URI-Path abbreviation in CoAP
draft-ietf-core-uri-path-abbrev-02
| Document | Type | Active Internet-Draft (core WG) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | Christian Amsüss , Michael Richardson | ||
| Last updated | 2025-10-20 | ||
| Replaces | draft-amsuess-core-shopinc | ||
| RFC stream | Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) | ||
| Intended RFC status | (None) | ||
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draft-ietf-core-uri-path-abbrev-02
CoRE C. Amsüss
Internet-Draft
Intended status: Standards Track M. Richardson
Expires: 23 April 2026 Sandelman Software Works
20 October 2025
URI-Path abbreviation in CoAP
draft-ietf-core-uri-path-abbrev-02
Abstract
Applications built on CoAP face a conflict between the technical need
for short message sizes and the interoperability requirement of
following BCP190 and thus registering (relatively verbose) well-known
URI paths. This document introduces an option that allows expressing
well-known paths in as little as two bytes.
About This Document
This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.
Status information for this document may be found at
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-core-uri-path-abbrev/.
Discussion of this document takes place on the Constrained RESTful
Environments Working Group mailing list (mailto:core@ietf.org), which
is archived at https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/core/.
Subscribe at https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/core/.
Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
https://github.com/core-wg/uri-path-abbrev.
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-
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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."
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This Internet-Draft will expire on 23 April 2026.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2025 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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provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1. Motivating example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2. Conventions and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. The Uri-Path-Abbrev option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1. Server processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2. Client processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3. Proxy processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.4. Interaction with other options . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.5. Choice of the option number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3. Initial Uri-Path-Abbrev values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4. Implementation Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6.1. CoAP option: Uri-Path-Abbrev . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6.2. Uri-Path-Abbrev registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Appendix A. Further development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Appendix B. Change log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1. Introduction
When building application components on CoAP ([RFC7252]), sending
small messages is a general goal in the ecosystem (i.e., constrained
environments, where data rates are limited and large packets can lead
to packet loss, see [RFC7228]). While CoAP can operate with a wide
range of URIs, short path names are therefore favored.
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Those short path names need to be discovered, and [RFC7252] and
[RFC6690] provide mechanisms for that. Applications that can not
discover such paths because they precede a discovery step, such as
the discovery itself, setting up a security context ([RFC9528]) or
establishing an initial identity ([RFC9148]) can not rely on
discovered short paths, and need to use well-known paths. The best
practice established in [BCP190] requires applications to use the
prefix ".well-known" for their paths, making the combined paths
easily longer than the rest of the CoAP message.
This document establishes a CoAP option that allows abbreviating the
path component of the request URI through a numeric registry.
1.1. Motivating example
The design criteria for [RFC9528] described in Section 2.11 of
[I-D.ietf-lake-reqs-04] give a fragmentation limit of 47 bytes CoAP
message payload for 6TiSCH and 51 bytes for some parameters (and
implementations) of LoRaWAN, and high performance penalties of not
fitting in those frames. An EDHOC message 1 on its own carries a
minimum of 37 bytes. The 18 bytes of an encoded "/.well-known/edhoc"
path push the size over either limit, whereas an equivalent Uri-Path-
Abbrev stays well below the limit.
1.2. Conventions and Definitions
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 document assumes basic familiarity with CoAP ([RFC7252]), in
particular its Uri-* options.
2. The Uri-Path-Abbrev option
The Uri-Path-Abbrev option (short for "URI path, abbreviated")
expresses a request's URI path in a more compact form.
The Uri-Path-Abbrev value represents a particular path, and is thus
equivalent to any number of Uri-Path options. Those paths are
typically in a "/.well-known" location as described in [RFC8615].
The numeric option values are coordinated by IANA in the Uri-Path-
Abbrev registry established in this document in Section 6.2.
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+=======+=+===+===+===+=================+========+======+=========+
| No. |C| U | N | R | Name | Format | Len. | Default |
+=======+=+===+===+===+=================+========+======+=========+
| CPA13 |x| | | | Uri-Path-Abbrev | uint | 0-4 | (none) |
+-------+-+---+---+---+-----------------+--------+------+---------+
Table 1: Uri-Path-Abbrev Option Summary (C = Critical, U =
Unsafe, N = NoCacheKey, R = Repeatable)
// RFC-Editor: This document uses the CPA (code point allocation)
// convention described in [I-D.bormann-cbor-draft-numbers]. For
// each usage of the term "CPA", please remove the prefix "CPA" from
// the indicated value and replace the residue with the value
// assigned by IANA; perform an analogous substitution for all other
// occurrences of the prefix "CPA" in the document. Finally, please
// remove this note. There is one occurrence of the value 13 encoded
// in a1270d, which, if the number were to change, would need
// updating.
The option is a critical, safe-to-forward, and part of the cache key,
and used in CoAP requests. Table 1 summarizes these, extending
Table 4 of [RFC7252]). Its OSCORE treatment is as Class E
([RFC8613]).
The option has an integer value from the registry established in
Section 6.2.
Apart from the format and repeatability, the option's properties only
deviate from the Uri-Path (for which it stands in) in that this
option is safe to forward. This has consequences for the
interactions with the Proxy-URI option, but is generally desirable:
It allows the option to be used with proxies that do not implement
the option.
2.1. Server processing
A server receiving this option process it like the equivalent
sequence of Uri-Path options.
A server that supports a Uri-Path-Abbrev value MUST also support the
equivalent request composed of Uri-Path components.
A server receiving the option with an unknown value MUST treat it as
an unprocessable critical option, returning 4.02 Bad Option (or
reject the message
// This option may go away if https://github.com/core-wg/corrclar/
// issues/52 (https://github.com/core-wg/corrclar/issues/52) is
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// resolved before this document is published.) and MUST NOT return a
4.04 Not Found response, because the equivalent path may be present
on the server.
Since clients that use the option are usually aware of the
possibility of failure, there is no need to provide a diagnostic
payload in the error (as is generally recommended in Section 5.4.1 of
[RFC7252]). A machine readable (and, albeit beyond the scope of this
document, actionable) response is described in Section 3.1.1 of
[RFC9290]: the server can set Content-Format 257 in the response and
send the payload a1270d, which is the CBOR encoding for the CoAP
problem detail "Unprocessed CoAP option" with the value CPA13.
2.2. Client processing
A client can use the option instead of the Uri-Path option if there
is a suitable value that can express the requested path.
The option SHOULD only be sent when it is known that the server has
support for the concrete value. This knowledge is typically not
learned, but follows from other specifications mandating support for
it.
A client can also send a value if it is merely likely that the server
supports it. (The decision threshold varies by application, but
generally it's closer to 95% than a mere more-likely-than-not). This
is called "tentative use".
In that case, the client needs to reliably detect failure of the
option, and to fall back to repeating the request with the Uri-Path
spelled out, to operate reliably.
There are four possible indications of the option not being
supported:
1. A 4.02 Bad Option response.
2. A 5.02 Bad Gateway caused by a proxy that received a RST or lack
of response.
3. A RST caused by handling of a Non-confirmable message.
4. Not receiving a response to a Non-confirmable message.
// There is ongoing discussion about whether that behavior is
// desirable at https://github.com/core-wg/corrclar/issues/52
// (https://github.com/core-wg/corrclar/issues/52). In the unlikely
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// case that discussion concludes before this document, the 4.02
// outcome might be shown as preferred in here and in server
// processing.
Some of the complexity of detecting lack of server-side support
(items 3 and 4) can be avoided by not using the option with Non-
confirmable requests in tentative use.
As multicast requests generally do not result in errors being
returned, tentative use is not available for multicast requests.
A generic client implementation SHOULD NOT use this option without
explicit instructions from a higher layer or the known specification
of the numeric value: Conditions for tentative use are generally not
met.
2.3. Proxy processing
A proxy MAY expand or introduce a Uri-Path-Abbrev before consulting
its cache.
It MAY expand a Uri-Path-Abbrev option before forwarding, in
particular if it has reason to assume that the option is not
understood. Like a generic client, it SHOULD NOT introduce an
abbreviation without good reason; and then, it MUST fall back to the
expanded form, as to not introduce unexpected errors to the client.
A proxy that knows Uri-Path-Abbrev but not the concrete value SHOULD
forward it unmodified, which is the behavior it would apply if it did
not know the option. A reason to reject the request instead is when
the proxy is tasked with enforcing access control (see Section 5).
When cross-proxying to protocols that can not transport this option
(such as HTTP), the proxy needs to expand the path.
2.4. Interaction with other options
The option is mutually exclusive with the Uri-Path option. Receiving
both options in a single request MUST be treated like the presence of
a critical request option that could not be processed (that option
being either the Uri-Path-Abbrev option or the conflicting option).
The Uri-Path-Abbrev option MUST NOT be used in combination with the
Proxy-Uri option (or the similar Proxy-CRI option (of
[I-D.ietf-core-href])) by clients. Proxies that understand Uri-Path-
Abbrev and convert Uri-* options into Proxy-Uri MUST expand any Uri-
Path-Abbrev if they know the value.
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By the (de)composition rules around Proxy-Uri, and because Uri-Path-
Abbrev is safe-to-forward, a proxy (being generally unaware of this
specification) is allowed to combine the option with Proxy-Uri (or
Proxy-CRI) when it combines the Uri-* options. In such a combined
message, the Uri-Path segments to which the Uri-Path-Abbrev
corresponds are appended to the path as if all components were
present as individual options in the request without conflicting.
Servers that support both Uri-Path-Abbrev and Proxy-URI/-CRI SHOULD
process requests accordingly. (This is not a strict requirement, as
there are no known implementations of proxies that actually compose a
Proxy-URI/-CRI from individual options, nor is there a reason known
why they should).
2.5. Choice of the option number
// RFC-Editor: Please remove this section during publication. It is
// valuable only to the working group and designated experts who
// mange the limited resource of option numbers, and stays available
// for future documents that may want to apply similar rationale
// throughout the draft versions.
The option's desired properties (critical, safe-to-forward, part of
the cache key) limit the available number space to patterns ending
with 0bXXX01 where XXX is not 111. All options encodable with a
short (1+0-byte) delta, i.e. <= 12, are already assigned. Usually,
we'd then look at other options this is typically combined with, and
if there are none (as is the case here), go for a large value in the
next more efficient (1+1-byte) space so that the small-but-quite-not-
1+0-byte numbers stay usable as 1+0-byte options when combined with
their "favorite pairs". (This was done with the EDHOC option which
is usually paired with OSCORE).
However, in this case, there is an extra concern: The option number
should also be smaller than Uri-Query, so that processing the options
in a linear fashion can happen as it would happen with Uri-Path: The
path gets processed, setting up a state machine to process the query.
As Uri-Query has option number 15, the value 13 is the only good
choice for this option.
3. Initial Uri-Path-Abbrev values
This document registers values for the following well-known URIs:
* /.well-known/core
* /.well-known/rd (see [RFC9175])
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* /.well-known/edhoc (see [RFC9528])
* For EST ([RFC9148]):
- /.well-known/est/crts
- /.well-known/est/sen
- /.well-known/est/sren
- /.well-known/est/skg
- /.well-known/est/skc
- /.well-known/est/att
EST does allow using other paths, such as different root resources
or arbitrary labels; for those, no abbreviations are supported in
this document.
* For [I-D.ietf-anima-constrained-voucher]:
- /.well-known/brski/es
- /.well-known/brski/rv
- /.well-known/brski/vs
Note that the core and rd paths are commonly used with Uri-Query
options.
4. Implementation Status
This section records the status of known implementations of the
protocol defined by this specification at the time of posting of this
Internet-Draft, and is based on a proposal described in [RFC7942].
The description of implementations in this section is intended to
assist the IETF in its decision processes in progressing drafts to
RFCs. Please note that the listing of any individual implementation
here does not imply endorsement by the IETF. Furthermore, no effort
has been spent to verify the information presented here that was
supplied by IETF contributors. This is not intended as, and must not
be construed to be, a catalog of available implementations or their
features. Readers are advised to note that other implementations may
exist.
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According to [RFC7942], "this will allow reviewers and working groups
to assign due consideration to documents that have the benefit of
running code, which may serve as evidence of valuable experimentation
and feedback that have made the implemented protocols more mature.
It is up to the individual working groups to use this information as
they see fit".
* aiocoap https://christian.amsuess.com/tools/aiocoap/
(https://christian.amsuess.com/tools/aiocoap/)
A general-purpose implementation of CoAP for unconstrained sytems,
published under MIT License.
In its current main branch, the implementation covers the server
side of this specification, applying expansion automatically
before looking up which resource to serve. For client, all it
provides is the option field where to place a number if the
application decides it is suitable, relying on the client
application to perform the fallback.
It implements version ietf-core-uri-path-abbrev-01.
Implementation experience: Generally straightforward unless one
tries to preserve the information whether Uri-Path-Abbrev was used
for the server application (but that was probably just a bad idea
in the first place).
Contact information: Christian Amsüss (author), updated 2025-09-26
* libcoap (preliminary)
A report on a yet unpublished implementaiton and related tests of
ietf-core-uri-path-abbrev-01 in libcoap has been submitted at
https://github.com/core-wg/uri-path-abbrev/issues/25
(https://github.com/core-wg/uri-path-abbrev/issues/25) on
2025-10-01.
5. Security Considerations
Having alternative expressions for information that is input to
policy decisions can be problematic when the mechanism performing the
check has a different interpretation of the presented data than the
mechanism at time of use. That concern is not new to this document:
Both the Proxy-Uri of [RFC7252] and the Proxy-Cri option of
[I-D.ietf-core-href] have the same properties in that regard. The
appropriate behavior is for policy checkers to reject any request
that contains critical options that is not understood; the
application protected by the checker may provide the checker with an
allow-list of options that it will treat as unchecked input.
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6. IANA Considerations
6.1. CoAP option: Uri-Path-Abbrev
IANA is requested to enter an one option into the CoAP Option Numbers
registry in the CoRE Parameters group:
* Number: CPA13
* Name: Uri-Path-Abbrev
* Reference: this document
6.2. Uri-Path-Abbrev registry
IANA is requested to establish a new registry in the CoRE parameters
group: Values of the first Uri-Path-Abbrev option in a CoAP request
correspond to a URI path according to this registry.
The policy for adding any value is IETF Review (as described in
[RFC8126]). Change control for the registry follows this document's
publication stream. Initial values are given in Table 2.
Entry fields are:
* Option value.
An non-negative integer that can be expressed in 32 bits, unique
within this registry.
All positive values whose most significant bit of the most
significant byte is 1 are reserved.
The Python invocation python3 -c 'print("reserved" if
(250).bit_length() % 8 == 0 else "unreserved")' can be used to
quickly test this property for any positive number (250 in this
example).
* Expanded path.
This text is the URI path (starting with /) that the option is
expanded to.
* Reference.
A document that requested the allocation.
Reviewer instructions:
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The reviewer is instructed to be frugal with the 128 values that
correspond to a single-byte value, focusing on applications that are
expected to be useful in different constrained ecosystems.
The expanded path is expected to be well-known paths at the time of
writing, but it is up to the reviewers to exceptionally also admit
paths that are not well-known.
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+========+================+======================================+
| Option | Expanded path | Reference |
| value | | |
+========+================+======================================+
| 0 | /.well-known/ | Section 3 of this document |
| | core | |
+--------+----------------+--------------------------------------+
| 1 | /.well-known/ | Section 3 of this document, and |
| | rd | [RFC9176] |
+--------+----------------+--------------------------------------+
| 2 | /.well-known/ | Section 3 of this document, and |
| | edhoc | [RFC9528] |
+--------+----------------+--------------------------------------+
| 301 | /.well- | Section 3 of this document, and |
| | known/est/crts | [RFC9148] |
+--------+----------------+--------------------------------------+
| 302 | /.well- | Section 3 of this document, and |
| | known/est/sen | [RFC9148] |
+--------+----------------+--------------------------------------+
| 303 | /.well- | Section 3 of this document, and |
| | known/est/sren | [RFC9148] |
+--------+----------------+--------------------------------------+
| 304 | /.well- | Section 3 of this document, and |
| | known/est/skg | [RFC9148] |
+--------+----------------+--------------------------------------+
| 305 | /.well- | Section 3 of this document, and |
| | known/est/skc | [RFC9148] |
+--------+----------------+--------------------------------------+
| 306 | /.well- | Section 3 of this document, and |
| | known/est/att | [RFC9148] |
+--------+----------------+--------------------------------------+
| 401 | /.well- | Section 3 of this document, and |
| | known/brski/es | [I-D.ietf-anima-constrained-voucher] |
+--------+----------------+--------------------------------------+
| 402 | /.well- | Section 3 of this document, and |
| | known/brski/rv | [I-D.ietf-anima-constrained-voucher] |
+--------+----------------+--------------------------------------+
| 403 | /.well- | Section 3 of this document, and |
| | known/brski/vs | [I-D.ietf-anima-constrained-voucher] |
+--------+----------------+--------------------------------------+
Table 2: Initial values for the Uri-Path-Abbrev registry
7. References
7.1. Normative References
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[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/rfc/rfc2119>.
[RFC7252] Shelby, Z., Hartke, K., and C. Bormann, "The Constrained
Application Protocol (CoAP)", RFC 7252,
DOI 10.17487/RFC7252, June 2014,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7252>.
[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/rfc/rfc8174>.
7.2. Informative References
[BCP190] Best Current Practice 190,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/bcp190>.
At the time of writing, this BCP comprises the following:
Nottingham, M., "URI Design and Ownership", BCP 190,
RFC 8820, DOI 10.17487/RFC8820, June 2020,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8820>.
[I-D.bormann-cbor-draft-numbers]
Bormann, C., "Managing CBOR codepoints in Internet-
Drafts", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-bormann-
cbor-draft-numbers-06, 7 July 2025,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-bormann-cbor-
draft-numbers-06>.
[I-D.ietf-anima-constrained-voucher]
Richardson, M., Van der Stok, P., Kampanakis, P., and E.
Dijk, "Constrained Bootstrapping Remote Secure Key
Infrastructure (cBRSKI)", Work in Progress, Internet-
Draft, draft-ietf-anima-constrained-voucher-29, 18 October
2025, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-
anima-constrained-voucher-29>.
[I-D.ietf-core-href]
Bormann, C. and H. Birkholz, "Constrained Resource
Identifiers", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-
ietf-core-href-26, 16 October 2025,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-core-
href-26>.
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[I-D.ietf-lake-reqs-04]
Vučinić, M., Selander, G., Mattsson, J. P., and D. Garcia-
Carillo, "Requirements for a Lightweight AKE for OSCORE",
Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-lake-reqs-04,
8 June 2020, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-
ietf-lake-reqs-04>.
[RFC6690] Shelby, Z., "Constrained RESTful Environments (CoRE) Link
Format", RFC 6690, DOI 10.17487/RFC6690, August 2012,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6690>.
[RFC7228] Bormann, C., Ersue, M., and A. Keranen, "Terminology for
Constrained-Node Networks", RFC 7228,
DOI 10.17487/RFC7228, May 2014,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7228>.
[RFC7942] Sheffer, Y. and A. Farrel, "Improving Awareness of Running
Code: The Implementation Status Section", BCP 205,
RFC 7942, DOI 10.17487/RFC7942, July 2016,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7942>.
[RFC8126] Cotton, M., Leiba, B., and T. Narten, "Guidelines for
Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26,
RFC 8126, DOI 10.17487/RFC8126, June 2017,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8126>.
[RFC8613] Selander, G., Mattsson, J., Palombini, F., and L. Seitz,
"Object Security for Constrained RESTful Environments
(OSCORE)", RFC 8613, DOI 10.17487/RFC8613, July 2019,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8613>.
[RFC8615] Nottingham, M., "Well-Known Uniform Resource Identifiers
(URIs)", RFC 8615, DOI 10.17487/RFC8615, May 2019,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8615>.
[RFC8790] Keränen, A. and M. Mohajer, "FETCH and PATCH with Sensor
Measurement Lists (SenML)", RFC 8790,
DOI 10.17487/RFC8790, June 2020,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8790>.
[RFC9148] van der Stok, P., Kampanakis, P., Richardson, M., and S.
Raza, "EST-coaps: Enrollment over Secure Transport with
the Secure Constrained Application Protocol", RFC 9148,
DOI 10.17487/RFC9148, April 2022,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9148>.
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[RFC9175] Amsüss, C., Preuß Mattsson, J., and G. Selander,
"Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP): Echo, Request-
Tag, and Token Processing", RFC 9175,
DOI 10.17487/RFC9175, February 2022,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9175>.
[RFC9176] Amsüss, C., Ed., Shelby, Z., Koster, M., Bormann, C., and
P. van der Stok, "Constrained RESTful Environments (CoRE)
Resource Directory", RFC 9176, DOI 10.17487/RFC9176, April
2022, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9176>.
[RFC9290] Fossati, T. and C. Bormann, "Concise Problem Details for
Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) APIs", RFC 9290,
DOI 10.17487/RFC9290, October 2022,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9290>.
[RFC9528] Selander, G., Preuß Mattsson, J., and F. Palombini,
"Ephemeral Diffie-Hellman Over COSE (EDHOC)", RFC 9528,
DOI 10.17487/RFC9528, March 2024,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9528>.
Appendix A. Further development
Several possible further directions are anticipated in this document,
but not specified at this point in time; they are left for further
documents that update and thus compatibly extend this document.
In any case, server implementations that treat unknown option values
or repeated Uri-Path-Abbrev options like any other critical
unprocessable option (i.e., by responding with 4.02 Bad Option)
support the transition to such an extension.
* Some values of the option might admit repetition of the option. A
document that updates this document and the Uri-Path-Abbrev
registry will need to specify how later occurrences of the option
extend the series of equivalent Uri-Path options from the first
value, or defer some of that decision to that first value's entry.
* The mechanism of expanding one option into another option might be
expressed using the terminology of SCHC.
Such a generalization is not aimed for in this document; authors
of any future document providing such a framework are encouraged
to provide an equivalent but machine-readable explanation of the
mechanism specified here.
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* The registry for Uri-Path-Abbrev values is set up such that first
values can not have the most significant bit of the first byte
set.
This allows future documents to reuse the option for any CBOR
expressions, e.g. the path component of a CRI
[I-D.ietf-core-href]. Note that those CBOR structures can only
use the major types 4 to 7 for the top-level item, but that
includes all containers (arrays, maps and tags).
Senders and recipients of this option do not need to concern
themselves with that extension mechanism unless they implement it:
As the first value is compared to known registry entries, any CBOR
item contained in it will simply not match any known value.
Should the working group decide not to use that extension point,
the registry's policy can be relaxed to also allow values with
that leading bit set.
* A future document may update this document to allow registering
values that are allowed to use together with Uri-Path values (but
at the time of writing, no examples are known by which such a
design could be properly vetted). In particular, that update
weakens the "MUST" in Section 2.4.
* This option is designed to stand in for the Uri-Path option alone,
not for any other option; this simplifies its interaction rules.
In particular, application authors who seek to express Uri-Query
options in a more concise or easier to process way are advised to
avail themselves of the FETCH method introduced in [RFC8790].
Appendix B. Change log
Since ietf-core-uri-path-abbrev-01: Processing WGA review input and
cleanup.
* Using Uri-Path-Abbrev without knowing it will be supported now has
a term ("tentative use") and was reworded.
* The "SHOULD" to support fallback mode was lifted to "SHOULD only
be [used when the server is known to support it]", with the
recovery being a factual necessity for reliability in tentative
use.
* The fallback detection was extended to account for possible
reactions to NONs (namely, RST, not replying at all, and 5.02).
* Use with multicast was limited to non-tentative use.
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* Added reference to libcoap work.
* Added pointer to RFC9290 (Problem Details) error messages,
discouraging diagnostic payloads.
* Sections on future work were unified in the appendix.
* Appendix on open questions was moved into the issue tracker at
https://github.com/core-wg/uri-path-abbrev/issues/
(https://github.com/core-wg/uri-path-abbrev/issues/).
* Cleanup of IANA considerations where -01 previous changes were not
accounted for.
* "Choice of option number" spelled out and set up for removal
before publication.
* Editorial changes.
Since ietf-core-uri-path-abbrev-00: Processing previous two interims.
* Rename option to Uri-Path-Abbrev.
* Allocate per-resource codes for EST and cBRSKI.
* Allocate code for EDHOC.
* Defer repeated use to future extensions.
* Rearrange content to have dedicated server, client and proxy
subsections for option processing.
* Establish that generic clients SHOULD NOT use this without reason.
* More explicit language for proxies, including cross-proxies.
* Add introduction and motivating example.
* Add RFC7942 Implementation Status section.
Since draft-amsuess-core-shopinc-02:
Adopted into WG unmodified as I-D.ietf-core-uri-path-abbrev
Since draft-amsuess-core-shopinc-01: Processing 2025-08-27 interim.
* Document is standards track.
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* Change name of the option from Short-Uri-Path to Uri-Path-Abbr.
* Close question of whether use of option 13 is justified (it is).
* Minor editorials.
Since draft-amsuess-core-shopinc-00:
* Switched option type from opaque to uint (retaining the lockout
for values that look like CBOR arrays/maps).
* MCR joined as author.
* Added initial values for BRSKI and EST.
* Allow 4.04 responses.
* Add guidance for choosing prefixes and rules.
* Large editorial changes.
Acknowledgments
This document was created out of discussion with Esko Dijk and
Michael Richardson. Carsten Bormann provided useful input on shaping
the registry. Jon Shallow provided much input, in particular around
gaps in the fallback process.
Authors' Addresses
Christian Amsüss
Austria
Email: christian@amsuess.com
Michael Richardson
Sandelman Software Works
Email: mcr+ietf@sandelman.ca
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