Hi,
Let's keep in mind that syslog-sign will transport binary signatures. In
that, the authors are proposing to use base-64 encoding. I agree with
Rainer that we've provided enough means in syslog-protocol so that may be
accomplished.
As Rainer says, let's focus on getting syslog-protocol finished. :)
Thanks,
Chris
On Wed, 30 Nov 2005, Rainer Gerhards wrote:
Andrew,
That sounds good to me at this stage, and it keeps the door
open. I would
prefer to see all binary data encoded in some "safe" format
like base64. It
just makes logging the data to file much easier. For
instance, if the binary
data contained a LF character, when it was logged to disk, it
would end up
as two separate messages when opened in notepad etc.
While I too prefer a "safe" format, I would not like to outrule another
one. Maybe later... (we *need* to finish this I-D...). How it is handled
when writing to disk is beyond IETF. I would escape it then - but that's
up to the implementation.
Also, if we are to transport syslog over TCP at some stage,
we need to keep
a delimiter character free from use in the message. Again, a
LF would be a
good choice for this delimiter.
Here, I disagree. I think we can not set aside a character for this. If
we go for TCP, let's do octet-couting. Its reliable, efficient and
proven. Anyhow, we are not yet doing a TCP mapping, so I suggest we save
this discussion until later.
Rainer
PS: sorry for trying to focus on the immediate needs. But I think we
really need to finish something...
Cheers
Andrew
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Behalf Of Rainer Gerhards
Sent: Wednesday, 30 November 2005 9:26 p.m.
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Syslog] #3 NUL octets, #4 binary data, #8 octet-counting
Hi WG,
I have received notes via private mail telling me there seem
to be some
existing (and eventually soon upcoming) valid use cases for
binary data
in syslog. I think there is no point in arguing whether
that's fortunate
or not. It simply looks like that's the way it is. I do not like the
idea of breaking existing use cases for syslog (because that will only
lead to implementors ignoring the spec and the story of syslog
inconsistencies continues...). As such, I think we need to provide at
least some minimal support for it (aka "not outlaw it").
At first, this implies that NUL octets may be present in the message.
I propose that we write text that discourages the use of NUL,
but allows
it if needed. That text should also allow, but discourage, a
receiver to
modify messages containing NUL. With that, we allow the use
case, but do
not make it a "show stopper" for implementing compliant software. This
would also be pretty much in sync with what we currently find in
practice, so it is already expected behaviour. Finally, such
text would
caution implementors that when NUL octets are present, chancs are high
that eventually present digitial signatures will be broken.
In my point
of view, that's fair and efficient.
Chris proposal for #5 (character encoding) also provides an elegant
solution for binary data. We can use something like:
[enc="binary"]
or
[enc="base-64"]
I do NOT intend to specify this - I think it should be in the
scope of a
separate document specifying the use of binary data. Then
would also be
the right time to discuss all issues that arise out of it. For now, I
just would like to keep the door open.
Finally, I propose to extend Chris format so that the message size can
be conveyed. This has been brought up several times and I
think a clean
solution is now obvious:
[enc="utf-8" lang="en" size="MSG-size-in-octets"]
MSG-size-in-octets would be the size of the MSG part (just that!) in
octets. Counting just the MSG part is sufficient, as the rest of the
message consists of fields properly delimited. The size is
probably most
useful for binary data.
Please comment.
Rainer
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