JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Text Sequences
RFC 7464

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                       N. Williams
Request for Comments: 7464                                  Cryptonector
Category: Standards Track                                  February 2015
ISSN: 2070-1721

            JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Text Sequences

Abstract

   This document describes the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) text
   sequence format and associated media type "application/json-seq".  A
   JSON text sequence consists of any number of JSON texts, all encoded
   in UTF-8, each prefixed by an ASCII Record Separator (0x1E), and each
   ending with an ASCII Line Feed character (0x0A).

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   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
   Internet Standards is available in 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/rfc7464.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2015 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.

Williams                     Standards Track                    [Page 1]
RFC 7464                   JSON Text Sequences             February 2015

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction and Motivation .....................................2
      1.1. Conventions Used in This Document ..........................2
   2. JSON Text Sequence Format .......................................3
      2.1. JSON Text Sequence Parsing .................................3
      2.2. JSON Text Sequence Encoding ................................4
      2.3. Incomplete/Invalid JSON Texts Need Not Be Fatal ............4
      2.4. Top-Level Values: numbers, true, false, and null ...........5
   3. Security Considerations .........................................6
   4. IANA Considerations .............................................6
   5. Normative References ............................................7
   Acknowledgements ...................................................8
   Author's Address ...................................................8

1.  Introduction and Motivation

   The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) [RFC7159] is a very handy
   serialization format.  However, when serializing a large sequence of
   values as an array, or a possibly indeterminate-length or never-
   ending sequence of values, JSON becomes difficult to work with.

   Consider a sequence of one million values, each possibly one kilobyte
   when encoded -- roughly one gigabyte.  It is often desirable to
   process such a dataset in an incremental manner without having to
   first read all of it before beginning to produce results.
   Traditionally, the way to do this with JSON is to use a "streaming"
   parser, but these are not widely available, widely used, or easy to
   use.

   This document describes the concept and format of "JSON text
   sequences", which are specifically not JSON texts themselves but are
   composed of (possible) JSON texts.  JSON text sequences can be parsed
   (and produced) incrementally without having to have a streaming
   parser (nor streaming encoder).

1.1.  Conventions Used in This Document

   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
   [RFC2119].

Williams                     Standards Track                    [Page 2]
RFC 7464                   JSON Text Sequences             February 2015

2.  JSON Text Sequence Format

   Two different sets of ABNF rules are provided for the definition of
   JSON text sequences: one for parsers and one for encoders.  Having
   two different sets of rules permits recovery by parsers from
   sequences where some of the elements are truncated for whatever
   reason.  The syntax for parsers is specified in terms of octet
   strings that are then interpreted as JSON texts, if possible.  The
   syntax for encoders, on the other hand, assumes that sequence
   elements are not truncated.

   JSON text sequences MUST use UTF-8 encoding; other encodings of JSON