Subject: RE: [Syslog] #5 - character encoding (was: Consensus?)

From: "Rainer Gerhards" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 12:23:57 +0100

Andrew,

> >Hi Rainer,
> >
> >Why don't we look at it from the other direction?  We could 
> state that any 
> >encoding is acceptable - for ease-of-use/migration with 
> existing syslog 
> >implementations.  It is RECOMMENDED that UTF-8 be used.  When it is 
> >used, an SD-ID element will be REQUIRED.  e.g. - 
> [enc="utf-8" lang="en"]
> 
> I like that idea too.
> 
> So, if no SD-ID encoding element is specified, then we must 
> assume US-ASCII
> and deal with it accordingly??

I think not. If it is not present, we known that we do not know it. If
it is US-ASCII, I would expect something like

[enc="us-ascii" lang="en"]

Of course, we could also say if it is non-present, we can assume
US-ASCII. But then we would need to introduce

[enc="unknown"]

for the (common) case where we simply do not know it (again: think
POSIX). I find this somehwat confusing.

Rainer

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From: Chris Lonvick <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 05:18:03 -0800 (PST)

Hi Rainer,

Let's use this email as an example.  :)  There is no indication that I'm 
using US-ASCII encoding or that I'm writing in English.  However, you're 
able to recieve this and read it.  Similarly, you could write an email in 
German and send it to me.  I would still be able to recieve it but I'd 
have a difficult time parsing the meaning.

I'm suggesting that same approach for the transmission of the syslog 
content.  If I really wanted you to know what encoding and language I'm 
using in an email, I would specify a mime header.  syslog senders will 
continue to pump out whatever encoding and language they've been using 
and recievers will continue to do their best to parse them.  If a vendor 
wants to get very specific about that, then they will have to use an SD-ID 
to identify the contents of the message.

Mit Aufrichtigkeit,
Chris