Network Working Group                                   J. Schoenwaelder

Internet-Draft                                                F. Strauss

Expires: December 20, 2000                               TU Braunschweig

                                                           June 21, 2000

                 Using XML to Exchange SMI Definitions

                     draft-irtf-nmrg-smi-xml-00.txt

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with

   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This memo describes how the Extensible Markup Language (XML) can be

   used to exchange SMIv1, SMIv2 and SMIng definitions between XML

   enabled applications. 

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Table of Contents

   1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3

   2. SMI XML DTD  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4

   3. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

   4. Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

      References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

      Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

      Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12

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1. Introduction

   This memo describes how the Extensible Markup Language (XML) [1] can

   be used to exchange SMIv1 [2][3][4], SMIv2 [5][6][7] and SMIng [8]

   definitions between XML enabled applications. The acronym SMI is

   used throughout this document as a version neutral name for SMIv1,

   SMIv2 or SMIng. 

   The Document Type Definition (DTD) defined in this memo allows

   applications with embedded generic XML parsers to read (or edit) the

   original SMI definitions. The XML DTD is optimized for this purpose.

   Terseness of the XML output was of minimal importance since humans

   are expected to read the originial SMI definitions. 

   In fact, the XML format of an SMI module is significantly longer

   compared to the original SMI definition. This is inline with the

   design goals for XML, which favours computer readability over

   terseness. 

   There are several scenarios where an XML representation of SMI

   definitions is useful: 

   o  The XML format may be used as an intermediate format between a

      validating SMI compiler/parser and post processing tools such as

      code or schema generators. (The undocumented mosy format has been

      used in the past for this purpose. The mosy format does not

      preserve all information present in a SMI module and is therefore

      problematic.) 

   o  The XML format can be used with XSLT post processors to generate

      documentation in various formats. 

   o  The XML format makes it possible to access SMI definition from a

      variety of programming languages. XML parsers are available in

      Java, C, C++, Tcl, Perl, Python, and GNU Emacs Lisp in both

      commercial and open source forms. 

   o  There are generic tools for maintaining large sets of XML

      definitions. This includes tools to search for definitions with a

      specific property. Such generic XML tools can be very useful in

      organizations that are required to maintain large amounts of SMI

      definitions. 

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2. SMI XML DTD

       ** XML DTD for SMIv1/SMIv2/SMIng modules.

       **

       ** Typical invocation:

       **    

       **            "-//IETF//DTD RFCxxxx SMI v0.1//EN"

       **            "/some/path/smi.dtd">

       **

       ** Contact: Juergen Schoenwaelder

       **          TU Braunschweig

       **          Bueltenweg 74/75

       **          38106 Braunschweig

       **          Germany

       **

       **          <schoenw@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de>

       **

       ** Copyright (c) The Internet Society (2000).

       ** All Rights Reserved.

       **

       ** $ID$

       **

       **-->

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                                           |SMIv2

                                           |SMIng)         #REQUIRED'>

                                           |deprecated

                                           |obsolete

                                           |mandatory

                                           |optional)      "current"'>

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                                   %at.max;>

                                   %at.number;>

                                   %at.name;>

                                   %at.name;>

                                   %at.name;>

                                   %at.name;>

                                   %at.name;>

                                   %at.name;>

                                   %at.name;>

                                    imports+,

                                    typedefs*,

                                    nodes*,

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                                    notifications*,

                                    groups*,

                                    compliances*)>

                                    contact?,

                                    description?,

                                    reference?,

                                    revision*,

                                    identity?)>

                                   %at.language;>

                                   %at.name;>

                                    range*,

                                    namednumber*,

                                    default?,

                                    format?,

                                    units?,

                                    description?,

                                    reference?)>

                                   %at.basetype;

                                   %at.status;>

                                   %at.oid;

                                   %at.status;>

                                    access,

                                    default?,

                                    format?,

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                                    units?,

                                    description,

                                    reference?)>

                                   %at.oid;

                                   %at.status;>

                                    reference?,

                                    row)>

                                   %at.oid;

                                   %at.status;>

                                   description,

                                   reference?,

                                   column+)>

                                   %at.oid;

                                   %at.create;

                                   %at.status;>

                                    access,

                                    default?,

                                    format?,

                                    units?,

                                    description,

                                    reference?)>

                                   %at.oid;

                                   %at.status;>

                                    description,

                                    reference?)>

                                   %at.oid;

                                   %at.status;>

                                   %at.name;>

                                    description,

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                                    reference?)>

                                   %at.oid;

                                   %at.status;>

                                   %at.name;>

                                    requires,

                                    refinements?)>

                                   %at.oid;

                                   %at.status;>

                                   %at.name;>

                                   %at.name;>

                                    access?,

                                    description)>

                                   %at.name;>

3. Examples

4. Acknowledgments

   This document is the result of discussions within the Network

   Management Research Group (NMRG) of the Internet Research Task

   Force[9] (IRTF). 

   Special thanks to Bert Helthuis, Atin Banerjee and Debnarayan Kar

   for providing useful feedback and access to their private SMI XML

   DTDs. 

   A prototype implementation of an SMIv1/SMIv2/SMIng converter to XML

   is freely available as part of the libsmi[10] SMI parser library

   distribution. 

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References

   [1]  World Wide Web Consortium, "Extensible Markup Language (XML)

        1.0", W3C REC-xml-19980210, February 1998.

   [2]  Rose, M. and K. McCloghrie, "Structure and Identification of

        Management Information for TCP/IP-based Internets", STD 16, RFC

        1155, May 1990.

   [3]  Rose, M. and K. McCloghrie, "Concise MIB Definitions", STD 16,

        RFC 1212, March 1991.

   [4]  Rose, M., "A Convention for Defining Traps for use with the

        SNMP", RFC 1215, March 1991.

   [5]  McCloghrie, K., Perkins, D., Schoenwaelder, J., Case, J., Rose,

        M. and S. Waldbusser, "Structure of Management Information

        Version 2 (SMIv2)", STD 58, RFC 2578, April 1999.

   [6]  McCloghrie, K., Perkins, D., Schoenwaelder, J., Case, J., Rose,

        M. and S. Waldbusser, "Textual Conventions for SMIv2", STD 58,

        RFC 2579, April 1999.

   [7]  McCloghrie, K., Perkins, D., Schoenwaelder, J., Case, J., Rose,

        M. and S. Waldbusser, "Conformance Statements for SMIv2", STD

        58, RFC 2580, April 1999.

   [8]  Strauss, F., "SMIng - A new Structure of Management

        Information", Internet Draft draft-irtf-nmrg-sming-02.txt,

        February 2000.

   [9]  http://www.irtf.org/

   [10]  http://www.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de/projects/libsmi/

Authors' Addresses

   Juergen Schoenwaelder

   TU Braunschweig

   Bueltenweg 74/75

   38106 Braunschweig

   Germany

   Phone: +49 531 391-3289

   EMail: schoenw@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de

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   Frank Strauss

   TU Braunschweig

   Bueltenweg 74/75

   38106 Braunschweig

   Germany

   Phone: +49 531 391-3266

   EMail: strauss@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de

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Full Copyright Statement

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   TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING

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Acknowledgement

   Funding for the RFC editor function is currently provided by the

   Internet Society.

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