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#1047 Path-identity: A proposal (perhaps)
At the moment, it seems that we're at an impasse partially caused by our
documents' failure to explain what a "path-identity" is. I don't know if I
understand it either....
At the moment, the specific format and use of path-identity is punted to
USEPRO, where it seems to be still undefined.
If we explained it, would this be a reasonable text to insert in 3.1.6?
(I've modified the BNF too. Only modified stuff included here)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
A path-identity identifies an agent. For the news system to work
properly, the path-identity must be globally unique.
Traditional usage has had two means of generating unique identifiers:
DNS names and asserted identities. The first gets its uniqueness from
the DNS; the second gets its uniqueness from tradition. New servers
should use DNS names.
In some cases, one wishes to embed something into a path-entity that
is not a name. One common thing to embed is an IP address, serving
as an identity when the name of the agent is not known.
path-list = [FWS]
*( ( path-identity / path-keyword / path-address )
[FWS]
path-delimiter [FWS] )
tail-entry [FWS]
path-identity = ( ALPHA / DIGIT )
*( ALPHA / DIGIT / "-" / "." / "_" )
path-keyword = "POSTED" / "MISMATCH"
path-address = IPv4address / no-fold-literal ; see [RFC2373]
NOTE: The path-address contains characters that some systems consider
path-delimiters. This can cause problems; path-address should
therefore only be used when absolutely necessary.
See [USEPRO] for details on when to use them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Note that in recycling no-fold-literal, I've added [] around addresses...
and that a naked IPv4 address is allowed separately, because people have
said this is already present (too much for us to remove).
Does this make sense?
Harald