[NETCONF-81] Netconf RPC replies don't comply with RFC 6241, section 3.2 Created: 09/Oct/15  Updated: 15/Mar/19  Resolved: 21/Dec/15

Status: Resolved
Project: netconf
Component/s: netconf
Affects Version/s: None
Fix Version/s: None

Type: Bug
Reporter: Jozef Behran Assignee: Unassigned
Resolution: Cannot Reproduce Votes: 0
Labels: None
Remaining Estimate: Not Specified
Time Spent: Not Specified
Original Estimate: Not Specified
Environment:

Operating System: All
Platform: All


External issue ID: 4446

 Description   

The RFC 6241, section 3.2 states that "Document Type Definitions MUST NOT appear in NETCONF content". Yet when I emit a request, the response I get from ODL contains a document type declaration.

I heard that there are devices which are not compliant with this RFC section by requiring these document type definitions to interoperate (Juniper?) but I can easily imagine that a device fails to interoperate when these document type definitions are present in the responses.

So to fix this bug and allow for interoperability it would be best to make the behavior configurable, with the default set to "do not send document type definitions". If this is already configurable, then the problem is that the default is wrong.

I just unpack the distribution, add Netconf to boot features, run Karaf and start sending the requests and the result is that the document types are sent in each reply. See the test suite at https://git.opendaylight.org/gerrit/#/c/27672 where you can see that all the *-reply.msg files contain the document type definitions; this test suite is passing but it should fail as these expected replies are not RFC compliant.



 Comments   
Comment by Jozef Behran [ 06/Nov/15 ]

This might be also a bug in the RFC 6241 itself. In section "3" it states that "A NETCONF message MAY begin with an XML declaration" but in "3.2" it states "Document type declarations ... MUST NOT appear in NETCONF content."

They did not specify exactly what "NETCONF content" actually means but from the overall tone of the RFC I came to the conclusion that they meant "NETCONF message", hence this bug.

I thus vote for removal of the XML declarations from the NETCONF replies as I can easily imagine a device that does not expect them with this belief based on the section "3.2".

Comment by Tomas Cere [ 21/Dec/15 ]

XML declaration and document type declaration(DOCTYPE) are not the same thing.
Messages sent by ODL contain only XML declaration which is allowed by rfc 6241, only DOCTYPE is prohibited.

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