source: wg_materials/shepherd_writeups/p2-semantics.txt @ 2422

1. Summary

Document: draft-ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics-24
Document Shepherd: Mark Nottingham 
Responsible Area Director: Barry Lieba
Publication Type: Proposed Standard

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level protocol for
distributed, collaborative, hypertext information systems. This document
defines the semantics of HTTP/1.1 messages, as expressed by request methods,
request header fields, response status codes, and response header fields, along
with the payload of messages (metadata and body content) and mechanisms for
content negotiation.

Note that this document is part of a set, which should be reviewed together:

* draft-ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging
* draft-ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics
* draft-ietf-httpbis-p4-conditional
* draft-ietf-httpbis-p5-range
* draft-ietf-httpbis-p6-cache
* draft-ietf-httpbis-p7-auth
* draft-ietf-httpbis-method-registrations
* draft-ietf-httpbis-authscheme-registrations


2. Review and Consensus

As chartered, this work was very constrained; the WG sought only to clarify
RFC2616, making significant technical changes only where there were
considerably interoperability or security issues. 

While the bulk of the work was done by a core team of editors, it has been
reviewed by a substantial number of implementers, and design issues enjoyed
input from many of them. 

It has been through two Working Group Last Calls, with multiple reviewers each
time. We have also discussed this work with external groups (e.g., the W3C TAG).

3. Intellectual Property

There are no IPR disclosures against this document. The authors have confirmed
that they have no direct, personal knowledge of IPR related to this document
that has not been disclosed.

4. Other Points

Downward references:
* RFC1950
* RFC1951 (already in downref registry)
* RFC1952
* "Welch"

New registries created:

* HTTP Method registry. IETF Review is required to assure that registrations
  are appropriate, as HTTP methods are purposefully constrained.
  
Updated registries:

* HTTP Status Code registry policy remains at IETF Review, and the registration
  procedures are now defined by this document.

* The Content Coding Registry policy is changed from First Come First Served to
  IETF Review, and registration procedures are now defined by this document.
  the policy was changed to assure adequate review.

There is also an informational reference to RFC1305, which has been obsoleted
by RFC5905. This will be addressed in an update.