RPC Wiki

When the RPC receives an email message announcing that a document has been approved, a member of the RPC runs a script to add that document's files to an internal directory on rfcpa.rfc-editor.org where all editing work takes place. The document's filename contains the same version number as the document that was approved. That is, if draft-ietf-foo-bar-03 was approved, then its filename remains draft-ietf-foo-bar-03.xml as it is being worked on.

The following snapshots are taken when the document is added to the queue (using draft-ietf-foo-bar-03 as an example):

• draft-ietf-foo-bar-03.original - The text file of the approved I-D. The document enters the queue with this file.
• draft-ietf-foo-bar-03.original.xml - The original received RFCXML v3 file.

If the file submitted is a RFCXMLv2, the following snapshots are created:

• draft-ietf-foo-bar-03-xml2.original
• draft-ietf-foo-bar-03-xml2.original.xml
• draft-ietf-foo-bar-03-xml2.xml
• draft-ietf-foo-bar-03.original.v2v3.xml - The editor takes this snapshot immediately after converting the XML to v3 with xml2rfc.

These *.original files allow the RPC staff to create the diff files that they and the authors use to review copy edits.

If an author provides an updated draft, then the filename will reflect this (draft-ietf-foo-bar-04.xml). The files for the older version of the I-D remain in the work directory.

The draftstring-NN.xml file is edited by the Document Specialist, who does formatting, the Citation Specialist, who checks references and links, and the Primary Editor (PE), who copyedits the document. If the PE moves text within the document (for example, moving an “Acknowledgments” section to the end of the document), they may create an alt-original file (e.g., draft-ietf-foo-bar-03.alt-original) by moving text to match the working file in order to make clearer diffs.

RPC staff capture document issues in <!-- [rfced] comments --> within the XML file. These comments are refined through the editing process and shared with authors during AUTH48. The comments remain in the XML file until the issues are resolved. Other document issues that don't necessarily need author input are captured in a proprietary, internal issue tracker.

When the document is assigned to an RFC Editor (RE), the RE copies the draftstring-NN files to rfcNNNN files. The RE performs a second copyedit pass in the rfcNNNN.xml file.

When the RE moves the document to AUTH48, they run a script to copy the [rfced] comments from the document and then pastes them into the email message that initiates AUTH48. They also copy all the rfcNNNN files into a publicly accessible directory (rfc-editor.org/authors/). Authors can view the files there, but the RPC's work continues in the work directory.

When an author provides feedback during AUTH48, the editor creates a “previous version” set of documents with a CLI script to help with diff file creation. The set of previous-version documents includes all outputs (text, pdf, html), only the current and previous working XML files are shown here:

• rfc9988.xml - current version - the editor works in this file
• rfc9988vN.xml - most recent previous version
• rfc9988v3.xml - version after v2
• rfc9988v2.xml - version after v1
• rfc9988v1.xml - version that started AUTH48.

Each time the editor updates the file based on author input, they create a previous version set, then make changes to the current version. When they have completed their updates, they run a command that creates diff files and copies the updated files into the authors directory for review:

• rfc9988.xml
• rfc9988.txt
• rfc9988.html
• rfc9988.pdf
• rfc9988-diff.html
• rfc9988-rfcdiff.html
• rfc9988-auth48diff.html
• rfc9988-auth48rfcdiff.html
• rfc9988-lastdiff.html (if last version is greater than 1)
• rfc9988-lastrfcdiff.html (if last version is greater than 1)
• rfc9988-xmldiff1.html, -xmldiff2.html (if there's a xml2.original.xml or .original.xml; the latter exists if v3 was submitted)
• rfc9988-alt-diff.html (if there's an alt-original)

When all authors have approved the document, the publishing editor moves the files out of the work directory via scripts into various website directories.

If something goes awry with managing these files, they can be restored from a backup directory that exists on rfcpa.rfc-editor.org. These backups are created once a day by a cron job. Editors currently cannot work in the same file simultaneously, and they approach other editors' files with caution.