Requirements for Archiving IETF Email Lists and for Providing Web-Based Browsing and Searching
RFC 6778
| Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(October 2012; No errata)
Was draft-sparks-genarea-mailarch (individual in gen area)
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
| Stream | IETF | ||
| Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
| Reviews | |||
| Stream | WG state | (None) | |
| Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 6778 (Informational) | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| Telechat date | |||
| Responsible AD | Russ Housley | ||
| Send notices to | (None) | ||
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) R. Sparks
Request for Comments: 6778 Tekelec
Category: Informational October 2012
ISSN: 2070-1721
Requirements for Archiving IETF Email Lists
and for Providing Web-Based Browsing and Searching
Abstract
The IETF makes heavy use of email lists to conduct its work.
Participants frequently need to search and browse the archives of
these lists and have asked for improved search capabilities. The
current archive mechanism could also be made more efficient. This
memo captures the requirements for improved email list archiving and
searching systems.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents
approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6778.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2012 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
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.
Sparks Informational [Page 1]
RFC 6778 List Archiving and Search Requirements October 2012
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................2
2. List Search and Archive Requirements ............................3
2.1. Search and Browsing ........................................3
2.2. Archiving Active Lists .....................................5
2.3. Importing Messages from Other Archives .....................5
2.4. Exporting Messages from the Archives .......................5
2.5. Redundancy .................................................6
2.6. Archive Administration .....................................6
2.7. Transition Requirements ....................................7
3. Internationalized Address Considerations ........................7
4. IMAP Access .....................................................7
5. Security Considerations .........................................7
6. Acknowledgements ................................................7
7. Informative References ..........................................8
1. Introduction
The IETF makes heavy use of email lists to conduct its work.
Participants frequently need to search the archives of these lists
and have asked for improved search capabilities, particularly when
the search needs to cover a large period of time or cross several
lists. For instance, document editors, shepherds, working group
chairs, and area directors may need to review all discussion of a
particular draft. That discussion may be spread across the working
group list, one or more directorate lists, and the IETF general list.
Occasionally, work impacts multiple groups, possibly in different
areas, and the search must cover additional working group lists.
The current tools for performing these searches require several
manually coordinated steps, which are error prone. Without a local
copy of the archive (which may not be complete), searching most
working group lists requires brute force effort, aided possibly by
web search engines.
More advanced search capabilities have been constructed for a limited
subset of the available lists and are exposed in the "Email Archives
Quick Search" section of the main IETF website. While these tools
are of great assistance, there is still significant need for
improvement.
The current archive mechanism could also be made more efficient. The
current practices involve duplicate stores (for the web and ftp
interfaces), which impact storage and replication and are subject to
inconsistency.
Sparks Informational [Page 2]
RFC 6778 List Archiving and Search Requirements October 2012
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