Improving Awareness of Running Code: The Implementation Status Section
RFC 7942

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                        Y. Sheffer
Request for Comments: 7942                                        Intuit
BCP: 205                                                       A. Farrel
Obsoletes: 6982                                         Juniper Networks
Category: Best Current Practice                                July 2016
ISSN: 2070-1721

 Improving Awareness of Running Code: The Implementation Status Section

Abstract

   This document describes a simple process that allows authors of
   Internet-Drafts to record the status of known implementations by
   including an Implementation Status section.  This will allow
   reviewers and working groups to assign due consideration to documents
   that have the benefit of running code, which may serve as evidence of
   valuable experimentation and feedback that have made the implemented
   protocols more mature.

   This process is not mandatory.  Authors of Internet-Drafts are
   encouraged to consider using the process for their documents, and
   working groups are invited to think about applying the process to all
   of their protocol specifications.  This document obsoletes RFC 6982,
   advancing it to a Best Current Practice.

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 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
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7942.

Sheffer & Farrel          Best Current Practice                 [Page 1]
RFC 7942                      Running Code                     July 2016

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2016 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.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  The "Implementation Status" Section . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.1.  Introductory Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   3.  Alternative Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   4.  Benefits  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   6.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8

1.  Introduction

   Most IETF participants are familiar with the saying "rough consensus
   and running code" [Tao] and can identify with its pragmatic approach.
   However, implementation is not a requirement for publication as an
   RFC.  There are many examples of Internet-Drafts containing protocol
   specifications that have gone through to publication as Proposed
   Standard RFCs without implementation.  Some of them may never get
   implemented.

   Over time, a variety of policies have been applied within the IETF to
   consider running code.  In the Routing Area, it used to be a
   requirement that one or more implementations must exist before an
   Internet-Draft could be published as a Proposed Standard RFC
   [RFC1264].  That RFC was later obsoleted and the requirement for
   implementation was lifted, but each working group was given the
   authority to impose its own implementation requirements [RFC4794] and
   at least one working group, Inter-Domain Routing (IDR), continues to
   require two independent implementations.

Sheffer & Farrel          Best Current Practice                 [Page 2]
RFC 7942                      Running Code                     July 2016

   The hypothesis behind the current document is that there are benefits
   to the IETF standardization process of producing implementations of
   protocol specifications before publication as RFCs.  These benefits,
   which include determining that the specification is comprehensible
   and that there is sufficient interest to implement, are further
   discussed in Section 4.

   This document describes a simple mechanism that allows authors of
   Internet-Drafts to record and publicize the status of known
   implementations by including an Implementation Status section.  The