xml2rfc (version v2 and v3)

Conversion

1. Try your results in this handy converter form (which also supports more options than the xml2rfc tool).
   Note: If you get an empty output, be sure to turn on the Output option "Use frames to show Warnings & Errors" and look for errors there.
   The form below has not been fully converted to the new xml2rfc v3 process yet. The PDF generation still uses an older mechanism, and if you give it a v2 file, it will use the v2 processor. Stay tuned as we adjust things to be fully v3.

   Convert Your XML Source Input Source:  File:  URL: Output format: Text: plaintext as PDF unpaginated Web page: HTML as PDF   RfcMarkup as PDF ePub Other: nroff expanded XML Options:  Output result Use frames to show Warnings & Errors Window File

   Convert an Internet Text File to Xml2rfc format
   Convert your internet draft file to xml2rfc format. (The current version supported can be seen here.
   Input Source:
   File:
   URL:
   Options:
   Strip headers only	No Yes
   Output result	Use frames to show Warnings Window File

   <Report issues here.>
   
2. Note 1: This page is now using the v2 xml2rfc program. (The specific version number can be found here.)
3. Note 2: Version v2 is much stricter in following the language spec than version v1. For example,
   • Version v1 would accept XML that is not well-formed in a variety of places. For example:
     • ENTITY declarations must be inside <!DOCTYPE rfc SYSTEM "rfc2629.dtd"[ ]>
     • Needs <![CDATA[ ]]> for some artwork that didn't need it for v1.
   • <list> </list> must be inside <t> </t> (and other similar nesting restrictions)
   • Version v2 does not tolerate characters that are not expressed in UTF-8.
4. Note 3: If you find errors, please report them in the trac system.
5. If you want to use the v1 version for some reason, you can go to the old xml2rfc page. However, after June 30, 2014, XML submitted to the RFC Editor XML must be able to be processed by the v2 version.
6. There is a GUI version of xml2rfc version 2 that may be run on your local computer, and has been built and packaged for Linux (RPM + DEB), Mac and Windows. Installation packages may be found on the IETF tools web site.

Living on the edge?

March 2013 release

Major new xml2rfc features include:

• The xml2rfc program has been rewritten from scratch. It is more portable, maintainable and faster.
• However, it is stricter in adherance to the language specs.
• It may be downloaded here. Instructions for doing a "pip install" can be found here.

Major new web features include:

• New options in web form to generate ePub and PDF.
• New option in web form to show trace and warning messages along with the output, using frames. This is the default.
• New option in web form to enter a URL instead of uploading a file.

Citation Libraries

Helpful Hints

Normative References

If you need to have multiple references sections, try something like this:

    <back>
    <references title='Normative References'>
    ...
    </references>
    <references title='Informative References'>
    ...
    </references>
    </back>

That's right: the <references/> element may occur more than once in the back section, and has an optional 'title' attribute.

Including files

Use the XML external entity mechanism, e.g.,

    <?xml version='1.0'?>
        <!DOCTYPE rfc SYSTEM 'rfc2629.dtd' [

      <!ENTITY rfc2629 PUBLIC '' 'http://xml2rfc.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.2629.xml'>

    ]>

    ...

    <t>This document was constructed using the <xref target="RFC2629" /> DTD.</t>

    ...

    <references>
    ...
    &rfc2629;
    ...
    </references>

Note that this syntax is rather pedantic, i.e., you declare the entity toward the top of your file and then you invoke it exactly once (using an "&") in the <references/> element to include it.

Take a look at this file, provided by Dan Kohn. In addition to showing a complete example, it also works with the XSL transformation written by Julian Reschke and the DTD. (Depending on the capabilities of your browser, instead of clicking on these links directly, you may want to download these three files using "Save Target As...")

To try out this sample, you'll need to put all three files in the same directory. Also, note that some XSLT processors disable the use of external entities, you may need to check "Preferences" to see if there's an option to enable their use.

Notes for Authors

Templates

The IETF Tools Team maintains a library of templates you can use for different kinds of drafts.

Using your source file

When submitting an Internet-Draft using the IETF Internet-Draft Submission Tool, you can upload the XML source file in addition to the text file. If your draft is approved for publication as an RFC, the RFC Editor will retrieve the XML file from the I-D repository, or you can submit it directly to the RFC Editor.

When published

To improve the quality of the citation library, send a copy of the updated XML file here. Thanks!

Advanced Conversions

Note: NOT ALL COMBINATIONS WORK.

• EPub support is provided using version 0.8 of ebook-convert.
• PS and RTF support are provided using a combination of wkhtmltopdf, pdf2ps and/or GNU enscript.