #6.32(tstr)
                  b64url = #6.33(tstr)
                  b64legacy = #6.34(tstr)
                  regexp = #6.35(tstr)
                  mime-message = #6.36(tstr)
                  cbor-any = #6.55799(any)

                  float16 = #7.25
                  float32 = #7.26
                  float64 = #7.27
                  float16-32 = float16 / float32
                  float32-64 = float32 / float64
                  float = float16-32 / float64

                  false = #7.20
                  true = #7.21
                  bool = false / true
                  nil = #7.22
                  undefined = #7.23

                          Figure 13: CDDL Prelude

   Note that the prelude is deemed to be fixed.  This means, for
   instance, that additional tags beyond [RFC7049], as registered, need
   to be defined in each CDDL file that is using them.

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Appendix F.  The CDDL tool

   A rough CDDL tool is available.  For CDDL specifications that do not
   use recursion, it can check the syntax, generate one or more
   instances (expressed in CBOR diagnostic notation or in pretty-printed
   JSON), and validate an existing instance against the specification:

                   Usage:
                   cddl spec.cddl generate [n]
                   cddl spec.cddl json-generate [n]
                   cddl spec.cddl validate instance.cbor
                   cddl spec.cddl validate instance.json

                        Figure 14: CDDL tool usage

   Install on a system with a modern Ruby via:

                             gem install cddl

                                 Figure 15

   The accompanying CBOR diagnostic tools (which are automatically
   installed by the above) are described in https://github.com/cabo/
   cbor-diag ; they can be used to convert between binary CBOR, a
   pretty-printed form of that, CBOR diagnostic notation, JSON, and
   YAML.

Editorial Comments

[_1] This item requires some further discussion, i.e. we aren't there
     yet and/or we don't really know whether we want to be there.

[_3] we don't have a way yet to qualify the representation of a value,
     e.g., whether it is float16, float32 or float64.  To do: probably
     borrowing something from diagnostic notation (section 6.1 RFC
     7049).

Authors' Addresses

   Christoph Vigano
   Universitaet Bremen

   Email: christoph.vigano@uni-bremen.de

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   Henk Birkholz
   Fraunhofer SIT
   Rheinstrasse 75
   Darmstadt  64295
   Germany

   Email: henk.birkholz@sit.fraunhofer.de

   Ruinan Sun
   Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
   Huawei Industrial Base
   Bantian, Longgang District
   Shenzhen  518129
   P.R. China

   Email: sunruinan@huawei.com

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