Request for comments on Requests For Comments

Network Working Group                                          J. Postel
Request for Comments: 825                                            ISI
                                                           November 1982



             Request for Comments on Requests for Comments




This RFC is intended to clarify the status of RFCs and to provide some
guidance for the authors of RFCs in the future.  It is in a sense a
specification for RFCs.

There are several reasons for publishing a memo as an RFC, for example,
to make available some information for interested people, or to begin or
continue a discussion of an interesting idea, or to specify a protocol.

Each RFC is to include on its title page or in the first or second
paragraph a statement describing the intention of the RFC.

   The following sample paragraphs may be used to satisfy this
   requirement:

      Specification

         This RFC specifies a standard for the ARPA Internet community.
         Hosts on the ARPA Internet are expected to adopt and implement
         this standard.

      Discussion

         The purpose of this RFC is to focus discussion on particular
         problems in the ARPA Internet and possible methods of solution.
         No proposed solutions this document are intended as standards
         at this time.  Rather, it is hoped that a general consensus
         will emerge as to the appropriate solution to such problems,
         leading eventually to the adoption of standards.

      Information

         This RFC is presented to members of the ARPA Internet community
         in order to solicit their reactions to the proposals contained
         in it.  While perhaps the issues discussed are not directly
         relevant to the research problems of the ARPA Internet, they
         may be particularly interesting to some researchers and
         implementers.

RFC on RFCs


      Status

         This RFC is issued in response to the need for current
         information about the status and progress of various projects
         in the ARPA Internet community.  The information contained in
         this document is accurate as of the date of publication, but is
         subject to change.  Subsequent RFCs may reflect such changes.

      Report

         This RFC is issued to report on the results of a meeting.  It
         may document significant decisions made that impact the
         implementation of network protocols, or limit or expand the use
         of optional features of protocols.  Other meeting results may
         be indicated including (but not limited to) policy issues,
         technical topics discussed and problems needing further work.

   Of course these paragraphs need not be followed word for word, but
   the general intent of the RFC must be made clear.

RFCs are distributed online by being stored as public access files, and
a short messages is sent to the distribution list indicating the
availability of the memo.

The online files are copied by the interested people and printed or
displayed at their site on their equipment.  This means that the format
of the online files must meet the constraints of a wide variety of
printing and display equipment.

To meet these constraints the following rules are established for the
format of RFCs:

   The character codes are ASCII.

   Each page must be limited to 58 lines followed by a form feed on a
   line by itself.

   Each line must be limited to 72 characters followed by carriage
   return and line feed.

   No overstriking (or underlining) is allowed.

   These "height" and "width" constraints include any headers, footers,
   page numbers, or left side indenting.

Requests to be added to or deleted from this distribution list should be
sent to NIC@SRI-NIC.  Submissions for RFCs should be sent to
POSTEL@USC-ISIF.