ietf-dkim
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Re: [ietf-dkim] Consensus call on d=/i= clarification

2009-02-18 20:33:58
My vote:

(a) The erratum I-D [1] is ready to go. Process it.

If there is indeed a requirement to conform to the concept that a protocol 
must specify its payload, I believe this is the right way to go.  At 
present, a new API implementor has no clear indication of what a minimal 
DKIM implementation has to provide to be compliant.

To recite my prior example, the payload of a DNS reply is the answer which 
all APIs have to return, but there's auxilliary data (flags, counts, glue 
records) which an API might choose to expose as well, and some consumers 
might want.  An implementor of a protocol can choose to expose via its API 
whatever it wants (our DKIM library offer the means to get at pretty much 
everything), but it has to do the prescribed minimum.  Then it becomes a 
matter of choosing the API that satisfies the consumer's needs; a minimal 
one, or a more feature-rich one.  Typical DNS implementations have a "just 
give me the answer" API, namely the gethostbyxxx() calls, or something 
more detailed, namely the res_xxx() interface.

RFC3464 (DSNs) section 3 specifies what a minimal implementation of that 
specification needs to do to be compliant.  I think what this document 
does is essentially analogous with respect to DKIM.

I would also be satisfied with a change which stipulates that both i= and 
d=, or the UAID and SDID, are both mandatory outputs, but I don't want or 
need this strongly enough to advance it in a formal manner.  This could be 
done in DKIM v2, or the "bis" draft whenever that comes, or an extension 
draft, or something.

I don't believe all of the introduced terminology is strictly necessary, 
and note it makes the erratum document somewhat bloated and people 
reasonably find that uncomfortable.  But I don't believe that makes the 
document incorrect or more technically difficult to apply.

-MSK
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