Subject: [nfsv4] Further Splitting up rfc5661bis

From: David Noveck <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2021 10:40:35 -0500

At the last meeting, I presented the then-existing plans for publishing
rfc5661bis as a multiple-document set. With security, internationalization,
and minor versioning dealt with in nfsv4-wide documents, rfc5661bis was to
be divided into the two following documents:

   - Rfc5661bis-discussion was to consist of sections 1-15, 23, and 24 of
   the existing rfc5661bis I-D.

   - Rfc5661bis-reference was to consist of sections 16-21 of the existing
   rfc5661bis I-D.

At that time, Magnus asked me to look at the possibility of further
subdividing the document.  I have now completed that investigation and will
present a brief summary of my plans now.  The actual split-up will be
available in April in the form of a set of rfc5661bis I-D's.

As I looked at the two-division approach, I concluded that:

   - The reference document at a little under 300 pages, while bigger than
   one would like, does not offer opportunities for further division without
   confusing readers and should be left as proposed.

   - The discussion document, at around 400 pages, can be subdivided
   reasonably, without confusing readers.

I'm anticipating the following five-document approach to an rfc5661bis
document suite.  This will make the review process easier but the
publication process will not be much faster since it is likely that all of
the documents will be done as a single cluster.

   - There will be a short introductory document consisting of sections 1-3
   of the current bis draft. Depending on the size of of the associated
   reference section, it is expected to be about 100 pages.

   - The discussion document will be shortened to significantly to under
   200 pages, by the transfer of material relating to multi-server namespace
   and pnfs file to separate documents together with the creation of the
   introductory document. Also material about authorization-related attributes
   will move to the nfsv4-wide security document.

   - There will be a multi-server-namespace document which will be about 80
   pages.

   - There will be a separate document on the pnfs files layout.  The
   motivation is not primarily document size but rather to help limit the kind
   of confusion that rfc8434 was intended to address.  This will make it more
   like other layout types but it will still be part of the rfc5661bis
   document suite since many aspects the v4. 1 protocol, discussed in the
   reference document, were designed to accommodate the split of file server
   functionality into separate data and metadata server partitions. This
   document will be about 30 pages.

   - The reference document will be under 300 pages.