RE: Second Example in section 7.2 of netconf-proto

["McDonald, Ira" <imcdonald@sharplabs.com>]

Hi Andy,

Email messages from two years ago aside, this is a pernicious
and foolish definition of 'replace' that collides with the
common semantics of 'replace' in all good quality software.

Silently 'replacing' something that isn't there is just plain
wrong.

Cheers,
- Ira


Ira McDonald (Musician / Software Architect)
Blue Roof Music / High North Inc
PO Box 221  Grand Marais, MI  49839
phone: +1-906-494-2434
email: imcdonald@sharplabs.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-netconf@ops.ietf.org [mailto:owner-netconf@ops.ietf.org]On
> Behalf Of Andy Bierman
> Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006 9:40 AM
> To: Martin Bjorklund
> Cc: schishol@nortel.com; netconf@ops.ietf.org
> Subject: Re: Second Example in section 7.2 of netconf-proto
> 
> 
> Martin Bjorklund wrote:
> > "Sharon Chisholm" <schishol@nortel.com> wrote:
> >   
> >> hi
> >>
> >> In section 7.2, the second example indicates it will add 
> an interface,
> >> but uses the operator of replace. The definition of 
> replace does not
> >> actually say that if the entry does not exist, it is created.
> >>     
> >
> > If it doesn't exist and you try to 'replace', it's an error. This is
> > not clearly defined in 7.2, but in the description of the error
> > 'data-missing' it says:
> >
> >    Tag:         data-missing
> >    Error-type:  application
> >    Severity:    error
> >    Error-info:  none
> >    Description: Request could not be completed because the relevant
> >                 data model content does not exist.  For example,
> >                 a 'replace' or 'delete' operation was attempted on
> >                 data which does not exist.
> >
> >
> > 'create' creates an non-existing; it's an error if it exists.
> > 'replace' replaces an existing; it's an error if it doesn't exist.
> > 'merge' creates if it doesn't exist, and modifies if it exists.
> > 'delete' deletes an existing; it's an error if it doesn't exist.
> >
> > So the example text is a bit unclear.
> >   
> 
> This error text is wrong.
> Replace does not cause an error if the data does not exist.
> That was the reason we added create. 
> 
> Merge and replace do not care about existing data.
> 
> Create on data that already exists is an error.
> 
> Delete on data that does not exist is an error.
> 
> Replace foo with nothing is not an error.
> 
> Merge foo with nothing is not an error.
> 
> Replace nothing with foo is not an error.
> 
> Merge nothing with foo is not an error.
> 
> 
> >
> >
> > /martin
> >   
> 
> Andy
> 
> 
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