Subject: FYI: Internet Draft for IETF API standards

From: Brent Callaghan <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 15:42:42 -0800

At the last NFSv4 WG meeting in Salt Lake City, we talked about
the advancement of the NFSv4 standard.  The NFSv4 standard
cannot advance without its dependent standards, e.g. NFSv4
cannot advance to Draft Standard unless all the RPC protocols
it uses are also Draft Standards.

NFSv4 security is defined by RPCSEC_GSS (RFC 2203) and this in
turn depends on the GSS-API standard (RFC 2078). GSS-API is
a bit unusual in the IETF because it describes an API - not
a network protocol.  The IETF standards process has an interoperability
requirement for Draft standards and a process for evaluating
protocol interoperability - but not API interoperability.

So, Brian Pawlowski, and the AD's have put together the following
Internet-Draft that proposes evaluation of APIs in the context
of network interoperability:

Advancement of Application Programming Interface specifications
                     on the IETF Standards Track
2. Abstract

   The Internet Standards Process [RFC2026] requires that all IETF
   Standards Track specifications must have "multiple, independent, and
   interoperable implementations" before they can be advanced beyond
   Proposed Standard status. This document specifies the test which the
   IESG will use to determine if an Application Programming Interface
   (API) specification document meets these requirements.  It also
   discusses the rationale for this process.

http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-pawlowski-apitest-00.txt

	Brent