RFC 2652 (rfc2652) - Page 2 of 22

MIME Object Definitions for the Common Indexing Protocol (CIP)

RFC 2652               MIME Definitions for CIP              August 1999


   Appendix A contains the actual MIME [RFC 2046] registration templates
   sent to the IANA for registration [RFC 2048].

   This document uses language like SHOULD and SHALL that have special
   meaning as specified in "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
   Requirement Levels" [RFC 2119].

2.0 CIP Transactions

   Messages passed by CIP implementations over reliable transport
   mechanisms fall into three categories: requests, responses and
   results. All requests result in either a response or a result. A
   result sent in response to a request must be interpreted as a
   successful operation.

   Requests, responses and results are formatted as MIME [RFC 2046]
   messages. The specific MIME types involved are defined below.

   As with all MIME objects, CIP messages may be wrapped in a security
   multipart package to provide authentication and privacy. The security
   policy with respect to all messages is implementation defined, when
   not explicitly discussed below. CIP implementors are strongly urged
   to allow server administrators maximum configurability to secure
   their servers against maliciously sent anonymous CIP messages. In
   general, operations which can permanently change the server's state
   in a harmful way should only take place upon receipt of a properly
   signed message from a trusted CIP peer or administrator. Implementors
   should provide appropriate auditing capabilities so that both
   successful and failed requests can be tracked by the server
   administrator.

   Since these MIME objects can and will be sent over several different
   protocols, body termination is specified by the transfer protocol.
   New protocols are encouraged to use SMTP [RFC 821] style body
   termination.

   Finally, since MIME objects can specify their own encoding, the
   line-breaks contained within each body are defined by the encoding.
   Thus, instead of specifying them as carriage-return and/or linefeed,
   the identifier  is used. Linebreaks in the headers and
   separating the body from the headers follow existing standards.










Allen & Mealling            Standards Track