IETF Stream Documents Require IETF Rough Consensus
A one-rule process change: the IETF must not publish IETF Stream RFCs without rough consensus.
Halpern, J., Ed. and E. Rescorla, Ed., "IETF Stream Documents Require IETF Rough Consensus", BCP 9, RFC 8789, DOI 10.17487/RFC8789, June 2020, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8789>.
@misc{rfc8789,
series = {Request for Comments},
number = 8789,
howpublished = {RFC 8789},
publisher = {RFC Editor},
doi = {10.17487/RFC8789},
url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8789},
author = {J. Halpern and E. Rescorla},
title = {{IETF Stream Documents Require IETF Rough Consensus}},
pagetotal = 4,
year = 2020,
month = jun,
} RFC text
Contents
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) J. Halpern, Ed.
Request for Comments: 8789 Ericsson
BCP: 9 E. Rescorla, Ed.
Updates: 2026 Mozilla
Category: Best Current Practice June 2020
ISSN: 2070-1721
IETF Stream Documents Require IETF Rough Consensus
Abstract
This document requires that the IETF never publish any IETF Stream
RFCs without IETF rough consensus. This updates RFC 2026.
Status of This Memo
This memo documents an Internet Best Current Practice.
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). Further information on
BCPs is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8789.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2020 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 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. Terminology
3. Action
4. Discussion
5. IANA Considerations
6. Security Considerations
7. Normative References
8. Informative References
Authors' Addresses
1. Introduction
IETF procedures, as defined by [RFC2026], allow for Informational or
Experimental RFCs to be published without IETF rough consensus. For
context, it should be remembered that this RFC predates the
separation of the various streams (e.g., IRTF, IAB, and Independent.)
When it was written, there were only "RFCs".
As a consequence, the IESG was permitted to approve an Internet-Draft
for publication as an RFC without IETF rough consensus.
2. 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.
3. Action
The IETF MUST NOT publish RFCs on the IETF Stream without
establishing IETF rough consensus for publication.
4. Discussion
The IETF procedures prior to publication of this BCP permitted such
informational or experimental publication without IETF rough
consensus. In 2007, the IESG issued a statement saying that no
document will be issued without first conducting an IETF Last Call
[IESG-STATE-AD]. While this apparently improved the situation, when
looking more closely, it made it worse. Rather than publishing
documents without verifying that there is rough consensus, as the
wording in [RFC2026] suggests, this had the IESG explicitly
publishing documents on the IETF Stream that have failed to achieve
rough consensus.
One could argue that there is a need for publishing some documents
that the community cannot agree on. However, we have an explicit
path for such publication, namely the Independent Stream. Or, for
research documents, the IRTF Stream, which explicitly publishes
minority opinion Informational RFCs.
5. IANA Considerations
This document has no IANA actions.
6. Security Considerations
This document introduces no new security considerations. It is a
process document about changes to the rules for certain corner cases
in publishing IETF Stream RFCs. However, this procedure will prevent
publication of IETF Stream documents that have not reached rough
consensus about their security aspects, thus potentially improving
security aspects of IETF Stream documents.
7. Normative References
[RFC2026] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, DOI 10.17487/RFC2026, October 1996,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2026>.
[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>.
[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>.
8. Informative References
[IESG-STATE-AD]
IESG, "Guidance on Area Director Sponsoring of Documents",
IESG Statement, March 2007,
<https://ietf.org/about/groups/iesg/statements/area-
director-sponsoring-documents/>.
Authors' Addresses
Joel Halpern (editor)
Ericsson
P.O. Box 6049
Leesburg, VA 20178
United States of America
Email: joel.halpern@ericsson.com
Eric Rescorla (editor)
Mozilla
331 E. Evelyn Ave.
Mountain View, CA 94101
United States of America
Email: ekr@rtfm.com
AI ELI5
On this page
§1The Gap in RFC 2026
The procedures in RFC 2026 allow Informational or Experimental RFCs to be published without IETF rough consensus. That RFC predates the separation of the various streams (IRTF, IAB and Independent); when it was written, there were only RFCs.
As a consequence, the IESG was permitted to approve an Internet-Draft for publication as an RFC without IETF rough consensus.
The old rulebook was written before there were separate shelves for different kinds of papers, and it left a loophole.
§2The Rule
The action is a single sentence: the IETF MUST NOT publish RFCs on the IETF Stream without establishing IETF rough consensus for publication. The document is BCP 9 and updates RFC 2026.
Before anything goes out under the IETF's name, most people involved must broadly agree. No exceptions.
§3Why the 2007 Statement Was Not Enough
In 2007 the IESG issued a statement that no document would be issued without first conducting an IETF Last Call. The RFC argues this apparently improved matters but made them worse: rather than publishing documents without verifying rough consensus, the IESG was explicitly publishing documents that had failed to achieve it.
The RFC acknowledges that some documents the community cannot agree on may still need publishing. It points to the Independent Stream for those, or the IRTF Stream for research documents, which explicitly publishes minority opinion Informational RFCs.
An earlier fix made people hold a last call first, but then papers that lost the vote still got printed. Papers nobody agrees on can go on a different shelf.
§4Security and IANA
The document has no IANA actions and introduces no new security considerations. The RFC adds that the procedure will prevent publication of IETF Stream documents that have not reached rough consensus about their security aspects, thus potentially improving their security.
It is only a rule about paperwork, but agreeing before printing may also catch safety problems.