Re: RPSLng task force outline

[Cengiz Alaettinoglu <]

On Fri, 2001-10-05 at 04:19, Mark Prior wrote:
> At 4:23 AM -0400 5/10/01, Florent Parent wrote:
> >Please, take a look at the following task force TODO list and send
> >comments/additions to the list. We need to properly define the scope of
> >our work.
> >
> I think that if we are going to open Pandora's Box and start fiddling 
> with RPSL then I would like us to consider revisiting what I consider 
> is a defect in RFC 2622!
> 
> There isn't currently an iterator in RPSL and I think it would be 
> helpful if there was one. Maybe Cengiz can explain why it was 
> rejected last time but I will illustrate how I would use it if there 
> was one :-)

This was discussed. Some people did not like procedural constructs.

> 
> While working for Connect I created a large number of AS set objects 
> that listed  our customer's AS, their customers, etc. If I was a peer 
> of Connect and wanted to filter them via AS paths (or just wanted to 
> get my policy correct :-) I would like to use these sets rather than 
> reinvent them but there is no easy way to do that.
> 
> Connect (AS2764) has an AS set called AS2764:AS-TRANSIT that includes 
> a list of ASes that provide transit to other ASes and then for each 
> AS in that set there is another set called AS2764:AS-CUSTOMERS:ASx 
> (where ASx is that member AS).
> 
> As a peer I could use these AS2764:AS-CUSTOMERS:ASx objects but there 
> is no mechanism to use AS2764:AS-TRANSIT to iterate through them so 
> my policy would need to explicitly name them all and somehow keep 
> them up to date. What would be better is something like
> 
> import: from AS2764
> 	accept interate over AS2764:AS-TRANSIT for
> 		<^AS2764+ TheAS+ AS2764:AS-CUSTOMERS:TheAS*$>
> 

You probably want to make this like perl so that operators are familiar
with it.
	foreach x in <any rpsl set> { filter expression }

I suppose the semantics would be OR over the loops expansion.

You also probably want a structured policy version of this

	foreach x in < any rpsl set > {
		from AS2764 accept x
	}	


> Mark.
> -- 
>