Re: I-D ACTION:draft-ietf-secsh-transport-18.txt

[Damien Miller <djm%mindrot.org@localhost>]

Internet-Drafts%ietf.org@localhost wrote:

> A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories.
> This draft is a work item of the Secure Shell Working Group of the IETF.
> 
> 	Title		: SSH Transport Layer Protocol
> 	Author(s)	: T. Ylonen, C. Lonvick
> 	Filename	: draft-ietf-secsh-transport-18.txt
> 	Pages		: 29
> 	Date		: 2004-6-3

The new text in Section 4.2 includes:

>    Since the protocol being defined in this set of documents is version
>    2.0, the 'protoversion' MUST be "2.0".  

Which renders several deployed implementations non-compliant and
is contradictory with section 5.1:

>    Server implementations MAY support a configurable "compatibility"
>    flag that enables compatibility with old versions.  When this flag is
>    on, the server SHOULD identify its protocol version as "1.99".
>    Clients using protocol 2.0 MUST be able to identify this as identical
>    to "2.0".  In this mode the server SHOULD NOT send the carriage
>    return character (ASCII 13) after the version identification string.

I suggest that the old text be restored or the validity of offering
a protocol version of 1.99 be mentioned in section 4.2.

I don't understand why new changes are being made to the drafts again
- I was under the impression that they were just about ready for
publication. Can someone more familiar with the process please explain
what stands in the way of this happening?

-d