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Additional Control Operators for CDDL
draft-ietf-cbor-cddl-control-02

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 9165.
Author Carsten Bormann
Last updated 2021-02-22 (Latest revision 2020-11-17)
Replaces draft-bormann-cbor-cddl-control
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draft-ietf-cbor-cddl-control-02
Network Working Group                                         C. Bormann
Internet-Draft                                    Universität Bremen TZI
Intended status: Informational                          22 February 2021
Expires: 26 August 2021

                 Additional Control Operators for CDDL
                    draft-ietf-cbor-cddl-control-02

Abstract

   The Concise Data Definition Language (CDDL), standardized in RFC
   8610, provides "control operators" as its main language extension
   point.

   The present document defines a number of control operators that did
   not make it into RFC 8610: ".cat"/".plus" for the construction of
   constants, ".abnf"/".abnfb" for including ABNF (RFC 5234/RFC 7405) in
   CDDL specifications, and ".feature" for indicating the use of a non-
   basic feature in an instance.

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 26 August 2021.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2021 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
   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components

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   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
   2.  Computed Literals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  String Concatenation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.2.  Numeric Addition  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  Embedded ABNF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Features  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   6.  Implementation Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   7.  Security considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

1.  Introduction

   The Concise Data Definition Language (CDDL), standardized in RFC
   8610, provides "control operators" as its main language extension
   point.

   The present document defines a number of control operators that did
   not make it into RFC 8610:

         +==========+===========================================+
         | Name     | Purpose                                   |
         +==========+===========================================+
         | .cat     | String Concatenation                      |
         +----------+-------------------------------------------+
         | .plus    | Numeric addition                          |
         +----------+-------------------------------------------+
         | .abnf    | ABNF in CDDL (text strings)               |
         +----------+-------------------------------------------+
         | .abnfb   | ABNF in CDDL (byte strings)               |
         +----------+-------------------------------------------+
         | .feature | Detecting feature use in extension points |
         +----------+-------------------------------------------+

             Table 1: New control operators in this document

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1.1.  Terminology

   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
   BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

   This specification uses terminology from [RFC8610].  In particular,
   with respect to control operators, "target" refers to the left hand
   side operand, and "controller" to the right hand side operand.

2.  Computed Literals

   CDDL as defined in [RFC8610] does not have any mechanisms to compute
   literals.  As an 80 % solution, this specification adds two control
   operators: ".cat" for string concatenation, and ".plus" for numeric
   addition.

2.1.  String Concatenation

   It is often useful to be able to compose string literals out of
   component literals defined in different places in the specification.

   The ".cat" control identifies a string that is built from a
   concatenation of the target and the controller.  As targets and
   controllers are types, the resulting type is formally the cross-
   product of the two types, although not all tools may be able to work
   with non-unique targets or controllers.

   Target and controller MUST be strings.  The result of the operation
   has the type of the target.  The concatenation is performed on the
   bytes in both strings.  If the target is a text string, the result of
   that concatenation MUST be valid UTF-8.

   a = "foo" .cat '
     bar
     baz
   '
   ; on a system where the newline is \n, is the same string as:
   b = "foo\n  bar\n  baz\n"

          Figure 1: Example: concatenation of text and byte string

   The example in Figure 1 builds a text string named "a" out of
   concatenating the target text string ""foo"" and the controller byte
   string entered in a text form byte string literal.  (This particular
   idiom is useful when the text string contains newlines, which, as

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   shown in the example for "b", may be harder to read when entered in
   the format that the pure CDDL text string notation inherits from
   JSON.)

2.2.  Numeric Addition

   In many cases in a specification, numbers are needed relative to a
   base number.  The ".plus" control identifies a number that is
   constructed by adding the numeric values of the target and of the
   controller.

   Target and controller MUST be numeric.  If the target is a floating
   point number and the controller an integer number, or vice versa, the
   sum is converted into the type of the target; converting from a
   floating point number to an integer selects its floor (the largest
   integer less than or equal to the floating point number).

   interval<BASE> = (
     BASE => int             ; lower bound
     (BASE .plus 1) => int   ; upper bound
     ? (BASE .plus 2) => int ; tolerance
   )

   X = 0
   Y = 3
   rect = {
     interval<X>
     interval<Y>
   }

                Figure 2: Example: addition to a base value

   The example in Figure 2 contains the generic definition of a group
   "interval" that gives a lower and an upper bound and optionally a
   tolerance. "rect" combines two of these groups into a map, one group
   for the X dimension and one for Y dimension.

3.  Embedded ABNF

   Many IETF protocols define allowable values for their text strings in
   ABNF [RFC5234] [RFC7405].  It is often desirable to define a text
   string type in CDDL by employing existing ABNF embedded into the CDDL
   specification.  Without specific ABNF support in CDDL, that ABNF
   would usually need to be translated into a regular expression (if
   that is even possible).

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   ABNF is added to CDDL in the same way that regular expressions were
   added: by defining a ".abnf" control operator.  The target is usually
   "text" or some restriction on it, the controller is the text of an
   ABNF specification.

   There are several small issues, with solutions given here:

   *  ABNF can be used to define byte sequences as well as UTF-8 text
      strings interpreted as Unicode scalar sequences.  This means this
      specification defines two control operators: ".abnfb" for ABNF
      denoting byte sequences and ".abnf" for denoting sequences of
      Unicode scalar values (codepoint) represented as UTF-8 text
      strings.  Both control operators can be applied to targets of
      either string type; the ABNF is applied to sequence of bytes in
      the string interpreting that as a sequence of bytes (".abnfb") or
      as a sequence of code points represented as an UTF-8 text string
      (".abnf").  The controller string MUST be a text string.

   *  ABNF defines a list of rules, not a single expression (called
      "elements" in [RFC5234]).  This is resolved by requiring the
      controller string to be one valid "element", followed by zero or
      more valid "rule" separated from the element by a newline; so the
      controller string can be built by preceding a piece of valid ABNF
      by an "element" that selects from that ABNF and a newline.

   *  For the same reason, ABNF requires newlines; specifying newlines
      in CDDL text strings is tedious (and leads to essentially
      unreadable ABNF).  The workaround employs the ".cat" operator
      introduced in Section 2.1 and the syntax for text in byte strings.
      As is customary for ABNF, the syntax of ABNF itself (NOT the
      syntax expressed in ABNF!) is relaxed to allow a single linefeed
      as a newline:

       CRLF = %x0A / %x0D.0A

   *  One set of rules provided in an ABNF specification is often used
      in multiple positions, in particular staples such as DIGIT and
      ALPHA.  (Note that all rules referenced need to be defined in each
      ABNF operator controller string -- there is no implicit import of
      [RFC5234] Core ABNF or other rules.)  The composition this calls
      for can be provided by the ".cat" operator.

   These points are combined into an example in Figure 3, which uses
   ABNF from [RFC3339] to specify one of the CBOR tags defined in
   [RFC8943].

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   ; for draft-ietf-cbor-date-tag
   Tag1004 = #6.1004(text .abnf full-date)
   ; for RFC 7049
   Tag0 = #6.0(text .abnf date-time)

   full-date = "full-date" .cat rfc3339
   date-time = "date-time" .cat rfc3339

   ; Note the trick of idiomatically starting with a newline, separating
   ;   off the element in the .cat from the rule-list
   rfc3339 = '
      date-fullyear   = 4DIGIT
      date-month      = 2DIGIT  ; 01-12
      date-mday       = 2DIGIT  ; 01-28, 01-29, 01-30, 01-31 based on
                                ; month/year
      time-hour       = 2DIGIT  ; 00-23
      time-minute     = 2DIGIT  ; 00-59
      time-second     = 2DIGIT  ; 00-58, 00-59, 00-60 based on leap sec
                                ; rules
      time-secfrac    = "." 1*DIGIT
      time-numoffset  = ("+" / "-") time-hour ":" time-minute
      time-offset     = "Z" / time-numoffset

      partial-time    = time-hour ":" time-minute ":" time-second
                        [time-secfrac]
      full-date       = date-fullyear "-" date-month "-" date-mday
      full-time       = partial-time time-offset

      date-time       = full-date "T" full-time
   ' .cat rfc5234-core

   rfc5234-core = '
            DIGIT          =  %x30-39 ; 0-9
   ; abbreviated here
   '

     Figure 3: Example: employing RFC 3339 ABNF for defining CBOR Tags

4.  Features

   Traditionally, the kind of validation enabled by languages such as
   CDDL provided a Boolean result: valid, or invalid.

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   In rapidly evolving environments, this is too simplistic.  The data
   models described by a CDDL specification may continually be enhanced
   by additional features, and it would be useful even for a
   specification that does not yet describe a specific future feature to
   identify the extension point the feature can use, accepting such
   extensions while marking them as such.

   The ".feature" control annotates the target as making use of the
   feature named by the controller.  The latter will usually be a
   string.  A tool that validates an instance against that specification
   may mark the instance as using a feature that is annotated by the
   specification.

   More specifically, the tool's diagnostic output might contain the
   controller (right hand side) as a feature name, and the target (left
   hand side) as a feature detail.  However, in some cases, the target
   has too much detail, and the specification might want to hint the
   tool that more limited detail is appropriate.  In this case, the
   controller should be an array, with the first element being the
   feature name (that would otherwise be the entire controller), and the
   second element being the detail (usually another string).

   foo = {
     kind: bar / baz .feature (["foo-extensions", "bazify"])
   }
   bar = ...
   baz = ... ; complex stuff that doesn't all need to be in the detail

   Figure 4 shows what could be the definition of a person, with
   potential extensions beyond "name" and "organization" being marked
   "further-person-extension".  Extensions that are known at the time
   this definition is written can be collected into "$$person-
   extensions".  However, future extensions would be deemed invalid
   unless the wildcard at the end of the map is added.  These extensions
   could then be specifically examined by a user or a tool that makes
   use of the validation result; the label (map key) actually used makes
   a fine feature detail for the tool's diagnostic output.

   Leaving out the entire extension point would mean that instances that
   make use of an extension would be marked as whole-sale invalid,
   making the entire validation approach much less useful.  Leaving the
   extension point in, but not marking its use as special, would render
   mistakes such as using the label "organisation" instead of
   "organization" invisible.

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   person = {
     ? name: text
     ? organization: text
     $$person-extensions
     * (text .feature "further-person-extension") => any
   }

   $$person-extensions //= (? bloodgroup: text)

                 Figure 4: Map extensibility with .feature

   Figure 5 shows another example where ".feature" provides for type
   extensibility.

   allowed-types = number / text / bool / null
                 / [* number] / [* text] / [* bool]
                 / (any .feature "allowed-type-extension")

                 Figure 5: Type extensibility with .feature

   A CDDL tool may simply report the set of features being used; the
   control then only provides information to the process requesting the
   validation.  One could also imagine a tool that takes arguments
   allowing the tool to accept certain features and reject others
   (enable/disable).  The latter approach could for instance be used for
   a JSON/CBOR switch:

   SenML-Record = {
   ; ...
     ? v => number
   ; ...
   }
   v = JC<"v", 2>
   JC<J,C> = J .feature "json" / C .feature "cbor"

   It remains to be seen if the enable/disable approach can lead to new
   idioms of using CDDL.  The language currently has no way to enforce
   mutually exclusive use of features, as would be needed in this
   example.

5.  IANA Considerations

   This document requests IANA to register the contents of Table 2 into
   the CDDL Control Operators registry [IANA.cddl]:

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                         +==========+===========+
                         | Name     | Reference |
                         +==========+===========+
                         | .cat     | [RFCthis] |
                         +----------+-----------+
                         | .plus    | [RFCthis] |
                         +----------+-----------+
                         | .abnf    | [RFCthis] |
                         +----------+-----------+
                         | .abnfb   | [RFCthis] |
                         +----------+-----------+
                         | .feature | [RFCthis] |
                         +----------+-----------+

                                 Table 2

6.  Implementation Status

   An early implementation of the control operator ".feature" has been
   available in the CDDL tool described in Appendix F of [RFC8610] since
   version 0.8.11.  The validator warns about each feature being used
   and provides the set of target values used with the feature.  ".cat"
   and ".plus" are also implemented.

   Andrew Weiss' [CDDL-RS] has an ongoing implementation of this draft
   which is feature-complete except for the ABNF support
   (https://github.com/anweiss/cddl/pull/79
   (https://github.com/anweiss/cddl/pull/79)).

7.  Security considerations

   The security considerations of [RFC8610] apply.

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [IANA.cddl]
              IANA, "Concise Data Definition Language (CDDL)",
              <http://www.iana.org/assignments/cddl>.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

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   [RFC5234]  Crocker, D., Ed. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
              Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5234, January 2008,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5234>.

   [RFC7405]  Kyzivat, P., "Case-Sensitive String Support in ABNF",
              RFC 7405, DOI 10.17487/RFC7405, December 2014,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7405>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

   [RFC8610]  Birkholz, H., Vigano, C., and C. Bormann, "Concise Data
              Definition Language (CDDL): A Notational Convention to
              Express Concise Binary Object Representation (CBOR) and
              JSON Data Structures", RFC 8610, DOI 10.17487/RFC8610,
              June 2019, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8610>.

8.2.  Informative References

   [CDDL-RS]  Weiss, A., "cddl-rs", n.d.,
              <https://github.com/anweiss/cddl>.

   [RFC3339]  Klyne, G. and C. Newman, "Date and Time on the Internet:
              Timestamps", RFC 3339, DOI 10.17487/RFC3339, July 2002,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3339>.

   [RFC8943]  Jones, M., Nadalin, A., and J. Richter, "Concise Binary
              Object Representation (CBOR) Tags for Date", RFC 8943,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8943, November 2020,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8943>.

Acknowledgements

   Jim Schaad suggested several improvements.  The ".feature" feature
   was developed out of a discussion with Henk Birkholz.

Author's Address

   Carsten Bormann
   Universität Bremen TZI
   Postfach 330440
   D-28359 Bremen
   Germany

   Phone: +49-421-218-63921
   Email: cabo@tzi.org

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