RFC 7936

RFC 7936: Clarifying Registry Procedures for the WebSocket Subprotocol Name Registry ✨

Okay bestie, let's talk about RFC 7936 📄🎀. Ted Hardie wrote it for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in July 2016. It's a Standards Track document, which means it's official IETF stuff 👑. It updates RFC 6455 (the WebSocket Protocol) 🦋, and its ISSN is 2070-1721. Its whole job is to make the rules for the WebSocket subprotocol registry at IANA way clearer. Iconic? Yes 💅.

---

Abstract 🌸

This document clarifies the instructions to IANA for the subprotocol registry set up for WebSockets in RFC 6455. So it's basically a cleanup of the instructions IANA gets for that registry 🧹✨.

Status of This Memo 📌

This is an Internet Standards Track document 👑.

This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has gotten public review and was approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). If you want more on Internet Standards, check out Section 2 of RFC 7841 🧚.

For info on the current status of this doc, any errata, and how to give feedback, go to http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7936 🔗.

Copyright Notice 🎀

Copyright (c) 2016 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved 💜.

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication. Please read these carefully, because they spell out your rights and restrictions for this document 🙈. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions, and they come without warranty, as described in the Simplified BSD License ⚠️.

Table of Contents 🗂️

1. Introduction ................................................... 2
2. Clarified Instructions ......................................... 2
3. Security Considerations ........................................ 2
4. IANA Considerations ............................................ 2
5. Normative References ........................................... 3
Acknowledgements .................................................. 3
Author's Address .................................................. 3

---

1. Introduction ✨

Okay, so Section 11.5 of [RFC6455] sets up a WebSocket Subprotocol Name Registry at IANA 🗂️. It tells IANA to use First Come First Serve registration procedures, as set out in [RFC5226]. Other protocols started reusing this registry, which showed that the instructions to IANA needed some clarifying 🙌. That's the whole reason this doc exists, ngl 💀.

2. Clarified Instructions 💅

Here's the tea 🫖. The tokens registered in the WebSocket Subprotocol Name Registry (the one created by Section 11.5 of RFC 6455) are matched with a case-sensitive string match 🔠. BUT, IANA is instructed to decline any registration that differs from another only in case, so people don't get confused by near-identical versions 😭✨.

For more tips on avoiding collisions, registrants are encouraged to check out Section 1.9 of RFC 6455. That section is non-normative, so it's extra advice, not a rule 🌈.

3. Security Considerations 🔐

This document describes an update to registry policy, not a protocol 🛡️. Nothing about the protocol itself is changing here, but the registry rules are, so it's still a big deal for everyone who depends on that registry 🙈.

4. IANA Considerations 🦋

This document is, in its entirety, a clarification of the registry policy for the WebSocket Subprotocol Name Registry 💖. As part of that, IANA has listed both this document and RFC 6455 as references for the registry ✨.

IANA also added this note under the registry's Registration Procedures:

"Please see Section 2 of RFC 7936, which clarifies that registrations which differ from existing registrations only by case will be refused."

Iconic ✨👑.

5. Normative References 📚

[RFC6455]  Fette, I. and A. Melnikov, "The WebSocket Protocol",
           RFC 6455, DOI 10.17487/RFC6455, December 2011,
           <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6455>.

[RFC5226]  Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
           IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226,
           DOI 10.17487/RFC5226, May 2008,
           <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5226>.

Acknowledgements 🫶

Takeshi Yoshino, Anne Van Kesteren, Julian Reshke, Barry Leiba, and Alexey Melnikov reviewed this update. Harald Alvestrand acted as document shepherd. Thank you all, you're the real MVPs 🏆💜.

Author's Address 💌

Ted Hardie 🧑‍💻

Email: ted.ietf@gmail.com

That's RFC 7936, bestie! Registry rules, clarified and cute 🌈💖✨