Requirements for Archiving IETF Email Lists and for Providing Web-Based Browsing and Searching
RFC 6778

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
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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.

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