Re: Last Call: draft-ietf-dkim-deployment (DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Development, Deployment and Operations) to Informational RFC

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Dave,

The draft targets Informational status.

What does it mean, for a reference to be Normative or Non-Normative, in a non-normative document?

Where is this explained for authors?


Well timed question, because I just ran headlong into it with regard to an experimental document.  Here is what the RFC Editor has to say (ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc-editor/instructions2authors.txt):
   2.7 References and Citations

      An RFC will generally contain bibliographic references to other
      documents, and the body will contain citations to these
      references.  Section 4.7f specifies the format for the references
      listed at the end of the RFC body, but there is no required format
      for a citation.

      Within an RFC, references to other documents fall into two general
      categories: "normative" and "informative".  Normative references
      specify documents that must be read to understand or implement the
      technology in the new RFC, or whose technology must be present for
      the technology in the new RFC to work.  An informative reference
      is not normative; rather, it provides only additional information.
      For example, an informative reference might provide background or
      historical information.  Material in an informative reference is
      not required to implement the technology in the RFC.

      An RFC must include separate lists of normative and informative
      references (see Section 4.7f below.)  The distinction between
      normative and informative references is often important.  The IETF
      standards process and the RFC Editor publication process need to
      know whether a reference to a work in progress is normative.  A
      standards-track RFC cannot be published until all of the documents
      that it lists as normative references have been published.  In
      practice, this often results in the simultaneous publication of a
      group of interrelated RFCs.

      We recommend enclosing citations in square brackets ("[ ]").
      Simple numeric citations ("[53]") can cause confusing gaps when
      the list of references is split between normative and informative.
      A good alternative is to have two separate series, "[n1]", "[n2]",
      ... "[i1]", "[i2]" for citations to normative and informative
      references.  Other choices include author abbreviations, possibly
      a year ("[Smith93]"), and some brief encoding of the title and
      year ("[MPLS99a]").



The guidance at the beginning of the section seems to indicate that if one needs to read something to understand the content you are presenting, then a normative reference is in order, no matter the intended status.  I personally think it matters less when dealing with non-standards track documents (but then that's a general statement).  The risk you take is that something changes underneath you before publication if they are not now published.

Eliot
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