On Dec 4, 2018, at 6:59 PM, Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: >>> NOTE: While [RFC2460] required that all nodes must examine and >>> process the Hop-by-Hop Options header, it is now expected that nodes >>> along a packet's delivery path only examine and process the >>> Hop-by-Hop Options header if explicitly configured to do so. >> >> That is an expectation of the inadequacy of others. It does not clearly drop the requirement. > > If so, that was a drafting error. RFC 7045 already formally changed > it to a SHOULD. > > And IMHO it's entirely correct. It makes the notion of option flag bits irrelevant but never removed them. The trouble is that the flags were there to prevent silently ignoring explicit direction to each router. If that isn’t what HBH options are, then what are they? If they were disabled as you say, they should have been completely removed from 8200. But they were - and are - not. Joe
