Network Working Group                                        R. Hinden
Request for Comments: 2732                                       Nokia
Category: Standards Track                                 B. Carpenter
                                                                  IBM
                                                          L. Masinter
                                                                 AT&T
                                                        December 1999


              Format for Literal IPv6 Addresses in URL's

Status of this Memo

  This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
  Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
  improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
  Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
  and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

  This document defines the format for literal IPv6 Addresses in URL's
  for implementation in World Wide Web browsers.  This format has been
  implemented in the IPv6 versions of several widely deployed browsers
  including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and Lynx.  It is also
  intended to be used in the IPv6 version of the service location
  protocol.

  This document incudes an update to the generic syntax for Uniform
  Resource Identifiers defined in RFC 2396 [URL].  It defines a syntax
  for IPv6 addresses and allows the use of "[" and "]" within a URI
  explicitly for this reserved purpose.

1. Introduction

  The textual representation defined for literal IPv6 addresses in
  [ARCH] is not directly compatible with URL's.  Both use ":" and "."
  characters as delimiters.  This document defines the format for
  literal IPv6 Addresses in URL's for implementation in World Wide Web
  browsers.  The goal is to have a format that allows easy "cut" and
  "paste" operations with a minimum of editing of the literal address.






Hinden, et al.              Standards Track                     [Page 1]

RFC 2732            IPv6 Literal Addresses in URL's        December 1999


  The format defined in this document has been implemented in the IPv6
  versions of several widely deployed browsers including Microsoft
  Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and Lynx.  It is also intended to be used
  in the IPv6 version of the service location protocol.

1.1 Requirements

  The keywords MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD,
  SHOULD NOT, RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL, if and where they appear
  in this document, are to be interpreted as described in [KEYWORDS].

  World Wide Web browsers SHOULD implement the format of IPv6 literals
  in URL's defined in this document.  Other types of applications and
  protocols that use URL's MAY use this format.

2. Literal IPv6 Address Format in URL's Syntax

  To use a literal IPv6 address in a URL, the literal address should be
  enclosed in "[" and "]" characters.  For example the following
  literal IPv6 addresses:

     FEDC:BA98:7654:3210:FEDC:BA98:7654:3210
     1080:0:0:0:8:800:200C:4171
     3ffe:2a00:100:7031::1
     1080::8:800:200C:417A
     ::192.9.5.5
     ::FFFF:129.144.52.38
     2010:836B:4179::836B:4179

  would be represented as in the following example URLs:

     http://[FEDC:BA98:7654:3210:FEDC:BA98:7654:3210]:80/index.html
     http://[1080:0:0:0:8:800:200C:417A]/index.html
     http://[3ffe:2a00:100:7031::1]
     http://[1080::8:800:200C:417A]/foo
     http://[::192.9.5.5]/ipng
     http://[::FFFF:129.144.52.38]:80/index.html
     http://[2010:836B:4179::836B:4179]

3. Changes to RFC 2396

  This document updates the generic syntax for Uniform Resource
  Identifiers defined in RFC 2396 [URL].  It defines a syntax for IPv6
  addresses and allows the use of "[" and "]" within a URI explicitly
  for this reserved purpose.






Hinden, et al.              Standards Track                     [Page 2]

RFC 2732            IPv6 Literal Addresses in URL's        December 1999


  The following changes to the syntax in RFC 2396 are made:
  (1) change the 'host' non-terminal to add an IPv6 option:

     host          = hostname | IPv4address | IPv6reference
     ipv6reference = "[" IPv6address "]"

  where IPv6address is defined as in RFC2373 [ARCH].

  (2) Replace the definition of 'IPv4address' with that of RFC 2373, as
  it correctly defines an IPv4address as consisting of at most three
  decimal digits per segment.

  (3) Add "[" and "]" to the set of 'reserved' characters:

     reserved    = ";" | "/" | "?" | ":" | "@" | "&" | "=" | "+" |
                   "$" | "," | "[" | "]"

  and remove them from the 'unwise' set:

     unwise      = "{" | "}" | "|" | "\" | "^" | "`"

4. Security Considerations

  The use of this approach to represent literal IPv6 addresses in URL's
  does not introduce any known new security concerns.

5. IANA Considerations

  None.






















Hinden, et al.              Standards Track                     [Page 3]

RFC 2732            IPv6 Literal Addresses in URL's        December 1999


6. Authors' Addresses

  Robert M. Hinden
  Nokia
  313 Fairchild Drive
  Mountain View, CA 94043
  USA

  Phone: +1 650 625 2004
  EMail: [email protected]
  Web: http://www.iprg.nokia.com/~hinden


  Brian E. Carpenter
  IBM
  iCAIR, Suite 150
  1890 Maple Avenue
  Evanston IL 60201
  USA

  EMail: [email protected]


  Larry Masinter
  AT&T Labs
  75 Willow Road
  Menlo Park, CA 94025

  EMail: [email protected]
  Web: http://larry.masinter.net

7. References

  [ARCH]     Hinden, R. and  S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing
             Architecture", RFC 2373, July 1998.

  [STD-PROC] Bradner, S., The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3,
             BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.

  [URL]      Fielding, R., Masinter, L. and T. Berners-Lee, "Uniform
             Resource Identifiers: Generic Syntax", RFC 2396, August
             1998.









Hinden, et al.              Standards Track                     [Page 4]

RFC 2732            IPv6 Literal Addresses in URL's        December 1999


8. Full Copyright Statement

  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

  This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
  others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
  or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
  and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
  kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
  included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
  document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
  the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
  Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
  developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
  copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
  followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
  English.

  The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
  revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

  This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
  "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
  TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
  BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
  HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
  MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgement

  Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
  Internet Society.



















Hinden, et al.              Standards Track                     [Page 5]

You are viewing proxied material from gopher.fnord.one. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.