Subject: [xml2rfc] how to deal with broken reference.I-D.*.xml?

From: Richard Hansen <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2015 14:47:05 -0400

Hi all,

When I run xml2rfc on a document with:

   <?rfc include="reference.I-D.ietf-sidr-bgpsec-algs.xml"?>

I get the following error:

   draft-ietf-sidr-rpki-rtr-rfc6810-bis-05.xml: Line 4: Element front
   content does not follow the DTD, expecting (title , author+ , date ,
   area* , workgroup* , keyword* , abstract? , note*), got (title date
   abstract)

Sure enough,
<http://xml2rfc.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml-ids/reference.I-D.ietf-sidr-bgpsec-algs.xml>
is missing author info.

I can locally edit my cache, but is there anything I can do to
permanently fix this, and fix it for everyone else?

Also, some feature requests:

  * display the correct filename in the error message so that users
    don't have to do a binary search through the references to figure
    out which one is bad :)

  * if there's a problem with a cached file, suggest that the user run
    'xml2rfc -C' and try again

Thanks,
Richard

---

From: Tony Hansen <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2015 15:32:26 -0400

> <http://xml2rfc.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml-ids/reference.I-D.ietf-sidr-bgpsec-algs.xml>

The data for this draft in the 1id-abstracts file says the author is
"spt". The bibxml generation tools do not consider that a valid author
name, so ignore it. This is bad data in the datatracker and needs to be
fixed there.

It could be said that the bibxml generation tools should recognize when
an author is missing and somehow deal with the problem.

We're gradually working on replacing the old bibxml generation tools
during the code sprints. Some enhancements are still needed to the
datatracker database to make it more doable.

> permanently fix this, and fix it for everyone else?

I'll send a note to [email-masked]. They'll have to fix the
datatracker first.

>     'xml2rfc -C' and try again

Please follow the links on the xml2rfc.ietf.org web page to the trac
system and file the feature requests there.

    Tony Hansen

>
> Thanks,
> Richard
>
> _______________________________________________
> xml2rfc mailing list
> [email-masked]
> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/xml2rfc

---

From: Richard Hansen <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2015 16:53:53 -0400

> name, so ignore it. This is bad data in the datatracker and needs to be

OK.

> an author is missing and somehow deal with the problem.

Yes, that would be nice.  Is there a Trac instance for bibxml where I
can report a feature request?

> datatracker database to make it more doable.

Is there a Trac instance for the datatracker?

> I'll send a note to [email-masked]. They'll have to fix the

Thank you for passing it along.

>> Also, some feature requests:
...
> system and file the feature requests there.

Done.

Thanks!

-Richard

---

From: Elwyn Davies <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2015 00:57:03 +0100

Hi, all.

> <http://xml2rfc.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml-ids/reference.I-D.ietf-sidr-bgpsec-algs.xml>
Looking at http://www.ietf.org/id/all_id2.txt  the entry for 
draft-sidr-bgpsec-algs is:
draft-ietf-sidr-bgpsec-algs-09    -1    Active    I-D Exists     
2015-01-21    sidr    rtg                .txt    BGP Algorithms, Key 
Formats, & Signature Formats    spt <[email-masked]>

The notes at the beginning of this file say :
# 14  draft authors (often quite inaccurate, especially the email
#     addresses...)

I have a handy tool for converting all_id2.txt into a BIB format for use 
by TeX (attached).  I modified this (serious cost of time - not) to 
print out all the entries that had author names (actually email 
addresses) that don't correspond to the form "First Opt Others Last 
<name@domain> ".   Turns out that there 688 instances in the all_id2.txt 
file (bad_auth.txt attached).  Checking a few of the relevant drafts 
seems to indicate that there is nothing wrong with the data inside the 
drafts.

I speculate that:
- The authors entry in the datatracker is derived from the metadata 
extracted and then potentially modified in the draft submission tool.  
If the submitter chooses to modify the email (?) entry then it could go 
wrong.
- I wonder if the datatracker tries to keep a database of all draft 
authors (I haven't checked the code and am not familiar with the 
datatracker code in depth), because I notice that there are (for 
example) lots of instances of Sean Turner's name in drafts and a lot of 
them give the "spt" problem.  This sort of indicates to me that maybe 
once the entry associated with an email gets in a mess it isn't 
corrected but is reused when drafts with the same author email come in.  
Going back to the predecessor draft of draft-ietf-sidr-bgpsec-algs which 
is https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-turner-sidr-bgpsec-algs/ the 
author email is recorded as spt ([email-masked]) 
<mailto:[email-masked]> although the author name (Sean Turner) and 
email in the draft are as expected.
- I also note that the "spt" name gets used in the datatracker history 
page :
2015-01-21     09     spt     New version available: 
draft-ietf-sidr-bgpsec-algs-09.txt (diff from previous)
2014-07-25     08     Sandra Murphy     Tag Waiting for Referenced 
Document set.
2014-07-25     08     Sandra Murphy     Tag Waiting for Referenced 
Document cleared.
2014-07-25     08     Sandra Murphy     IETF WG state changed to Waiting 
for WG Chair Go-Ahead from WG Document
2014-07-25     08     Sandra Murphy     Tag Waiting for Referenced 
Document set. Tag Waiting for Referencing Document cleared.
2014-07-02     08     spt     New version available: 
draft-ietf-sidr-bgpsec-algs-08.txt (diff from previous)

This seems to indicate that the cure for the future may be to improve 
the validation in the draft submission tool.

Unfortunately fixing the problems in the datatracker data looks like a 
fairly tedious manual data updating process (or writing a tool to 
extract the authors and emails from the drafts -- Henrik probably has 
this to hand -- and check them against the datatracker entries.)  However..
76 of the entries are "spt"
60 are dcrocker
58 are mnot
57 are Qiong
53 are GK
20 are DaveO
15 are pjnesser
11 are lef
11 are Surendra
11 are DH
9 are oej
I make it that there are 121 separate 'bad authors' in the datatracker 
(see sorted bad_auth.csv) so perhaps it wouldn't be too horrendous a job 
to fix them once the right fix in the datatracker is known.

Regards,
Elwyn