Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                       S. Kawamura
Request for Comments: 5952                             NEC BIGLOBE, Ltd.
Updates: 4291                                               M. Kawashima
Category: Standards Track                       NEC AccessTechnica, Ltd.
ISSN: 2070-1721                                              August 2010


         A Recommendation for IPv6 Address Text Representation

Abstract

   As IPv6 deployment increases, there will be a dramatic increase in
   the need to use IPv6 addresses in text.  While the IPv6 address
   architecture in Section 2.2 of RFC 4291 describes a flexible model
   for text representation of an IPv6 address, this flexibility has been
   causing problems for operators, system engineers, and users.  This
   document defines a canonical textual representation format.  It does
   not define a format for internal storage, such as within an
   application or database.  It is expected that the canonical format
   will be followed by humans and systems when representing IPv6
   addresses as text, but all implementations must accept and be able to
   handle any legitimate RFC 4291 format.

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5952.















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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.





































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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.1.  Requirements Language  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.  Text Representation Flexibility of RFC 4291  . . . . . . . . .  4
     2.1.  Leading Zeros in a 16-Bit Field  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     2.2.  Zero Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     2.3.  Uppercase or Lowercase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   3.  Problems Encountered with the Flexible Model . . . . . . . . .  6
     3.1.  Searching  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
       3.1.1.  General Summary  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
       3.1.2.  Searching Spreadsheets and Text Files  . . . . . . . .  6
       3.1.3.  Searching with Whois . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
       3.1.4.  Searching for an Address in a Network Diagram  . . . .  7
     3.2.  Parsing and Modifying  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
       3.2.1.  General Summary  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
       3.2.2.  Logging  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
       3.2.3.  Auditing: Case 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       3.2.4.  Auditing: Case 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       3.2.5.  Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       3.2.6.  Unexpected Modifying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     3.3.  Operating  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       3.3.1.  General Summary  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       3.3.2.  Customer Calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       3.3.3.  Abuse  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     3.4.  Other Minor Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       3.4.1.  Changing Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       3.4.2.  Preference in Documentation  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       3.4.3.  Legibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   4.  A Recommendation for IPv6 Text Representation  . . . . . . . . 10
     4.1.  Handling Leading Zeros in a 16-Bit Field . . . . . . . . . 10
     4.2.  "::" Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       4.2.1.  Shorten as Much as Possible  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       4.2.2.  Handling One 16-Bit 0 Field  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       4.2.3.  Choice in Placement of "::"  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     4.3.  Lowercase  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   5.  Text Representation of Special Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   6.  Notes on Combining IPv6 Addresses with Port Numbers  . . . . . 11
   7.  Prefix Representation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   8.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   9.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   10. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     10.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     10.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   Appendix A.  For Developers  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14






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