Session Date/Time: 04 Apr 2023 19:00

CELLAR

Summary

The CELLAR Working Group met to discuss the status of its active drafts and previously published RFCs. Key updates included the progression of Matroska and FLAC towards publication, ongoing work on FFV1, and a significant discussion on a proposed process for managing errata for published RFCs using GitHub branching, distinguished from new feature development.

Key Discussion Points

Agenda Distribution: It was noted that the agenda for this meeting was not automatically sent to the mailing list upon posting. The Chair committed to investigating this issue with the e-moderators.
Previous Meeting Minutes Approval: The minutes from the 2023-10-28 meeting were accepted without objection.
Matroska Status (draft-ietf-cellar-matroska):
- The document has completed its Working Group Last Call and is now "Waiting for write-up" by the responsible Area Director (Murray Kucherawy) for an upcoming ISG telechat.
- Review comments from the GenArt directorate (Ellen Davies) were discussed. The review indicated the document was "almost ready," and the comments related to container format and versioning were noted as having been addressed by the WG.
- A question was raised about starting a document for Matroska v5 to include new features already being worked on in GitHub.
  - Consensus: It was agreed not to formally start a Matroska v5 document or submit new drafts at this time to avoid confusing the ISG during the v4 review and balloting process. New features should remain in GitHub as pull requests.
EBML v2 Status (RFC 8794):
- Discussion initiated about adding new features to EBML, such as rational numbers, which are needed for future Matroska versions.
- Decision: The Working Group agreed to start a new document for EBML v2 features. The form (a diff document or a "bis" document) will be decided later.
FLAC Status (draft-ietf-cellar-flac):
- Martin S. uploaded revision -08 addressing previous comments.
- A discussion occurred regarding the naming of the "streamable subset," with "streamable subset" being retained after consideration of alternatives.
- Shepherd comments have been addressed, and the document is ready for the Chair to prepare the Shepherd write-up, after which it will move to "publication requested" status.
FFV1 v4 Status (draft-ietf-cellar-ffv1):
- Dave N. indicated that an email "nudge" had not yet been sent to the working group to prompt prioritization of issues.
- Prioritization of FFV1 issues will happen in GitHub.
RFC Errata Process:
- Michael St. Johns initiated a discussion on how to manage errata for published RFCs (which are immutable) while continuing development in GitHub.
- Problem: The master branch in GitHub often contains work-in-progress, which can be confused with official, published RFC text, potentially attracting errata submissions for unapproved features or causing confusion about consensus status.
- Proposal:
  - For each published RFC, create a dedicated branch in GitHub (e.g., RFC-8794).
  - This branch would mirror the published RFC text.
  - Errata (clarifications, typo fixes, not new features) would be applied to this branch as commits, referencing the official RFC Editor Errata System IDs.
  - The master branch would clearly be marked as "work in progress" for future versions.
  - This strategy aims to synchronize GitHub with the RFC Editor's errata process and clearly delineate what has consensus from ongoing development.
- Martin S. confirmed that the current build system already generates renderable artifacts for pull requests, which could be used to review proposed errata changes.
- Decision: The Working Group agreed to pilot this errata management strategy using the EBML RFC (RFC 8794).

Decisions and Action Items

The meeting minutes from 2023-10-28 were accepted.
Chair (Michael St. Johns): Investigate why the meeting agenda was not automatically sent to the mailing list upon posting.
Matroska v5: Do not formally start a new Matroska v5 document or submit new drafts until Matroska v4 has completed its ISG review and balloting. Development for v5 should continue in GitHub as pull requests.
EBML v2: Start a new document for EBML v2 features (e.g., rational numbers).
FFV1 v4 (Dave N.): Send an email to the working group to prompt prioritization of FFV1 issues in GitHub.
RFC Errata Process:
- The Working Group will adopt a new process for managing errata for published RFCs in GitHub.
- This involves creating dedicated GitHub branches for published RFCs (e.g., RFC-8794) to track proposed errata fixes.
- The master branch will be explicitly designated for work in progress on future versions.
- This process will be piloted with EBML (RFC 8794).
Working Group Members: Review and begin to implement the proposed RFC errata branching strategy for EBML (RFC 8794) in the coming weeks.

Next Steps

Chair (Murray Kucherawy): Progress Matroska (draft-ietf-cellar-matroska) to an ISG telechat for balloting.
Chair (Michael St. Johns): Complete the Shepherd write-up for FLAC (draft-ietf-cellar-flac) to move it to "publication requested" status.
Working Group: Continue to prioritize and address issues for FFV1 v4 in GitHub.
Working Group: Begin implementation of the new RFC errata management process for EBML (RFC 8794) in GitHub.
Working Group: Revisit the status and effectiveness of the new RFC errata process at the next meeting.