[AFS3-std] AFS Standardisation

[Jeffrey Altman]

David Boyes wrote:
>
> I'm still kind of baffled why this entire
> process doesn't end up as a IETF working group in the Applications
> directorate rather than inventing Yet Another Process, but as a
> latecomer, c'est la vie), but the question is likely to come up once the
> process is online and operating, and it would be good to have an answer
> in place. 
There are a few simple reasons. 

1. The IETF is not interested in another file system to standardize. 
The actively developed IETF distributed file system protocols are NFSv4,
WebDAV, and SCP.

2. The IETF does not standardize pre-existing protocols.  Assuming that
the IESG was convinced to permit AFS3 to become an IETF standard
protocol the chances of it remaining backward compatible is close to NIL. 

3. The IETF standards process is very heavy weight.  We want a process
that does not require years to move extensions forward.

We have spoken with the IESG and have been invited to make use of the
RFC Editor process for independent submissions to publish our documents.

> At least I hope that's what we're trying to do. 
>
What we are attempting to do is separate protocol standardization from
the code that is committed to OpenAFS.   Protocol standardization should
be a community design process not simply the submission of code written
behind a closed doors and committed to the OpenAFS repository.   We want
to ensure that any organization that wants to build an AFS client or
server can do so.  In order for that to happen there needs to be
documentation that specifies how code should work, not just code that
happens to work in a particular way.

Jeffrey Altman

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: smime.p7s
Type: application/x-pkcs7-signature
Size: 3355 bytes
Desc: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
Url : http://michigan-openafs-lists.central.org/archives/afs3-standardization/attachments/20080820/7a4e9bb0/smime-0001.bin