Best Current Practice (BCP)

IndustryBCP

Description

The Best Current Practice sub-series — RFCs that document agreed-upon community practices rather than protocol specifications. BCPs cover topics like IETF conduct (BCP 54, RFC 7154), IANA considerations (BCP 26, RFC 8126), and security guidelines. A single BCP number may aggregate multiple RFCs.

Syntax

IETF identifiers come in 5 shapes: RFC '<number>', BCP '<number>', STD '<number>', FYI '<number>', and Internet-Draft '<draft-name>-<version>'. Internet-Drafts are work-in-progress documents with a name like 'draft-giuliano-treedn' and an optional two-digit version suffix. RFCs/BCPs/STDs/FYIs share the same numbering space conceptually but each has its own sub-series index.

Examples 3

BCP 3

BCP 26

BCP 54

Components Used

IETF Best Current Practice (BCP) identifiers are composed of these elements:

Series

Series prefix: RFC, BCP, STD, FYI (or nil for Internet-Drafts)

e.g.RFC

:series

Number

Sequence number within the sub-series (RFC, BCP, STD, FYI)

e.g.2119

:number

Draft Name

Internet-Draft name (e.g. 'draft-giuliano-treedn'), without version suffix

:name

Version

Internet-Draft two-digit version suffix (e.g. '02'), nil when absent

:version

Algebraic Relations

Relations that can involve Best Current Practice (BCP) identifiers:

Relation	Description	Syntax	Example
RFC	Standard RFC citation	`RFC <number>`	`RFC 2119`
BCP	Best Current Practice	`BCP <number>`	`BCP 3`
STD	Internet Standard (sub-series)	`STD <number>`	`STD 66`
FYI	For Your Information	`FYI <number>`	`FYI 1`
Internet-Draft	Work-in-progress draft, optional version suffix	`<draft-name>[-<version>]`	`draft-giuliano-treedn-02`

URN Mapping

Patternurn:ietf:[series]:[number]