OTP-TC(7)

🦋 OTP-TC 💖

okay so bestie, you opened OTP-TC(7) and it's giving definitions module energy ✨. Don't stress — this page is just the ASN.1 MIB module that spells out the shared textual conventions, and it's literally the page everything else in the OTP MIB borrows from. It lives in the MIB manual, it's called OTP-TC, and the whole thing opens with:

OTP-TC DEFINITIONS ::= BEGIN

That's it, that's the vibe check. Now let's go field by field, no skipping, periodt 💅.

---

🎀 IMPORTS (a.k.a. the "who are we borrowing from" section) 🎀

IMPORTS
    MODULE-IDENTITY
        FROM SNMPv2-SMI
    TEXTUAL-CONVENTION, DisplayString
        FROM SNMPv2-TC
    otpModules
        FROM OTP-REG
    ;

• MODULE-IDENTITY — pulled in FROM SNMPv2-SMI, so we can declare who this module is.
• TEXTUAL-CONVENTION and DisplayString — both FROM SNMPv2-TC, the toolbox for defining new types and for plain display strings.
• otpModules — FROM OTP-REG, the registration point our OID hangs off of. 🫶

---

🌸 otpTcModule MODULE-IDENTITY — the identity card 🌸

otpTcModule MODULE-IDENTITY
    LAST-UPDATED "200305090900Z"
    ORGANIZATION "Ericsson"
    CONTACT-INFO
       "Contact:  Erlang Support see license agreement for Erlang/OTP."
    DESCRIPTION
        "This MIB is part of the OTP MIB.  It defines common
        Textual Conventions used in other OTP mib modules."

    REVISION     "200305090900Z"
    DESCRIPTION
        "Changed CONTACT-INFO as it was outdated, made it more generic
     to avoid such changes in the future."

    REVISION     "199712010900Z"
    DESCRIPTION
        "The initial version of this module."
    ::= { otpModules 2 }

Breaking that down like it's a group chat recap 🧚:

• LAST-UPDATED "200305090900Z" — the last time this module got touched, timestamped in that SNMP date format.
• ORGANIZATION "Ericsson" — who's behind it, that's the org.
• CONTACT-INFO — the contact text says "Contact: Erlang Support see license agreement for Erlang/OTP." (and yeah, two spaces after the colon, we keep it real, no cap).
• DESCRIPTION — this MIB is part of the OTP MIB, and it defines the common Textual Conventions that other OTP mib modules use. That's literally the job description.
• REVISION "200305090900Z" — this revision changed CONTACT-INFO because it was outdated, and made it more generic so nobody has to keep editing it in the future. Iconic foresight honestly.
• REVISION "199712010900Z" — the very first version of this module, the origin story 🌈.
• ::= { otpModules 2 } — the OID assignment: this module parks itself under otpModules, sub-id 2.

---

👑 OwnerString — the textual convention with main character energy 👑

OwnerString ::= TEXTUAL-CONVENTION
    DISPLAY-HINT "255a"
    STATUS       current
    DESCRIPTION
        "An OwnerString identifies the initiator or owner of a row
        in a table. This label is set by the initiator to provide
        for the following possibilities:

            o A management station may recognize resources it owns
              and no longer needs.
            o A network operator can find the management station that
              owns the resource and negotiate for it to be freed.
            o A network operator may decide to unilaterally free
              resources another network operator has reserved.
            o Upon initialization, a management station may recognize
              resources it had reserved in the past.  With this
              information it may free the resources if it no longer
              needs them.

        Management stations and agent systems should support any format
        of the OwnerString dictated by the local policy of the
        organization.  It is suggested that this name contain one or
        more of the following: IP address, management station name,
        network manager's name, location, or phone number.  This
        information will help users to share the resources more
        effectively.

        There is often default functionality that the device or the
        administrator of the agent (often the network administrator) wishes
        to set up.  The resources associated with this functionality are then
        owned by the device itself or by the network administrator, and are
        intended to be long-lived.  In this case, the device or the
        administrator will set the relevant owner object to a string starting
        with 'local'.  Indiscriminate modification of the local
        configuration by network management stations is discouraged.  In
        fact, a network management station should only modify these objects
        under the direction of the administrator of the agent system."
    REFERENCE
        "RFC1757, RMON-MIB"
    SYNTAX  DisplayString (SIZE (0..127))

So what is an OwnerString, fr fr? It identifies the initiator or owner of a row in a table — the initiator sets this label, and the label exists to make four scenarios possible:

1. A management station may recognize resources it owns and no longer needs. 💀 bye clutter
2. A network operator can find the management station that owns the resource and negotiate for it to be freed. 🤝
3. A network operator may decide to unilaterally free resources another network operator has reserved. 👀 bold move
4. Upon initialization, a management station may recognize resources it had reserved in the past — and with that info it may free them if it no longer needs them. 🧠 memory unlocked

More tea ☕: management stations and agent systems should support any format of the OwnerString dictated by the local policy of the organization. It's suggested the name contain one or more of: IP address, management station name, network manager's name, location, or phone number — because that info helps users share the resources more effectively. 🫶

Then there's the default-functionality bit: a device or the administrator of the agent (often the network administrator) usually wants some default setup, and those resources are owned by the device itself or the network administrator and are meant to be long-lived. In that case, the device or administrator sets the relevant owner object to a string starting with 'local'. And here's the warning bestie, read it twice:

Indiscriminate modification of the local configuration by network management stations is discouraged. A network management station should only modify these objects under the direction of the administrator of the agent system. Ma'am, do not touch. 🙈

The other little vibes:

• DISPLAY-HINT "255a" — display hint for this convention.
• STATUS current — status: current. Alive and valid, we love that. 💅
• REFERENCE — "RFC1757, RMON-MIB", where this whole concept came from.
• SYNTAX DisplayString (SIZE (0..127)) — it's a DisplayString with size from 0 to 127. That's the whole type right there. 💖

---

✅ END ✅

END

That's the module, closed out cleanly. ✨

---

and that's the whole page bestie, every import, every field, every revision, every bullet, all of it 🎀. This one's OTP-TC(7) from the Erlang/OTP docs, filed under SNMP 🦋, and the module's own LAST-UPDATED stamp reads 200305090900Z — with the original revision going all the way back to 199712010900Z. Slay, stay current, and please don't mess with anything starting with 'local' 💜