What is an RFC ?
| Request For Comments |
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RFC, The Requests for Comments (RFC) document series is a set of technical and organizational notes about the Internet (orginally the ARPANET), beginning in 1969. Memos in the RFC series discuss many aspects of computer networking, including protocols, procedures, programs, and concepts, as well as meeting notes, opinions, and sometimes humor. Are all RFCs Internet standards documents? Many RFCs have Informational or Experimental status and do not represent any kind of standard. They contain information that may be useful or important to retain in this archival document series. This is important to understand, because unscrupulous marketers and a careless trade press sometimes falsely suggest that every RFC represents a standard, or that all standards have equal weight. The relationship among Internet technical specifications is often complex. I cannot retrieve the text of an RFC. Why not? There is a short list of RFC numbers that were issued to documents that were never actually published. This explains the occasional gap between numbers. The current procedures are set up to try very hard to avoid this situation in the future; in particular, RFC numbers are never reserved, rather they are assigned at the last moment in the editorial process. How long does it take for a document to become an RFC? Typical time to publish is 1-2 months, but the actual time varies greatly from one RFC to another. Publication may be held up for a variety of reasons, including IESG approval, inconsistencies or omissions that show up in editing, or normative references to other documents that must be published earlier or simultaneously. Authors should also be aware that the RFC Queue may be congested right before meetings of the IETF. |
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