Subject: [netmod] replace a value in a leaf list - what does it mean?

From: Balazs Lengyel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2014 14:57:59 +0200

Hello,

I am trying to formulate my proposal about non-Unique values in a
leaf-list, and during this I found, I do not understand what an
edit-config: replace operation means in YANG 1.0 for a leaf-list.

If I have a leaf-list [a,b,c,d] and I issue an edit-config opertion
where the value "b" of the leaf-list is replaced by "b"

what is the result:

1) [a,b,c,d]  - seems natural as replacing something with itself
should not modified the data

or

2) [a,b,c,d,b] - according to RFC6020 chapter 7.7.7

In an "ordered-by user" leaf-list, the attributes "insert" and
"value" in the YANG XML namespace (Section 5.3.1) can be used to
control where in the leaf-list the entry is inserted. These can be
used during "create" operations to insert a new leaf-list entry, or
during "merge" or "replace" operations to insert a new leaf-list
entry or move an existing one.

...

If no "insert" attribute is present in the "create" operation, it
defaults to "last".

So replace can be used on a leaf-list. Insert defaults to last. This
would point at 2) as the solution.

Opinions?

regards balazs

--
Balazs Lengyel Ericsson Hungary Ltd.
Senior Specialist
ECN: 831 7320 Tel: +36-1-437-7320
Mobile: +36-70-330-7909 email: [email-masked]

[Docs] [txt|pdf] [draft-ietf-netmod...] [Diff1] [Diff2] [Errata]

PROPOSED STANDARD

Errata Exist

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) M. Bjorklund, Ed.
Request for Comments: 6020 Tail-f Systems
Category: Standards Track October 2010
ISSN: 2070-1721

YANG - A Data Modeling Language for
the Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF)

Abstract

YANG is a data modeling language used to model configuration and
state data manipulated by the Network Configuration Protocol
(NETCONF), NETCONF remote procedure calls, and NETCONF notifications.

Status of This Memo

This is an Internet Standards Track document.

This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on
Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6020.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.

Bjorklund Standards Track [Page 1]

RFC 6020 YANG October 2010

This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
Contributions published or made publicly available before November
10, 2008. The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this
material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow
modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.
Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling
the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified
outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may
not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format
it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
than English.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction ....................................................8
2. Keywords ........................................................8
3. Terminology .....................................................8
3.1. Mandatory Nodes ...........................................10
4. YANG Overview ..................................................11
4.1. Functional Overview .......................................11
4.2. Language Overview .........................................13
4.2.1. Modules and Submodules .............................13
4.2.2. Data Modeling Basics ...............................13
4.2.3. State Data .........................................18
4.2.4. Built-In Types .....................................18
4.2.5. Derived Types (typedef) ............................19
4.2.6. Reusable Node Groups (grouping) ....................20
4.2.7. Choices ............................................21
4.2.8. Extending Data Models (augment) ....................22
4.2.9. RPC Definitions ....................................23
4.2.10. Notification Definitions ..........................24
5. Language Concepts ..............................................25
5.1. Modules and Submodules ....................................25
5.1.1. Import and Include by Revision .....................26
5.1.2. Module Hierarchies .................................27
5.2. File Layout ...............................................28
5.3. XML Namespaces ............................................29
5.3.1. YANG XML Namespace .................................29
5.4. Resolving Grouping, Type, and Identity Names ..............29
5.5. Nested Typedefs and Groupings .............................29
5.6. Conformance ...............................................30
5.6.1. Basic Behavior .....................................31
5.6.2. Optional Features ..................................31
5.6.3. Deviations .........................................31
5.6.4. Announcing Conformance Information in the
<hello> Message ....................................32
5.7. Data Store Modification ...................................34
6. YANG Syntax ....................................................34

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RFC 6020 YANG October 2010

6.1. Lexical Tokenization ......................................34
6.1.1. Comments ...........................................34
6.1.2. Tokens .............................................34
6.1.3. Quoting ............................................35
6.2. Identifiers ...............................................36
6.2.1. Identifiers and Their Namespaces ...................36
6.3. Statements ................................................37
6.3.1. Language Extensions ................................37
6.4. XPath Evaluations .........................................38
6.4.1. XPath Context ......................................38
6.5. Schema Node Identifier ....................................39
7. YANG Statements ................................................39
7.1. The module Statement ......................................39
7.1.1. The module's Substatements .........................41
7.1.2. The yang-version Statement .........................41
7.1.3. The namespace Statement ............................42
7.1.4. The prefix Statement ...............................42
7.1.5. The import Statement ...............................42
7.1.6. The include Statement ..............................43
7.1.7. The organization Statement .........................44
7.1.8. The contact Statement ..............................44
7.1.9. The revision Statement .............................44
7.1.10. Usage Example .....................................45
7.2. The submodule Statement ...................................46
7.2.1. The submodule's Substatements ......................48
7.2.2. The belongs-to Statement ...........................48
7.2.3. Usage Example ......................................49
7.3. The typedef Statement .....................................49
7.3.1. The typedef's Substatements ........................50
7.3.2. The typedef's type Statement .......................50
7.3.3. The units Statement ................................50
7.3.4. The typedef's default Statement ....................50
7.3.5. Usage Example ......................................51
7.4. The type Statement ........................................51
7.4.1. The type's Substatements ...........................51
7.5. The container Statement ...................................51
7.5.1. Containers with Presence ...........................52
7.5.2. The container's Substatements ......................53
7.5.3. The must Statement .................................53
7.5.4. The must's Substatements ...........................55
7.5.5. The presence Statement .............................56
7.5.6. The container's Child Node Statements ..............56
7.5.7. XML Mapping Rules ..................................56
7.5.8. NETCONF <edit-config> Operations ...................56
7.5.9. Usage Example ......................................57
7.6. The leaf Statement ........................................58
7.6.1. The leaf's default value ...........................58
7.6.2. The leaf's Substatements ...........................59

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7.6.3. The leaf's type Statement ..........................59
7.6.4. The leaf's default Statement .......................59
7.6.5. The leaf's mandatory Statement .....................60
7.6.6. XML Mapping Rules ..................................60
7.6.7. NETCONF <edit-config> Operations ...................60
7.6.8. Usage Example ......................................61
7.7. The leaf-list Statement ...................................62
7.7.1. Ordering ...........................................62
7.7.2. The leaf-list's Substatements ......................63
7.7.3. The min-elements Statement .........................63
7.7.4. The max-elements Statement .........................63
7.7.5. The ordered-by Statement ...........................64
7.7.6. XML Mapping Rules ..................................64
7.7.7. NETCONF <edit-config> Operations ...................65
7.7.8. Usage Example ......................................66
7.8. The list Statement ........................................67
7.8.1. The list's Substatements ...........................68
7.8.2. The list's key Statement ...........................68
7.8.3. The list's unique Statement ........................69
7.8.4. The list's Child Node Statements ...................70
7.8.5. XML Mapping Rules ..................................70
7.8.6. NETCONF <edit-config> Operations ...................71
7.8.7. Usage Example ......................................72
7.9. The choice Statement ......................................75
7.9.1. The choice's Substatements .........................76
7.9.2. The choice's case Statement ........................76
7.9.3. The choice's default Statement .....................77
7.9.4. The choice's mandatory Statement ...................79
7.9.5. XML Mapping Rules ..................................79
7.9.6. NETCONF <edit-config> Operations ...................79
7.9.7. Usage Example ......................................79
7.10. The anyxml Statement .....................................80
7.10.1. The anyxml's Substatements ........................81
7.10.2. XML Mapping Rules .................................81
7.10.3. NETCONF <edit-config> Operations ..................81
7.10.4. Usage Example .....................................82
7.11. The grouping Statement ...................................82
7.11.1. The grouping's Substatements ......................83
7.11.2. Usage Example .....................................84
7.12. The uses Statement .......................................84
7.12.1. The uses's Substatements ..........................85
7.12.2. The refine Statement ..............................85
7.12.3. XML Mapping Rules .................................86
7.12.4. Usage Example .....................................86
7.13. The rpc Statement ........................................87
7.13.1. The rpc's Substatements ...........................88
7.13.2. The input Statement ...............................88
7.13.3. The output Statement ..............................89

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7.13.4. XML Mapping Rules .................................90
7.13.5. Usage Example .....................................91
7.14. The notification Statement ...............................91
7.14.1. The notification's Substatements ..................92
7.14.2. XML Mapping Rules .................................92
7.14.3. Usage Example .....................................93
7.15. The augment Statement ....................................93
7.15.1. The augment's Substatements .......................94
7.15.2. XML Mapping Rules .................................94
7.15.3. Usage Example .....................................95
7.16. The identity Statement ...................................97
7.16.1. The identity's Substatements ......................97
7.16.2. The base Statement ................................97
7.16.3. Usage Example .....................................98
7.17. The extension Statement ..................................98
7.17.1. The extension's Substatements .....................99
7.17.2. The argument Statement ............................99
7.17.3. Usage Example ....................................100
7.18. Conformance-Related Statements ..........................100
7.18.1. The feature Statement ............................100
7.18.2. The if-feature Statement .........................102
7.18.3. The deviation Statement ..........................102
7.19. Common Statements .......................................105
7.19.1. The config Statement .............................105
7.19.2. The status Statement .............................105
7.19.3. The description Statement ........................106
7.19.4. The reference Statement ..........................106
7.19.5. The when Statement ...............................107
8. Constraints ...................................................108
8.1. Constraints on Data ......................................108
8.2. Hierarchy of Constraints .................................109
8.3. Constraint Enforcement Model .............................109
8.3.1. Payload Parsing ...................................109
8.3.2. NETCONF <edit-config> Processing ..................110
8.3.3. Validation ........................................111
9. Built-In Types ................................................111
9.1. Canonical Representation .................................112
9.2. The Integer Built-In Types ...............................112
9.2.1. Lexical Representation ............................113
9.2.2. Canonical Form ....................................114
9.2.3. Restrictions ......................................114
9.2.4. The range Statement ...............................114
9.2.5. Usage Example .....................................115
9.3. The decimal64 Built-In Type ..............................115
9.3.1. Lexical Representation ............................115
9.3.2. Canonical Form ....................................115
9.3.3. Restrictions ......................................116
9.3.4. The fraction-digits Statement .....................116

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9.3.5. Usage Example .....................................117
9.4. The string Built-In Type .................................117
9.4.1. Lexical Representation ............................117
9.4.2. Canonical Form ....................................117
9.4.3. Restrictions ......................................117
9.4.4. The length Statement ..............................117
9.4.5. Usage Example .....................................118
9.4.6. The pattern Statement .............................119
9.4.7. Usage Example .....................................119
9.5. The boolean Built-In Type ................................120
9.5.1. Lexical Representation ............................120
9.5.2. Canonical Form ....................................120
9.5.3. Restrictions ......................................120
9.6. The enumeration Built-In Type ............................120
9.6.1. Lexical Representation ............................120
9.6.2. Canonical Form ....................................120
9.6.3. Restrictions ......................................120
9.6.4. The enum Statement ................................120
9.6.5. Usage Example .....................................121
9.7. The bits Built-In Type ...................................122
9.7.1. Restrictions ......................................122
9.7.2. Lexical Representation ............................122
9.7.3. Canonical Form ....................................122
9.7.4. The bit Statement .................................122
9.7.5. Usage Example .....................................123
9.8. The binary Built-In Type .................................123
9.8.1. Restrictions ......................................124
9.8.2. Lexical Representation ............................124
9.8.3. Canonical Form ....................................124
9.9. The leafref Built-In Type ................................124
9.9.1. Restrictions ......................................124
9.9.2. The path Statement ................................124
9.9.3. Lexical Representation ............................125
9.9.4. Canonical Form ....................................125
9.9.5. Usage Example .....................................126
9.10. The identityref Built-In Type ...........................129
9.10.1. Restrictions .....................................129
9.10.2. The identityref's base Statement .................129
9.10.3. Lexical Representation ...........................130
9.10.4. Canonical Form ...................................130
9.10.5. Usage Example ....................................130
9.11. The empty Built-In Type .................................131
9.11.1. Restrictions .....................................131
9.11.2. Lexical Representation ...........................131
9.11.3. Canonical Form ...................................131
9.11.4. Usage Example ....................................131
9.12. The union Built-In Type .................................132
9.12.1. Restrictions .....................................132

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9.12.2. Lexical Representation ...........................132
9.12.3. Canonical Form ...................................133
9.13. The instance-identifier Built-In Type ...................133
9.13.1. Restrictions .....................................134
9.13.2. The require-instance Statement ...................134
9.13.3. Lexical Representation ...........................134
9.13.4. Canonical Form ...................................134
9.13.5. Usage Example ....................................134
10. Updating a Module ............................................135
11. YIN ..........................................................137
11.1. Formal YIN Definition ...................................137
11.1.1. Usage Example ....................................141
12. YANG ABNF Grammar ............................................143
13. Error Responses for YANG Related Errors ......................165
13.1. Error Message for Data That Violates a unique
Statement ...............................................165
13.2. Error Message for Data That Violates a
max-elements Statement ..................................165
13.3. Error Message for Data That Violates a
min-elements Statement ..................................165
13.4. Error Message for Data That Violates a must Statement ...166
13.5. Error Message for Data That Violates a
require-instance Statement ..............................166
13.6. Error Message for Data That Does Not Match a
leafref Type ............................................166
13.7. Error Message for Data That Violates a mandatory
choice Statement ........................................166
13.8. Error Message for the "insert" Operation ................167
14. IANA Considerations ..........................................167
14.1. Media type application/yang .............................168
14.2. Media type application/yin+xml ..........................169
15. Security Considerations ......................................170
16. Contributors .................................................171
17. Acknowledgements .............................................171
18. References ...................................................171
18.1. Normative References ....................................171
18.2. Informative References ..................................172

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1. Introduction

YANG is a data modeling language used to model configuration and
state data manipulated by the Network Configuration Protocol
(NETCONF), NETCONF remote procedure calls, and NETCONF notifications.
YANG is used to model the operations and content layers of NETCONF
(see the NETCONF Configuration Protocol [RFC4741], Section 1.1).

This document describes the syntax and semantics of the YANG
language, how the data model defined in a YANG module is represented
in the Extensible Markup Language (XML), and how NETCONF operations
are used to manipulate the data.

2. Keywords

The keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
14, [RFC2119].

3. Terminology

o anyxml: A data node that can contain an unknown chunk of XML data.

o augment: Adds new schema nodes to a previously defined schema
node.

o base type: The type from which a derived type was derived, which
may be either a built-in type or another derived type.

o built-in type: A YANG data type defined in the YANG language, such
as uint32 or string.

o choice: A schema node where only one of a number of identified
alternatives is valid.

o configuration data: The set of writable data that is required to
transform a system from its initial default state into its current
state [RFC4741].

o conformance: A measure of how accurately a device follows a data
model.

o container: An interior data node that exists in at most one
instance in the data tree. A container has no value, but rather a
set of child nodes.

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RFC 6020 YANG October 2010

o data definition statement: A statement that defines new data
nodes. One of container, leaf, leaf-list, list, choice, case,
augment, uses, and anyxml.

o data model: A data model describes how data is represented and
accessed.

o data node: A node in the schema tree that can be instantiated in a
data tree. One of container, leaf, leaf-list, list, and anyxml.

o data tree: The instantiated tree of configuration and state data
on a device.

o derived type: A type that is derived from a built-in type (such as
uint32), or another derived type.

o device deviation: A failure of the device to implement the module
faithfully.

o extension: An extension attaches non-YANG semantics to statements.
The extension statement defines new statements to express these
semantics.

o feature: A mechanism for marking a portion of the model as
optional. Definitions can be tagged with a feature name and are
only valid on devices that support that feature.

o grouping: A reusable set of schema nodes, which may be used
locally in the module, in modules that include it, and by other
modules that import from it. The grouping statement is not a data
definition statement and, as such, does not define any nodes in
the schema tree.

o identifier: Used to identify different kinds of YANG items by
name.

o instance identifier: A mechanism for identifying a particular node
in a data tree.

o interior node: Nodes within a hierarchy that are not leaf nodes.

o leaf: A data node that exists in at most one instance in the data
tree. A leaf has a value but no child nodes.

o leaf-list: Like the leaf node but defines a set of uniquely
identifiable nodes rather than a single node. Each node has a
value but no child nodes.

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RFC 6020 YANG October 2010

o list: An interior data node that may exist in multiple instances
in the data tree. A list has no value, but rather a set of child
nodes.

o module: A YANG module defines a hierarchy of nodes that can be
used for NETCONF-based operations. With its definitions and the
definitions it imports or includes from elsewhere, a module is
self-contained and "compilable".

o RPC: A Remote Procedure Call, as used within the NETCONF protocol.

o RPC operation: A specific Remote Procedure Call, as used within
the NETCONF protocol. It is also called a protocol operation.

o schema node: A node in the schema tree. One of container, leaf,
leaf-list, list, choice, case, rpc, input, output, notification,
and anyxml.

o schema node identifier: A mechanism for identifying a particular
node in the schema tree.

o schema tree: The definition hierarchy specified within a module.

o state data: The additional data on a system that is not
configuration data such as read-only status information and
collected statistics [RFC4741].

o submodule: A partial module definition that contributes derived
types, groupings, data nodes, RPCs, and notifications to a module.
A YANG module can be constructed from a number of submodules.

o top-level data node: A data node where there is no other data node
between it and a module or submodule statement.

o uses: The "uses" statement is used to instantiate the set of
schema nodes defined in a grouping statement. The instantiated
nodes may be refined and augmented to tailor them to any specific
needs.

3.1. Mandatory Nodes

A mandatory node is one of:

o A leaf, choice, or anyxml node with a "mandatory" statement with
the value "true".

o A list or leaf-list node with a "min-elements" statement with a
value greater than zero.

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RFC 6020 YANG October 2010

o A container node without a "presence" statement, which has at
least one mandatory node as a child.

4. YANG Overview

4.1. Functional Overview

YANG is a language used to model data for the NETCONF protocol. A
YANG module defines a hierarchy of data that can be used for NETCONF-
based operations, including configuration, state data, Remote
Procedure Calls (RPCs), and notifications. This allows a complete
description of all data sent between a NETCONF client and server.

YANG models the hierarchical organization of data as a tree in which
each node has a name, and either a value or a set of child nodes.
YANG provides clear and concise descriptions of the nodes, as well as
the interaction between those nodes.

YANG structures data models into modules and submodules. A module
can import data from other external modules, and include data from
submodules. The hierarchy can be augmented, allowing one module to
add data nodes to the hierarchy defined in another module. This
augmentation can be conditional, with new nodes appearing only if
certain conditions are met.

YANG models can describe constraints to be enforced on the data,
restricting the appearance or value of nodes based on the presence or
value of other nodes in the hierarchy. These constraints are
enforceable by either the client or the server, and valid content
MUST abide by them.

YANG defines a set of built-in types, and has a type mechanism
through which additional types may be defined. Derived types can
restrict their base type's set of valid values using mechanisms like
range or pattern restrictions that can be enforced by clients or
servers. They can also define usage conventions for use of the
derived type, such as a string-based type that contains a host name.

YANG permits the definition of reusable groupings of nodes. The
instantiation of these groupings can refine or augment the nodes,
allowing it to tailor the nodes to its particular needs. Derived
types and groupings can be defined in one module or submodule and
used in either that location or in another module or submodule that
imports or includes it.

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RFC 6020 YANG October 2010

YANG data hierarchy constructs include defining lists where list
entries are identified by keys that distinguish them from each other.
Such lists may be defined as either sorted by user or automatically
sorted by the system. For user-sorted lists, operations are defined
for manipulating the order of the list entries.

YANG modules can be translated into an equivalent XML syntax called
YANG Independent Notation (YIN) (Section 11), allowing applications
using XML parsers and Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations
(XSLT) scripts to operate on the models. The conversion from YANG to
YIN is lossless, so content in YIN can be round-tripped back into
YANG.

YANG strikes a balance between high-level data modeling and low-level
bits-on-the-wire encoding. The reader of a YANG module can see the
high-level view of the data model while understanding how the data
will be encoded in NETCONF operations.

YANG is an extensible language, allowing extension statements to be
defined by standards bodies, vendors, and individuals. The statement
syntax allows these extensions to coexist with standard YANG
statements in a natural way, while extensions in a YANG module stand
out sufficiently for the reader to notice them.

YANG resists the tendency to solve all possible problems, limiting
the problem space to allow expression of NETCONF data models, not
arbitrary XML documents or arbitrary data models. The data models
described by YANG are designed to be easily operated upon by NETCONF
operations.

To the extent possible, YANG maintains compatibility with Simple
Network Management Protocol's (SNMP's) SMIv2 (Structure of Management
Information version 2 [RFC2578], [RFC2579]). SMIv2-based MIB modules
can be automatically translated into YANG modules for read-only
access. However, YANG is not concerned with reverse translation from
YANG to SMIv2.

Like NETCONF, YANG targets smooth integration with the device's
native management infrastructure. This allows implementations to
leverage their existing access control mechanisms to protect or
expose elements of the data model.

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4.2. Language Overview

This section introduces some important constructs used in YANG that
will aid in the understanding of the language specifics in later
sections. This progressive approach handles the inter-related nature
of YANG concepts and statements. A detailed description of YANG
statements and syntax begins in Section 7.

4.2.1. Modules and Submodules

A module contains three types of statements: module-header
statements, revision statements, and definition statements. The
module header statements describe the module and give information
about the module itself, the revision statements give information
about the history of the module, and the definition statements are
the body of the module where the data model is defined.

A NETCONF server may implement a number of modules, allowing multiple
views of the same data, or multiple views of disjoint subsections of
the device's data. Alternatively, the server may implement only one
module that defines all available data.

A module may be divided into submodules, based on the needs of the
module owner. The external view remains that of a single module,
regardless of the presence or size of its submodules.

The "include" statement allows a module or submodule to reference
material in submodules, and the "import" statement allows references
to material defined in other modules.

4.2.2. Data Modeling Basics

YANG defines four types of nodes for data modeling. In each of the
following subsections, the example shows the YANG syntax as well as a
corresponding NETCONF XML representation.

4.2.2.1. Leaf Nodes

A leaf node contains simple data like an integer or a string. It has
exactly one value of a particular type and no child nodes.

YANG Example:

leaf host-name {
type string;
description "Hostname for this system";
}

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NETCONF XML Example:

<host-name>my.example.com</host-name>

The "leaf" statement is covered in Section 7.6.

4.2.2.2. Leaf-List Nodes

A leaf-list is a sequence of leaf nodes with exactly one value of a
particular type per leaf.

YANG Example:

leaf-list domain-search {
type string;
description "List of domain names to search";
}

NETCONF XML Example:

<domain-search>high.example.com</domain-search>
<domain-search>low.example.com</domain-search>
<domain-search>everywhere.example.com</domain-search>

The "leaf-list" statement is covered in Section 7.7.

4.2.2.3. Container Nodes

A container node is used to group related nodes in a subtree. A
container has only child nodes and no value. A container may contain
any number of child nodes of any type (including leafs, lists,
containers, and leaf-lists).

YANG Example:

container system {
container login {
leaf message {
type string;
description
"Message given at start of login session";
}
}
}

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NETCONF XML Example:

<system>
<login>
<message>Good morning</message>
</login>
</system>

The "container" statement is covered in Section 7.5.

4.2.2.4. List Nodes

A list defines a sequence of list entries. Each entry is like a
structure or a record instance, and is uniquely identified by the
values of its key leafs. A list can define multiple key leafs and
may contain any number of child nodes of any type (including leafs,
lists, containers etc.).

YANG Example:

list user {
key "name";
leaf name {
type string;
}
leaf full-name {
type string;
}
leaf class {
type string;
}
}

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NETCONF XML Example:

<user>
<name>glocks</name>
<full-name>Goldie Locks</full-name>
<class>intruder</class>
</user>
<user>
<name>snowey</name>
<full-name>Snow White</full-name>
<class>free-loader</class>
</user>
<user>
<name>rzell</name>
<full-name>Rapun Zell</full-name>
<class>tower</class>
</user>

The "list" statement is covered in Section 7.8.

4.2.2.5. Example Module

These statements are combined to define the module:

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// Contents of "acme-system.yang"
module acme-system {
namespace "http://acme.example.com/system";
prefix "acme";

organization "ACME Inc.";
contact "[email-masked]";
description
"The module for entities implementing the ACME system.";

revision 2007-06-09 {
description "Initial revision.";
}

container system {
leaf host-name {
type string;
description "Hostname for this system";
}

leaf-list domain-search {
type string;
description "List of domain names to search";
}

container login {
leaf message {
type string;
description
"Message given at start of login session";
}

list user {
key "name";
leaf name {
type string;
}
leaf full-name {
type string;
}
leaf class {
type string;
}
}
}
}
}

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4.2.3. State Data

YANG can model state data, as well as configuration data, based on
the "config" statement. When a node is tagged with "config false",
its subhierarchy is flagged as state data, to be reported using
NETCONF's <get> operation, not the <get-config> operation. Parent
containers, lists, and key leafs are reported also, giving the
context for the state data.

In this example, two leafs are defined for each interface, a
configured speed and an observed speed. The observed speed is not
configuration, so it can be returned with NETCONF <get> operations,
but not with <get-config> operations. The observed speed is not
configuration data, and it cannot be manipulated using <edit-config>.

list interface {
key "name";

leaf name {
type string;
}
leaf speed {
type enumeration {
enum 10m;
enum 100m;
enum auto;
}
}
leaf observed-speed {
type uint32;
config false;
}
}

4.2.4. Built-In Types

YANG has a set of built-in types, similar to those of many
programming languages, but with some differences due to special
requirements from the management domain. The following table
summarizes the built-in types discussed in Section 9:

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+---------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Name | Description |
+---------------------+-------------------------------------+
| binary | Any binary data |
| bits | A set of bits or flags |
| boolean | "true" or "false" |
| decimal64 | 64-bit signed decimal number |
| empty | A leaf that does not have any value |
| enumeration | Enumerated strings |
| identityref | A reference to an abstract identity |
| instance-identifier | References a data tree node |
| int8 | 8-bit signed integer |
| int16 | 16-bit signed integer |
| int32 | 32-bit signed integer |
| int64 | 64-bit signed integer |
| leafref | A reference to a leaf instance |
| string | Human-readable string |
| uint8 | 8-bit unsigned integer |
| uint16 | 16-bit unsigned integer |
| uint32 | 32-bit unsigned integer |
| uint64 | 64-bit unsigned integer |
| union | Choice of member types |
+---------------------+-------------------------------------+

The "type" statement is covered in Section 7.4.

4.2.5. Derived Types (typedef)

YANG can define derived types from base types using the "typedef"
statement. A base type can be either a built-in type or a derived
type, allowing a hierarchy of derived types.

A derived type can be used as the argument for the "type" statement.

YANG Example:

typedef percent {
type uint8 {
range "0 .. 100";
}
description "Percentage";
}

leaf completed {
type percent;
}

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NETCONF XML Example:

<completed>20</completed>

The "typedef" statement is covered in Section 7.3.

4.2.6. Reusable Node Groups (grouping)

Groups of nodes can be assembled into reusable collections using the
"grouping" statement. A grouping defines a set of nodes that are
instantiated with the "uses" statement:

grouping target {
leaf address {
type inet:ip-address;
description "Target IP address";
}
leaf port {
type inet:port-number;
description "Target port number";
}
}

container peer {
container destination {
uses target;
}
}

NETCONF XML Example:

<peer>
<destination>
<address>192.0.2.1</address>
<port>830</port>
</destination>
</peer>

The grouping can be refined as it is used, allowing certain
statements to be overridden. In this example, the description is
refined:

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container connection {
container source {
uses target {
refine "address" {
description "Source IP address";
}
refine "port" {
description "Source port number";
}
}
}
container destination {
uses target {
refine "address" {
description "Destination IP address";
}
refine "port" {
description "Destination port number";
}
}
}
}

The "grouping" statement is covered in Section 7.11.

4.2.7. Choices

YANG allows the data model to segregate incompatible nodes into
distinct choices using the "choice" and "case" statements. The
"choice" statement contains a set of "case" statements that define
sets of schema nodes that cannot appear together. Each "case" may
contain multiple nodes, but each node may appear in only one "case"
under a "choice".

When an element from one case is created, all elements from all other
cases are implicitly deleted. The device handles the enforcement of
the constraint, preventing incompatibilities from existing in the
configuration.

The choice and case nodes appear only in the schema tree, not in the
data tree or NETCONF messages. The additional levels of hierarchy
are not needed beyond the conceptual schema.

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YANG Example:

container food {
choice snack {
case sports-arena {
leaf pretzel {
type empty;
}
leaf beer {
type empty;
}
}
case late-night {
leaf chocolate {
type enumeration {
enum dark;
enum milk;
enum first-available;
}
}
}
}
}

NETCONF XML Example:

<food>
<pretzel/>
<beer/>
</food>

The "choice" statement is covered in Section 7.9.

4.2.8. Extending Data Models (augment)

YANG allows a module to insert additional nodes into data models,
including both the current module (and its submodules) or an external
module. This is useful for example for vendors to add vendor-
specific parameters to standard data models in an interoperable way.

The "augment" statement defines the location in the data model
hierarchy where new nodes are inserted, and the "when" statement
defines the conditions when the new nodes are valid.

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YANG Example:

augment /system/login/user {
when "class != 'wheel'";
leaf uid {
type uint16 {
range "1000 .. 30000";
}
}
}

This example defines a "uid" node that only is valid when the user's
"class" is not "wheel".

If a module augments another module, the XML representation of the
data will reflect the prefix of the augmenting module. For example,
if the above augmentation were in a module with prefix "other", the
XML would look like:

NETCONF XML Example:

<user>
<name>alicew</name>
<full-name>Alice N. Wonderland</full-name>
<class>drop-out</class>
<other:uid>1024</other:uid>
</user>

The "augment" statement is covered in Section 7.15.

4.2.9. RPC Definitions

YANG allows the definition of NETCONF RPCs. The operations' names,
input parameters, and output parameters are modeled using YANG data
definition statements.

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YANG Example:

rpc activate-software-image {
input {
leaf image-name {
type string;
}
}
output {
leaf status {
type string;
}
}
}

NETCONF XML Example:

<rpc message-id="101"
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<activate-software-image xmlns="http://acme.example.com/system">
<image-name>acmefw-2.3</image-name>
</activate-software-image>
</rpc>

<rpc-reply message-id="101"
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<status xmlns="http://acme.example.com/system">
The image acmefw-2.3 is being installed.
</status>
</rpc-reply>

The "rpc" statement is covered in Section 7.13.

4.2.10. Notification Definitions

YANG allows the definition of notifications suitable for NETCONF.
YANG data definition statements are used to model the content of the
notification.

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YANG Example:

notification link-failure {
description "A link failure has been detected";
leaf if-name {
type leafref {
path "/interface/name";
}
}
leaf if-admin-status {
type admin-status;
}
leaf if-oper-status {
type oper-status;
}
}

NETCONF XML Example:

<notification
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:netconf:capability:notification:1.0">
<eventTime>2007-09-01T10:00:00Z</eventTime>
<link-failure xmlns="http://acme.example.com/system">
<if-name>so-1/2/3.0</if-name>
<if-admin-status>up</if-admin-status>
<if-oper-status>down</if-oper-status>
</link-failure>
</notification>

The "notification" statement is covered in Section 7.14.

5. Language Concepts

5.1. Modules and Submodules

The module is the base unit of definition in YANG. A module defines
a single data model. A module can define a complete, cohesive model,
or augment an existing data model with additional nodes.

Submodules are partial modules that contribute definitions to a
module. A module may include any number of submodules, but each
submodule may belong to only one module.

The names of all standard modules and submodules MUST be unique.
Developers of enterprise modules are RECOMMENDED to choose names for
their modules that will have a low probability of colliding with
standard or other enterprise modules, e.g., by using the enterprise
or organization name as a prefix for the module name.

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A module uses the "include" statement to include its submodules, and
the "import" statement to reference external modules. Similarly, a
submodule uses the "import" statement to reference other modules, and
uses the "include" statement to reference other submodules within its
module. A module or submodule MUST NOT include submodules from other
modules, and a submodule MUST NOT import its own module.

The import and include statements are used to make definitions
available to other modules and submodules:

o For a module or submodule to reference definitions in an external
module, the external module MUST be imported.

o For a module to reference definitions in one of its submodules,
the module MUST include the submodule.

o For a submodule to reference definitions in a second submodule of
the same module, the first submodule MUST include the second
submodule.

There MUST NOT be any circular chains of imports or includes. For
example, if submodule "a" includes submodule "b", "b" cannot include
"a".

When a definition in an external module is referenced, a locally
defined prefix MUST be used, followed by ":", and then the external
identifier. References to definitions in the local module MAY use
the prefix notation. Since built-in data types do not belong to any
module and have no prefix, references to built-in data types (e.g.,
int32) cannot use the prefix notation.

5.1.1. Import and Include by Revision

Published modules evolve independently over time. In order to allow
for this evolution, modules need to be imported using specific
revisions. When a module is written, it uses the current revisions
of other modules, based on what is available at the time. As future
revisions of the imported modules are published, the importing module
is unaffected and its contents are unchanged. When the author of the
module is prepared to move to the most recently published revision of
an imported module, the module is republished with an updated
"import" statement. By republishing with the new revision, the
authors explicitly indicate their acceptance of any changes in the
imported module.

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For submodules, the issue is related but simpler. A module or
submodule that includes submodules needs to specify the revision of
the included submodules. If a submodule changes, any module or
submodule that includes it needs to be updated.

For example, module "b" imports module "a".

module a {
revision 2008-01-01 { ... }
grouping a {
leaf eh { .... }
}
}

module b {
import a {
prefix p;
revision-date 2008-01-01;
}

container bee {
uses p:a;
}
}

When the author of "a" publishes a new revision, the changes may not
be acceptable to the author of "b". If the new revision is
acceptable, the author of "b" can republish with an updated revision
in the "import" statement.

5.1.2. Module Hierarchies

YANG allows modeling of data in multiple hierarchies, where data may
have more than one top-level node. Models that have multiple top-
level nodes are sometimes convenient, and are supported by YANG.

NETCONF is capable of carrying any XML content as the payload in the
<config> and <data> elements. The top-level nodes of YANG modules
are encoded as child elements, in any order, within these elements.
This encapsulation guarantees that the corresponding NETCONF messages
are always well-formed XML documents.

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For example:

module my-config {
namespace "http://example.com/schema/config";
prefix "co";

container system { ... }
container routing { ... }
}

could be encoded in NETCONF as:

<rpc message-id="101"
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"
xmlns:nc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<edit-config>
<target>
<running/>
</target>
<config>
<system xmlns="http://example.com/schema/config">
<!-- system data here -->
</system>
<routing xmlns="http://example.com/schema/config">
<!-- routing data here -->
</routing>
</config>
</edit-config>
</rpc>

5.2. File Layout

YANG modules and submodules are typically stored in files, one module
or submodule per file. The name of the file SHOULD be of the form:

module-or-submodule-name ['@' revision-date] ( '.yang' / '.yin' )

YANG compilers can find imported modules and included submodules via
this convention. While the YANG language defines modules, tools may
compile submodules independently for performance and manageability
reasons. Errors and warnings that cannot be detected during
submodule compilation may be delayed until the submodules are linked
into a cohesive module.

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5.3. XML Namespaces

All YANG definitions are specified within a module that is bound to a
particular XML namespace [XML-NAMES], which is a globally unique URI
[RFC3986]. A NETCONF client or server uses the namespace during XML
encoding of data.

Namespaces for modules published in RFC streams [RFC4844] MUST be
assigned by IANA, see Section 14.

Namespaces for private modules are assigned by the organization
owning the module without a central registry. Namespace URIs MUST be
chosen so they cannot collide with standard or other enterprise
namespaces, for example by using the enterprise or organization name
in the namespace.

The "namespace" statement is covered in Section 7.1.3.

5.3.1. YANG XML Namespace

YANG defines an XML namespace for NETCONF <edit-config> operations
and <error-info> content. The name of this namespace is
"urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:1".

5.4. Resolving Grouping, Type, and Identity Names

Grouping, type, and identity names are resolved in the context in
which they are defined, rather than the context in which they are
used. Users of groupings, typedefs, and identities are not required
to import modules or include submodules to satisfy all references
made by the original definition. This behaves like static scoping in
a conventional programming language.

For example, if a module defines a grouping in which a type is
referenced, when the grouping is used in a second module, the type is
resolved in the context of the original module, not the second
module. There is no worry over conflicts if both modules define the
type, since there is no ambiguity.

5.5. Nested Typedefs and Groupings

Typedefs and groupings may appear nested under many YANG statements,
allowing these to be lexically scoped by the hierarchy under which
they appear. This allows types and groupings to be defined near
where they are used, rather than placing them at the top level of the
hierarchy. The close proximity increases readability.

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Scoping also allows types to be defined without concern for naming
conflicts between types in different submodules. Type names can be
specified without adding leading strings designed to prevent name
collisions within large modules.

Finally, scoping allows the module author to keep types and groupings
private to their module or submodule, preventing their reuse. Since
only top-level types and groupings (i.e., those appearing as
substatements to a module or submodule statement) can be used outside
the module or submodule, the developer has more control over what
pieces of their module are presented to the outside world, supporting
the need to hide internal information and maintaining a boundary
between what is shared with the outside world and what is kept
private.

Scoped definitions MUST NOT shadow definitions at a higher scope. A
type or grouping cannot be defined if a higher level in the schema
hierarchy has a definition with a matching identifier.

A reference to an unprefixed type or grouping, or one which uses the
prefix of the current module, is resolved by locating the closest
matching "typedef" or "grouping" statement among the immediate
substatements of each ancestor statement.

5.6. Conformance

Conformance is a measure of how accurately a device follows the
model. Generally speaking, devices are responsible for implementing
the model faithfully, allowing applications to treat devices which
implement the model identically. Deviations from the model can
reduce the utility of the model and increase fragility of
applications that use it.

YANG modelers have three mechanisms for conformance:

o the basic behavior of the model

o optional features that are part of the model

o deviations from the model

We will consider each of these in sequence.

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5.6.1. Basic Behavior

The model defines a contract between the NETCONF client and server,
which allows both parties to have faith the other knows the syntax
and semantics behind the modeled data. The strength of YANG lies in
the strength of this contract.

5.6.2. Optional Features

In many models, the modeler will allow sections of the model to be
conditional. The device controls whether these conditional portions
of the model are supported or valid for that particular device.

For example, a syslog data model may choose to include the ability to
save logs locally, but the modeler will realize that this is only
possible if the device has local storage. If there is no local
storage, an application should not tell the device to save logs.

YANG supports this conditional mechanism using a construct called
"feature". Features give the modeler a mechanism for making portions
of the module conditional in a manner that is controlled by the
device. The model can express constructs that are not universally
present in all devices. These features are included in the model
definition, allowing a consistent view and allowing applications to
learn which features are supported and tailor their behavior to the
device.

A module may declare any number of features, identified by simple
strings, and may make portions of the module optional based on those
features. If the device supports a feature, then the corresponding
portions of the module are valid for that device. If the device
doesn't support the feature, those parts of the module are not valid,
and applications should behave accordingly.

Features are defined using the "feature" statement. Definitions in
the module that are conditional to the feature are noted by the
"if-feature" statement with the name of the feature as its argument.

Further details are available in Section 7.18.1.

5.6.3. Deviations

In an ideal world, all devices would be required to implement the
model exactly as defined, and deviations from the model would not be
allowed. But in the real world, devices are often not able or
designed to implement the model as written. For YANG-based

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automation to deal with these device deviations, a mechanism must
exist for devices to inform applications of the specifics of such
deviations.

For example, a BGP module may allow any number of BGP peers, but a
particular device may only support 16 BGP peers. Any application
configuring the 17th peer will receive an error. While an error may
suffice to let the application know it cannot add another peer, it
would be far better if the application had prior knowledge of this
limitation and could prevent the user from starting down the path
that could not succeed.

Device deviations are declared using the "deviation" statement, which
takes as its argument a string that identifies a node in the schema
tree. The contents of the statement details the manner in which the
device implementation deviates from the contract as defined in the
module.

Further details are available in Section 7.18.3.

5.6.4. Announcing Conformance Information in the <hello> Message

The namespace URI MUST be advertised as a capability in the NETCONF
<hello> message to indicate support for the YANG module by a NETCONF
server. The capability URI advertised MUST be of the form:

capability-string = namespace-uri [ parameter-list ]
parameter-list = "?" parameter *( "&" parameter )
parameter = revision-parameter /
module-parameter /
feature-parameter /
deviation-parameter
revision-parameter = "revision=" revision-date
module-parameter = "module=" module-name
feature-parameter = "features=" feature *( "," feature )
deviation-parameter = "deviations=" deviation *( "," deviation )

Where "revision-date" is the revision of the module (see
Section 7.1.9) that the NETCONF server implements, "module-name" is
the name of module as it appears in the "module" statement (see
Section 7.1), "namespace-uri" is the namespace URI for the module as
it appears in the "namespace" statement (see Section 7.1.3),
"feature" is the name of an optional feature implemented by the
device (see Section 7.18.1), and "deviation" is the name of a module
defining device deviations (see Section 7.18.3).

In the parameter list, each named parameter MUST occur at most once.

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5.6.4.1. Modules

Servers indicate the names of supported modules via the <hello>
message. Module namespaces are encoded as the base URI in the
capability string, and the module name is encoded as the "module"
parameter to the base URI.

A server MUST advertise all revisions of all modules it implements.

For example, this <hello> message advertises one module "syslog".

<hello xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<capability>
http://example.com/syslog?module=syslog&amp;revision=2008-04-01
</capability>
</hello>

5.6.4.2. Features

Servers indicate the names of supported features via the <hello>
message. In <hello> messages, the features are encoded in the
"features" parameter within the URI. The value of this parameter is
a comma-separated list of feature names that the device supports for
the specific module.

For example, this <hello> message advertises one module, informing
the client that it supports the "local-storage" feature of module
"syslog".
<hello xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<capability>
http://example.com/syslog?module=syslog&amp;features=local-storage
</capability>
</hello>

5.6.4.3. Deviations

Device deviations are announced via the "deviations" parameter. The
value of the "deviations" parameter is a comma-separated list of
modules containing deviations from the capability's module.

For example, this <hello> message advertises two modules, informing
the client that it deviates from module "syslog" according to the
deviations listed in the module "my-devs".

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<hello xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<capability>
http://example.com/syslog?module=syslog&amp;deviations=my-devs
</capability>
<capability>
http://example.com/my-deviations?module=my-devs
</capability>
</hello>

5.7. Data Store Modification

Data models may allow the server to alter the configuration data
store in ways not explicitly directed via NETCONF protocol messages.
For example, a data model may define leafs that are assigned system-
generated values when the client does not provide one. A formal
mechanism for specifying the circumstances where these changes are
allowed is out of scope for this specification.

6. YANG Syntax

The YANG syntax is similar to that of SMIng [RFC3780] and programming
languages like C and C++. This C-like syntax was chosen specifically
for its readability, since YANG values the time and effort of the
readers of models above those of modules writers and YANG tool-chain
developers. This section introduces the YANG syntax.

YANG modules use the UTF-8 [RFC3629] character encoding.

6.1. Lexical Tokenization

YANG modules are parsed as a series of tokens. This section details
the rules for recognizing tokens from an input stream. YANG
tokenization rules are both simple and powerful. The simplicity is
driven by a need to keep the parsers easy to implement, while the
power is driven by the fact that modelers need to express their
models in readable formats.

6.1.1. Comments

Comments are C++ style. A single line comment starts with "//" and
ends at the end of the line. A block comment is enclosed within "/*"
and "*/".

6.1.2. Tokens

A token in YANG is either a keyword, a string, a semicolon (";"), or
braces ("{" or "}"). A string can be quoted or unquoted. A keyword
is either one of the YANG keywords defined in this document, or a

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prefix identifier, followed by ":", followed by a language extension
keyword. Keywords are case sensitive. See Section 6.2 for a formal
definition of identifiers.

6.1.3. Quoting

If a string contains any space or tab characters, a semicolon (";"),
braces ("{" or "}"), or comment sequences ("//", "/*", or "*/"), then
it MUST be enclosed within double or single quotes.

If the double-quoted string contains a line break followed by space
or tab characters that are used to indent the text according to the
layout in the YANG file, this leading whitespace is stripped from the
string, up to and including the column of the double quote character,
or to the first non-whitespace character, whichever occurs first. In
this process, a tab character is treated as 8 space characters.

If the double-quoted string contains space or tab characters before a
line break, this trailing whitespace is stripped from the string.

A single-quoted string (enclosed within ' ') preserves each character
within the quotes. A single quote character cannot occur in a
single-quoted string, even when preceded by a backslash.

Within a double-quoted string (enclosed within " "), a backslash
character introduces a special character, which depends on the
character that immediately follows the backslash:

\n new line
\t a tab character
\" a double quote
\\ a single backslash

If a quoted string is followed by a plus character ("+"), followed by
another quoted string, the two strings are concatenated into one
string, allowing multiple concatenations to build one string.
Whitespace trimming and substitution of backslash-escaped characters
in double-quoted strings is done before concatenation.

6.1.3.1. Quoting Examples

The following strings are equivalent:

hello
"hello"
'hello'
"hel" + "lo"
'hel' + "lo"

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The following examples show some special strings:

"\"" - string containing a double quote
'"' - string containing a double quote
"\n" - string containing a new line character
'\n' - string containing a backslash followed
by the character n

The following examples show some illegal strings:

'''' - a single-quoted string cannot contain single quotes
""" - a double quote must be escaped in a double-quoted string

The following strings are equivalent:

"first line
second line"

"first line\n" + " second line"

6.2. Identifiers

Identifiers are used to identify different kinds of YANG items by
name. Each identifier starts with an uppercase or lowercase ASCII
letter or an underscore character, followed by zero or more ASCII
letters, digits, underscore characters, hyphens, and dots.
Implementations MUST support identifiers up to 64 characters in
length. Identifiers are case sensitive. The identifier syntax is
formally defined by the rule "identifier" in Section 12. Identifiers
can be specified as quoted or unquoted strings.

6.2.1. Identifiers and Their Namespaces

Each identifier is valid in a namespace that depends on the type of
the YANG item being defined. All identifiers defined in a namespace
MUST be unique.

o All module and submodule names share the same global module
identifier namespace.

o All extension names defined in a module and its submodules share
the same extension identifier namespace.

o All feature names defined in a module and its submodules share the
same feature identifier namespace.

o All identity names defined in a module and its submodules share
the same identity identifier namespace.

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o All derived type names defined within a parent node or at the top
level of the module or its submodules share the same type
identifier namespace. This namespace is scoped to all descendant
nodes of the parent node or module. This means that any
descendent node may use that typedef, and it MUST NOT define a
typedef with the same name.

o All grouping names defined within a parent node or at the top
level of the module or its submodules share the same grouping
identifier namespace. This namespace is scoped to all descendant
nodes of the parent node or module. This means that any
descendent node may use that grouping, and it MUST NOT define a
grouping with the same name.

o All leafs, leaf-lists, lists, containers, choices, rpcs,
notifications, and anyxmls defined (directly or through a uses
statement) within a parent node or at the top level of the module
or its submodules share the same identifier namespace. This
namespace is scoped to the parent node or module, unless the
parent node is a case node. In that case, the namespace is scoped
to the closest ancestor node that is not a case or choice node.

o All cases within a choice share the same case identifier
namespace. This namespace is scoped to the parent choice node.

Forward references are allowed in YANG.

6.3. Statements

A YANG module contains a sequence of statements. Each statement
starts with a keyword, followed by zero or one argument, followed
either by a semicolon (";") or a block of substatements enclosed
within braces ("{ }"):

statement = keyword [argument] (";" / "{" *statement "}")

The argument is a string, as defined in Section 6.1.2.

6.3.1. Language Extensions

A module can introduce YANG extensions by using the "extension"
keyword (see Section 7.17). The extensions can be imported by other
modules with the "import" statement (see Section 7.1.5). When an
imported extension is used, the extension's keyword MUST be qualified
using the prefix with which the extension's module was imported. If
an extension is used in the module where it is defined, the
extension's keyword MUST be qualified with the module's prefix.

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Since submodules cannot include the parent module, any extensions in
the module that need to be exposed to submodules MUST be defined in a
submodule. Submodules can then include this submodule to find the
definition of the extension.

If a YANG compiler does not support a particular extension, which
appears in a YANG module as an unknown-statement (see Section 12),
the entire unknown-statement MAY be ignored by the compiler.

6.4. XPath Evaluations

YANG relies on XML Path Language (XPath) 1.0 [XPATH] as a notation
for specifying many inter-node references and dependencies. NETCONF
clients and servers are not required to implement an XPath
interpreter, but MUST ensure that the requirements encoded in the
data model are enforced. The manner of enforcement is an
implementation decision. The XPath expressions MUST be syntactically
correct, and all prefixes used MUST be present in the XPath context
(see Section 6.4.1). An implementation may choose to implement them
by hand, rather than using the XPath expression directly.

The data model used in the XPath expressions is the same as that used
in XPath 1.0 [XPATH], with the same extension for root node children
as used by XSLT 1.0 [XSLT] (Section 3.1). Specifically, it means
that the root node may have any number of element nodes as its
children.

6.4.1. XPath Context

All YANG XPath expressions share the following XPath context
definition:

o The set of namespace declarations is the set of all "import"
statements' prefix and namespace pairs in the module where the
XPath expression is specified, and the "prefix" statement's prefix
for the "namespace" statement's URI.

o Names without a namespace prefix belong to the same namespace as
the identifier of the current node. Inside a grouping, that
namespace is affected by where the grouping is used (see
Section 7.12).

o The function library is the core function library defined in
[XPATH], and a function "current()" that returns a node set with
the initial context node.

o The set of variable bindings is empty.

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The mechanism for handling unprefixed names is adopted from XPath 2.0
[XPATH2.0], and helps simplify XPath expressions in YANG. No
ambiguity may ever arise because YANG node identifiers are always
qualified names with a non-null namespace URI.

The context node varies with the YANG XPath expression, and is
specified where the YANG statement with the XPath expression is
defined.

6.5. Schema Node Identifier

A schema node identifier is a string that identifies a node in the
schema tree. It has two forms, "absolute" and "descendant", defined
by the rules "absolute-schema-nodeid" and "descendant-schema-nodeid"
in Section 12, respectively. A schema node identifier consists of a
path of identifiers, separated by slashes ("/"). In an absolute
schema node identifier, the first identifier after the leading slash
is any top-level schema node in the local module or in all imported
modules.

References to identifiers defined in external modules MUST be
qualified with appropriate prefixes, and references to identifiers
defined in the current module and its submodules MAY use a prefix.

For example, to identify the child node "b" of top-level node "a",
the string "/a/b" can be used.

7. YANG Statements

The following sections describe all of the YANG statements.

Note that even a statement that does not have any substatements
defined in YANG can have vendor-specific extensions as substatements.
For example, the "description" statement does not have any
substatements defined in YANG, but the following is legal:

description "some text" {
acme:documentation-flag 5;
}

7.1. The module Statement

The "module" statement defines the module's name, and groups all
statements that belong to the module together. The "module"
statement's argument is the name of the module, followed by a block
of substatements that hold detailed module information. The module
name follows the rules for identifiers in Section 6.2.

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Names of modules published in RFC streams [RFC4844] MUST be assigned
by IANA, see Section 14.

Private module names are assigned by the organization owning the
module without a central registry. It is RECOMMENDED to choose
module names that will have a low probability of colliding with
standard or other enterprise modules and submodules, e.g., by using
the enterprise or organization name as a prefix for the module name.

A module typically has the following layout:

module <module-name> {

// header information
<yang-version statement>
<namespace statement>
<prefix statement>

// linkage statements
<import statements>
<include statements>

// meta information
<organization statement>
<contact statement>
<description statement>
<reference statement>

// revision history
<revision statements>

// module definitions
<other statements>
}

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7.1.1. The module's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| anyxml | 7.10 | 0..n |
| augment | 7.15 | 0..n |
| choice | 7.9 | 0..n |
| contact | 7.1.8 | 0..1 |
| container | 7.5 | 0..n |
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| deviation | 7.18.3 | 0..n |
| extension | 7.17 | 0..n |
| feature | 7.18.1 | 0..n |
| grouping | 7.11 | 0..n |
| identity | 7.16 | 0..n |
| import | 7.1.5 | 0..n |
| include | 7.1.6 | 0..n |
| leaf | 7.6 | 0..n |
| leaf-list | 7.7 | 0..n |
| list | 7.8 | 0..n |
| namespace | 7.1.3 | 1 |
| notification | 7.14 | 0..n |
| organization | 7.1.7 | 0..1 |
| prefix | 7.1.4 | 1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| revision | 7.1.9 | 0..n |
| rpc | 7.13 | 0..n |
| typedef | 7.3 | 0..n |
| uses | 7.12 | 0..n |
| yang-version | 7.1.2 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.1.2. The yang-version Statement

The optional "yang-version" statement specifies which version of the
YANG language was used in developing the module. The statement's
argument is a string. If present, it MUST contain the value "1",
which is the current YANG version and the default value.

Handling of the "yang-version" statement for versions other than "1"
(the version defined here) is out of scope for this specification.
Any document that defines a higher version will need to define the
backward compatibility of such a higher version.

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7.1.3. The namespace Statement

The "namespace" statement defines the XML namespace that all
identifiers defined by the module are qualified by, with the
exception of data node identifiers defined inside a grouping (see
Section 7.12 for details). The argument to the "namespace" statement
is the URI of the namespace.

See also Section 5.3.

7.1.4. The prefix Statement

The "prefix" statement is used to define the prefix associated with
the module and its namespace. The "prefix" statement's argument is
the prefix string that is used as a prefix to access a module. The
prefix string MAY be used to refer to definitions contained in the
module, e.g., "if:ifName". A prefix follows the same rules as an
identifier (see Section 6.2).

When used inside the "module" statement, the "prefix" statement
defines the prefix to be used when this module is imported. To
improve readability of the NETCONF XML, a NETCONF client or server
that generates XML or XPath that use prefixes SHOULD use the prefix
defined by the module, unless there is a conflict.

When used inside the "import" statement, the "prefix" statement
defines the prefix to be used when accessing definitions inside the
imported module. When a reference to an identifier from the imported
module is used, the prefix string for the imported module is used in
combination with a colon (":") and the identifier, e.g., "if:
ifIndex". To improve readability of YANG modules, the prefix defined
by a module SHOULD be used when the module is imported, unless there
is a conflict. If there is a conflict, i.e., two different modules
that both have defined the same prefix are imported, at least one of
them MUST be imported with a different prefix.

All prefixes, including the prefix for the module itself MUST be
unique within the module or submodule.

7.1.5. The import Statement

The "import" statement makes definitions from one module available
inside another module or submodule. The argument is the name of the
module to import, and the statement is followed by a block of
substatements that holds detailed import information. When a module
is imported, the importing module may:

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o use any grouping and typedef defined at the top level in the
imported module or its submodules.

o use any extension, feature, and identity defined in the imported
module or its submodules.

o use any node in the imported module's schema tree in "must",
"path", and "when" statements, or as the target node in "augment"
and "deviation" statements.

The mandatory "prefix" substatement assigns a prefix for the imported
module that is scoped to the importing module or submodule. Multiple
"import" statements may be specified to import from different
modules.

When the optional "revision-date" substatement is present, any
typedef, grouping, extension, feature, and identity referenced by
definitions in the local module are taken from the specified revision
of the imported module. It is an error if the specified revision of
the imported module does not exist. If no "revision-date"
substatement is present, it is undefined from which revision of the
module they are taken.

Multiple revisions of the same module MUST NOT be imported.

The import's Substatements

+---------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+---------------+---------+-------------+
| prefix | 7.1.4 | 1 |
| revision-date | 7.1.5.1 | 0..1 |
+---------------+---------+-------------+

7.1.5.1. The import's revision-date Statement

The import's "revision-date" statement is used to specify the exact
version of the module to import. The "revision-date" statement MUST
match the most recent "revision" statement in the imported module.

7.1.6. The include Statement

The "include" statement is used to make content from a submodule
available to that submodule's parent module, or to another submodule
of that parent module. The argument is an identifier that is the
name of the submodule to include. Modules are only allowed to

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include submodules that belong to that module, as defined by the
"belongs-to" statement (see Section 7.2.2). Submodules are only
allowed to include other submodules belonging to the same module.

When a module includes a submodule, it incorporates the contents of
the submodule into the node hierarchy of the module. When a
submodule includes another submodule, the target submodule's
definitions are made available to the current submodule.

When the optional "revision-date" substatement is present, the
specified revision of the submodule is included in the module. It is
an error if the specified revision of the submodule does not exist.
If no "revision-date" substatement is present, it is undefined which
revision of the submodule is included.

Multiple revisions of the same submodule MUST NOT be included.

The includes's Substatements

+---------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+---------------+---------+-------------+
| revision-date | 7.1.5.1 | 0..1 |
+---------------+---------+-------------+

7.1.7. The organization Statement

The "organization" statement defines the party responsible for this
module. The argument is a string that is used to specify a textual
description of the organization(s) under whose auspices this module
was developed.

7.1.8. The contact Statement

The "contact" statement provides contact information for the module.
The argument is a string that is used to specify contact information
for the person or persons to whom technical queries concerning this
module should be sent, such as their name, postal address, telephone
number, and electronic mail address.

7.1.9. The revision Statement

The "revision" statement specifies the editorial revision history of
the module, including the initial revision. A series of revision
statements detail the changes in the module's definition. The
argument is a date string in the format "YYYY-MM-DD", followed by a
block of substatements that holds detailed revision information. A
module SHOULD have at least one initial "revision" statement. For

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every published editorial change, a new one SHOULD be added in front
of the revisions sequence, so that all revisions are in reverse
chronological order.

7.1.9.1. The revision's Substatement

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.1.10. Usage Example

module acme-system {
namespace "http://acme.example.com/system";
prefix "acme";

import ietf-yang-types {
prefix "yang";
}

include acme-types;

organization "ACME Inc.";
contact
"Joe L. User

ACME, Inc.
42 Anywhere Drive
Nowhere, CA 95134
USA

Phone: +1 800 555 0100
EMail: [email-masked]";

description
"The module for entities implementing the ACME protocol.";

revision "2007-06-09" {
description "Initial revision.";
}

// definitions follow...
}

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7.2. The submodule Statement

While the primary unit in YANG is a module, a YANG module can itself
be constructed out of several submodules. Submodules allow a module
designer to split a complex model into several pieces where all the
submodules contribute to a single namespace, which is defined by the
module that includes the submodules.

The "submodule" statement defines the submodule's name, and groups
all statements that belong to the submodule together. The
"submodule" statement's argument is the name of the submodule,
followed by a block of substatements that hold detailed submodule
information. The submodule name follows the rules for identifiers in
Section 6.2.

Names of submodules published in RFC streams [RFC4844] MUST be
assigned by IANA, see Section 14.

Private submodule names are assigned by the organization owning the
submodule without a central registry. It is RECOMMENDED to choose
submodule names that will have a low probability of colliding with
standard or other enterprise modules and submodules, e.g., by using
the enterprise or organization name as a prefix for the submodule
name.

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A submodule typically has the following layout:

submodule <module-name> {

<yang-version statement>

// module identification
<belongs-to statement>

// linkage statements
<import statements>
<include statements>

// meta information
<organization statement>
<contact statement>
<description statement>
<reference statement>

// revision history
<revision statements>

// module definitions
<other statements>
}

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7.2.1. The submodule's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| anyxml | 7.10 | 0..n |
| augment | 7.15 | 0..n |
| belongs-to | 7.2.2 | 1 |
| choice | 7.9 | 0..n |
| contact | 7.1.8 | 0..1 |
| container | 7.5 | 0..n |
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| deviation | 7.18.3 | 0..n |
| extension | 7.17 | 0..n |
| feature | 7.18.1 | 0..n |
| grouping | 7.11 | 0..n |
| identity | 7.16 | 0..n |
| import | 7.1.5 | 0..n |
| include | 7.1.6 | 0..n |
| leaf | 7.6 | 0..n |
| leaf-list | 7.7 | 0..n |
| list | 7.8 | 0..n |
| notification | 7.14 | 0..n |
| organization | 7.1.7 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| revision | 7.1.9 | 0..n |
| rpc | 7.13 | 0..n |
| typedef | 7.3 | 0..n |
| uses | 7.12 | 0..n |
| yang-version | 7.1.2 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.2.2. The belongs-to Statement

The "belongs-to" statement specifies the module to which the
submodule belongs. The argument is an identifier that is the name of
the module.

A submodule MUST only be included by the module to which it belongs,
or by another submodule that belongs to that module.

The mandatory "prefix" substatement assigns a prefix for the module
to which the submodule belongs. All definitions in the local
submodule and any included submodules can be accessed by using the
prefix.

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The belongs-to's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| prefix | 7.1.4 | 1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.2.3. Usage Example

submodule acme-types {

belongs-to "acme-system" {
prefix "acme";
}

import ietf-yang-types {
prefix "yang";
}

organization "ACME Inc.";
contact
"Joe L. User

ACME, Inc.
42 Anywhere Drive
Nowhere, CA 95134
USA

Phone: +1 800 555 0100
EMail: [email-masked]";

description
"This submodule defines common ACME types.";

revision "2007-06-09" {
description "Initial revision.";
}

// definitions follows...
}

7.3. The typedef Statement

The "typedef" statement defines a new type that may be used locally
in the module, in modules or submodules which include it, and by
other modules that import from it, according to the rules in

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Section 5.5. The new type is called the "derived type", and the type
from which it was derived is called the "base type". All derived
types can be traced back to a YANG built-in type.

The "typedef" statement's argument is an identifier that is the name
of the type to be defined, and MUST be followed by a block of
substatements that holds detailed typedef information.

The name of the type MUST NOT be one of the YANG built-in types. If
the typedef is defined at the top level of a YANG module or
submodule, the name of the type to be defined MUST be unique within
the module.

7.3.1. The typedef's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| default | 7.3.4 | 0..1 |
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
| type | 7.3.2 | 1 |
| units | 7.3.3 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.3.2. The typedef's type Statement

The "type" statement, which MUST be present, defines the base type
from which this type is derived. See Section 7.4 for details.

7.3.3. The units Statement

The "units" statement, which is optional, takes as an argument a
string that contains a textual definition of the units associated
with the type.

7.3.4. The typedef's default Statement

The "default" statement takes as an argument a string that contains a
default value for the new type.

The value of the "default" statement MUST be valid according to the
type specified in the "type" statement.

If the base type has a default value, and the new derived type does
not specify a new default value, the base type's default value is
also the default value of the new derived type.

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If the type's default value is not valid according to the new
restrictions specified in a derived type or leaf definition, the
derived type or leaf definition MUST specify a new default value
compatible with the restrictions.

7.3.5. Usage Example

typedef listen-ipv4-address {
type inet:ipv4-address;
default "0.0.0.0";
}

7.4. The type Statement

The "type" statement takes as an argument a string that is the name
of a YANG built-in type (see Section 9) or a derived type (see
Section 7.3), followed by an optional block of substatements that are
used to put further restrictions on the type.

The restrictions that can be applied depend on the type being
restricted. The restriction statements for all built-in types are
described in the subsections of Section 9.

7.4.1. The type's Substatements

+------------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+------------------+---------+-------------+
| bit | 9.7.4 | 0..n |
| enum | 9.6.4 | 0..n |
| length | 9.4.4 | 0..1 |
| path | 9.9.2 | 0..1 |
| pattern | 9.4.6 | 0..n |
| range | 9.2.4 | 0..1 |
| require-instance | 9.13.2 | 0..1 |
| type | 7.4 | 0..n |
+------------------+---------+-------------+

7.5. The container Statement

The "container" statement is used to define an interior data node in
the schema tree. It takes one argument, which is an identifier,
followed by a block of substatements that holds detailed container
information.

A container node does not have a value, but it has a list of child
nodes in the data tree. The child nodes are defined in the
container's substatements.

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7.5.1. Containers with Presence

YANG supports two styles of containers, those that exist only for
organizing the hierarchy of data nodes, and those whose presence in
the configuration has an explicit meaning.

In the first style, the container has no meaning of its own, existing
only to contain child nodes. This is the default style.

For example, the set of scrambling options for Synchronous Optical
Network (SONET) interfaces may be placed inside a "scrambling"
container to enhance the organization of the configuration hierarchy,
and to keep these nodes together. The "scrambling" node itself has
no meaning, so removing the node when it becomes empty relieves the
user from performing this task.

In the second style, the presence of the container itself is
configuration data, representing a single bit of configuration data.
The container acts as both a configuration knob and a means of
organizing related configuration. These containers are explicitly
created and deleted.

YANG calls this style a "presence container" and it is indicated
using the "presence" statement, which takes as its argument a text
string indicating what the presence of the node means.

For example, an "ssh" container may turn on the ability to log into
the device using ssh, but can also contain any ssh-related
configuration knobs, such as connection rates or retry limits.

The "presence" statement (see Section 7.5.5) is used to give
semantics to the existence of the container in the data tree.

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RFC 6020 YANG October 2010

7.5.2. The container's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| anyxml | 7.10 | 0..n |
| choice | 7.9 | 0..n |
| config | 7.19.1 | 0..1 |
| container | 7.5 | 0..n |
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| grouping | 7.11 | 0..n |
| if-feature | 7.18.2 | 0..n |
| leaf | 7.6 | 0..n |
| leaf-list | 7.7 | 0..n |
| list | 7.8 | 0..n |
| must | 7.5.3 | 0..n |
| presence | 7.5.5 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
| typedef | 7.3 | 0..n |
| uses | 7.12 | 0..n |
| when | 7.19.5 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.5.3. The must Statement

The "must" statement, which is optional, takes as an argument a
string that contains an XPath expression (see Section 6.4). It is
used to formally declare a constraint on valid data. The constraint
is enforced according to the rules in Section 8.

When a datastore is validated, all "must" constraints are
conceptually evaluated once for each data node in the data tree, and
for all leafs with default values in use (see Section 7.6.1). If a
data node does not exist in the data tree, and it does not have a
default value, its "must" statements are not evaluated.

All such constraints MUST evaluate to true for the data to be valid.

The XPath expression is conceptually evaluated in the following
context, in addition to the definition in Section 6.4.1:

o The context node is the node in the data tree for which the "must"
statement is defined.

o The accessible tree is made up of all nodes in the data tree, and
all leafs with default values in use (see Section 7.6.1).

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The accessible tree depends on the context node:

o If the context node represents configuration, the tree is the data
in the NETCONF datastore where the context node exists. The XPath
root node has all top-level configuration data nodes in all
modules as children.

o If the context node represents state data, the tree is all state
data on the device, and the <running/> datastore. The XPath root
node has all top-level data nodes in all modules as children.

o If the context node represents notification content, the tree is
the notification XML instance document. The XPath root node has
the element representing the notification being defined as the
only child.

o If the context node represents RPC input parameters, the tree is
the RPC XML instance document. The XPath root node has the
element representing the RPC operation being defined as the only
child.

o If the context node represents RPC output parameters, the tree is
the RPC reply instance document. The XPath root node has the
elements representing the RPC output parameters as children.

The result of the XPath expression is converted to a boolean value
using the standard XPath rules.

Note that since all leaf values in the data tree are conceptually
stored in their canonical form (see Sections 7.6 and 7.7), any XPath
comparisons are done on the canonical value.

Also note that the XPath expression is conceptually evaluated. This
means that an implementation does not have to use an XPath evaluator
on the device. How the evaluation is done in practice is an
implementation decision.

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7.5.4. The must's Substatements

+---------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+---------------+---------+-------------+
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| error-app-tag | 7.5.4.2 | 0..1 |
| error-message | 7.5.4.1 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
+---------------+---------+-------------+

7.5.4.1. The error-message Statement

The "error-message" statement, which is optional, takes a string as
an argument. If the constraint evaluates to false, the string is
passed as <error-message> in the <rpc-error>.

7.5.4.2. The error-app-tag Statement

The "error-app-tag" statement, which is optional, takes a string as
an argument. If the constraint evaluates to false, the string is
passed as <error-app-tag> in the <rpc-error>.

7.5.4.3. Usage Example of must and error-message

container interface {
leaf ifType {
type enumeration {
enum ethernet;
enum atm;
}
}
leaf ifMTU {
type uint32;
}
must "ifType != 'ethernet' or " +
"(ifType = 'ethernet' and ifMTU = 1500)" {
error-message "An ethernet MTU must be 1500";
}
must "ifType != 'atm' or " +
"(ifType = 'atm' and ifMTU <= 17966 and ifMTU >= 64)" {
error-message "An atm MTU must be 64 .. 17966";
}
}

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7.5.5. The presence Statement

The "presence" statement assigns a meaning to the presence of a
container in the data tree. It takes as an argument a string that
contains a textual description of what the node's presence means.

If a container has the "presence" statement, the container's
existence in the data tree carries some meaning. Otherwise, the
container is used to give some structure to the data, and it carries
no meaning by itself.

See Section 7.5.1 for additional information.

7.5.6. The container's Child Node Statements

Within a container, the "container", "leaf", "list", "leaf-list",
"uses", "choice", and "anyxml" statements can be used to define child
nodes to the container.

7.5.7. XML Mapping Rules

A container node is encoded as an XML element. The element's local
name is the container's identifier, and its namespace is the module's
XML namespace (see Section 7.1.3).

The container's child nodes are encoded as subelements to the
container element. If the container defines RPC input or output
parameters, these subelements are encoded in the same order as they
are defined within the "container" statement. Otherwise, the
subelements are encoded in any order.

A NETCONF server that replies to a <get> or <get-config> request MAY
choose not to send a container element if the container node does not
have the "presence" statement and no child nodes exist. Thus, a
client that receives an <rpc-reply> for a <get> or <get-config>
request, must be prepared to handle the case that a container node
without a "presence" statement is not present in the XML.

7.5.8. NETCONF <edit-config> Operations

Containers can be created, deleted, replaced, and modified through
<edit-config>, by using the "operation" attribute (see [RFC4741],
Section 7.2) in the container's XML element.

If a container does not have a "presence" statement and the last
child node is deleted, the NETCONF server MAY delete the container.

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When a NETCONF server processes an <edit-config> request, the
elements of procedure for the container node are:

If the operation is "merge" or "replace", the node is created if
it does not exist.

If the operation is "create", the node is created if it does not
exist. If the node already exists, a "data-exists" error is
returned.

If the operation is "delete", the node is deleted if it exists.
If the node does not exist, a "data-missing" error is returned.

7.5.9. Usage Example

Given the following container definition:

container system {
description "Contains various system parameters";
container services {
description "Configure externally available services";
container "ssh" {
presence "Enables SSH";
description "SSH service specific configuration";
// more leafs, containers and stuff here...
}
}
}

A corresponding XML instance example:

<system>
<services>
<ssh/>
</services>
</system>

Since the <ssh> element is present, ssh is enabled.

To delete a container with an <edit-config>:

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<rpc message-id="101"
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"
xmlns:nc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<edit-config>
<target>
<running/>
</target>
<config>
<system xmlns="http://example.com/schema/config">
<services>
<ssh nc:operation="delete"/>
</services>
</system>
</config>
</edit-config>
</rpc>

7.6. The leaf Statement

The "leaf" statement is used to define a leaf node in the schema
tree. It takes one argument, which is an identifier, followed by a
block of substatements that holds detailed leaf information.

A leaf node has a value, but no child nodes in the data tree.
Conceptually, the value in the data tree is always in the canonical
form (see Section 9.1).

A leaf node exists in zero or one instances in the data tree.

The "leaf" statement is used to define a scalar variable of a
particular built-in or derived type.

7.6.1. The leaf's default value

The default value of a leaf is the value that the server uses if the
leaf does not exist in the data tree. The usage of the default value
depends on the leaf's closest ancestor node in the schema tree that
is not a non-presence container:

o If no such ancestor exists in the schema tree, the default value
MUST be used.

o Otherwise, if this ancestor is a case node, the default value MUST
be used if any node from the case exists in the data tree, or if
the case node is the choice's default case, and no nodes from any
other case exist in the data tree.

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o Otherwise, the default value MUST be used if the ancestor node
exists in the data tree.

In these cases, the default value is said to be in use.

When the default value is in use, the server MUST operationally
behave as if the leaf was present in the data tree with the default
value as its value.

If a leaf has a "default" statement, the leaf's default value is the
value of the "default" statement. Otherwise, if the leaf's type has
a default value, and the leaf is not mandatory, then the leaf's
default value is the type's default value. In all other cases, the
leaf does not have a default value.

7.6.2. The leaf's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| config | 7.19.1 | 0..1 |
| default | 7.6.4 | 0..1 |
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| if-feature | 7.18.2 | 0..n |
| mandatory | 7.6.5 | 0..1 |
| must | 7.5.3 | 0..n |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
| type | 7.6.3 | 1 |
| units | 7.3.3 | 0..1 |
| when | 7.19.5 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.6.3. The leaf's type Statement

The "type" statement, which MUST be present, takes as an argument the
name of an existing built-in or derived type. The optional
substatements specify restrictions on this type. See Section 7.4 for
details.

7.6.4. The leaf's default Statement

The "default" statement, which is optional, takes as an argument a
string that contains a default value for the leaf.

The value of the "default" statement MUST be valid according to the
type specified in the leaf's "type" statement.

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The "default" statement MUST NOT be present on nodes where
"mandatory" is true.

7.6.5. The leaf's mandatory Statement

The "mandatory" statement, which is optional, takes as an argument
the string "true" or "false", and puts a constraint on valid data.
If not specified, the default is "false".

If "mandatory" is "true", the behavior of the constraint depends on
the type of the leaf's closest ancestor node in the schema tree that
is not a non-presence container (see Section 7.5.1):

o If no such ancestor exists in the schema tree, the leaf MUST
exist.

o Otherwise, if this ancestor is a case node, the leaf MUST exist if
any node from the case exists in the data tree.

o Otherwise, the leaf MUST exist if the ancestor node exists in the
data tree.

This constraint is enforced according to the rules in Section 8.

7.6.6. XML Mapping Rules

A leaf node is encoded as an XML element. The element's local name
is the leaf's identifier, and its namespace is the module's XML
namespace (see Section 7.1.3).

The value of the leaf node is encoded to XML according to the type,
and sent as character data in the element.

A NETCONF server that replies to a <get> or <get-config> request MAY
choose not to send the leaf element if its value is the default
value. Thus, a client that receives an <rpc-reply> for a <get> or
<get-config> request, MUST be prepared to handle the case that a leaf
node with a default value is not present in the XML. In this case,
the value used by the server is known to be the default value.

See Section 7.6.8 for an example.

7.6.7. NETCONF <edit-config> Operations

When a NETCONF server processes an <edit-config> request, the
elements of procedure for the leaf node are:

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If the operation is "merge" or "replace", the node is created if
it does not exist, and its value is set to the value found in the
XML RPC data.

If the operation is "create", the node is created if it does not
exist. If the node already exists, a "data-exists" error is
returned.

If the operation is "delete", the node is deleted if it exists.
If the node does not exist, a "data-missing" error is returned.

7.6.8. Usage Example

Given the following "leaf" statement, placed in the previously
defined "ssh" container (see Section 7.5.9):

leaf port {
type inet:port-number;
default 22;
description "The port to which the SSH server listens"
}

A corresponding XML instance example:

<port>2022</port>

To set the value of a leaf with an <edit-config>:

<rpc message-id="101"
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"
xmlns:nc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<edit-config>
<target>
<running/>
</target>
<config>
<system xmlns="http://example.com/schema/config">
<services>
<ssh>
<port>2022</port>
</ssh>
</services>
</system>
</config>
</edit-config>
</rpc>

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7.7. The leaf-list Statement

Where the "leaf" statement is used to define a simple scalar variable
of a particular type, the "leaf-list" statement is used to define an
array of a particular type. The "leaf-list" statement takes one
argument, which is an identifier, followed by a block of
substatements that holds detailed leaf-list information.

The values in a leaf-list MUST be unique.

Conceptually, the values in the data tree are always in the canonical
form (see Section 9.1).

If the type referenced by the leaf-list has a default value, it has
no effect in the leaf-list.

7.7.1. Ordering

YANG supports two styles for ordering the entries within lists and
leaf-lists. In many lists, the order of list entries does not impact
the implementation of the list's configuration, and the device is
free to sort the list entries in any reasonable order. The
"description" string for the list may suggest an order to the device
implementor. YANG calls this style of list "system ordered" and they
are indicated with the statement "ordered-by system".

For example, a list of valid users would typically be sorted
alphabetically, since the order in which the users appeared in the
configuration would not impact the creation of those users' accounts.

In the other style of lists, the order of list entries matters for
the implementation of the list's configuration and the user is
responsible for ordering the entries, while the device maintains that
order. YANG calls this style of list "user ordered" and they are
indicated with the statement "ordered-by user".

For example, the order in which firewall filters entries are applied
to incoming traffic may affect how that traffic is filtered. The
user would need to decide if the filter entry that discards all TCP
traffic should be applied before or after the filter entry that
allows all traffic from trusted interfaces. The choice of order
would be crucial.

YANG provides a rich set of facilities within NETCONF's <edit-config>
operation that allows the order of list entries in user-ordered lists
to be controlled. List entries may be inserted or rearranged,
positioned as the first or last entry in the list, or positioned
before or after another specific entry.

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The "ordered-by" statement is covered in Section 7.7.5.

7.7.2. The leaf-list's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| config | 7.19.1 | 0..1 |
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| if-feature | 7.18.2 | 0..n |
| max-elements | 7.7.4 | 0..1 |
| min-elements | 7.7.3 | 0..1 |
| must | 7.5.3 | 0..n |
| ordered-by | 7.7.5 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
| type | 7.4 | 1 |
| units | 7.3.3 | 0..1 |
| when | 7.19.5 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.7.3. The min-elements Statement

The "min-elements" statement, which is optional, takes as an argument
a non-negative integer that puts a constraint on valid list entries.
A valid leaf-list or list MUST have at least min-elements entries.

If no "min-elements" statement is present, it defaults to zero.

The behavior of the constraint depends on the type of the leaf-list's
or list's closest ancestor node in the schema tree that is not a non-
presence container (see Section 7.5.1):

o If this ancestor is a case node, the constraint is enforced if any
other node from the case exists.

o Otherwise, it is enforced if the ancestor node exists.

The constraint is further enforced according to the rules in
Section 8.

7.7.4. The max-elements Statement

The "max-elements" statement, which is optional, takes as an argument
a positive integer or the string "unbounded", which puts a constraint
on valid list entries. A valid leaf-list or list always has at most
max-elements entries.

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If no "max-elements" statement is present, it defaults to
"unbounded".

The "max-elements" constraint is enforced according to the rules in
Section 8.

7.7.5. The ordered-by Statement

The "ordered-by" statement defines whether the order of entries
within a list are determined by the user or the system. The argument
is one of the strings "system" or "user". If not present, order
defaults to "system".

This statement is ignored if the list represents state data, RPC
output parameters, or notification content.

See Section 7.7.1 for additional information.

7.7.5.1. ordered-by system

The entries in the list are sorted according to an unspecified order.
Thus, an implementation is free to sort the entries in the most
appropriate order. An implementation SHOULD use the same order for
the same data, regardless of how the data were created. Using a
deterministic order will make comparisons possible using simple tools
like "diff".

This is the default order.

7.7.5.2. ordered-by user

The entries in the list are sorted according to an order defined by
the user. This order is controlled by using special XML attributes
in the <edit-config> request. See Section 7.7.7 for details.

7.7.6. XML Mapping Rules

A leaf-list node is encoded as a series of XML elements. Each
element's local name is the leaf-list's identifier, and its namespace
is the module's XML namespace (see Section 7.1.3).

The value of each leaf-list entry is encoded to XML according to the
type, and sent as character data in the element.

The XML elements representing leaf-list entries MUST appear in the
order specified by the user if the leaf-list is "ordered-by user";
otherwise, the order is implementation-dependent. The XML elements

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representing leaf-list entries MAY be interleaved with other sibling
elements, unless the leaf-list defines RPC input or output
parameters.

See Section 7.7.8 for an example.

7.7.7. NETCONF <edit-config> Operations

Leaf-list entries can be created and deleted, but not modified,
through <edit-config>, by using the "operation" attribute in the
leaf-list entry's XML element.

In an "ordered-by user" leaf-list, the attributes "insert" and
"value" in the YANG XML namespace (Section 5.3.1) can be used to
control where in the leaf-list the entry is inserted. These can be
used during "create" operations to insert a new leaf-list entry, or
during "merge" or "replace" operations to insert a new leaf-list
entry or move an existing one.

The "insert" attribute can take the values "first", "last", "before",
and "after". If the value is "before" or "after", the "value"
attribute MUST also be used to specify an existing entry in the leaf-
list.

If no "insert" attribute is present in the "create" operation, it
defaults to "last".

If several entries in an "ordered-by user" leaf-list are modified in
the same <edit-config> request, the entries are modified one at the
time, in the order of the XML elements in the request.

In a <copy-config>, or an <edit-config> with a "replace" operation
that covers the entire leaf-list, the leaf-list order is the same as
the order of the XML elements in the request.

When a NETCONF server processes an <edit-config> request, the
elements of procedure for a leaf-list node are:

If the operation is "merge" or "replace", the leaf-list entry is
created if it does not exist.

If the operation is "create", the leaf-list entry is created if it
does not exist. If the leaf-list entry already exists, a
"data-exists" error is returned.

If the operation is "delete", the entry is deleted from the leaf-
list if it exists. If the leaf-list entry does not exist, a
"data-missing" error is returned.

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7.7.8. Usage Example

leaf-list allow-user {
type string;
description "A list of user name patterns to allow";
}

A corresponding XML instance example:

<allow-user>alice</allow-user>
<allow-user>bob</allow-user>

To create a new element in this list, using the default <edit-config>
operation "merge":

<rpc message-id="101"
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"
xmlns:nc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<edit-config>
<target>
<running/>
</target>
<config>
<system xmlns="http://example.com/schema/config">
<services>
<ssh>
<allow-user>eric</allow-user>
</ssh>
</services>
</system>
</config>
</edit-config>
</rpc>

Given the following ordered-by user leaf-list:

leaf-list cipher {
type string;
ordered-by user;
description "A list of ciphers";
}

The following would be used to insert a new cipher "blowfish-cbc"
after "3des-cbc":

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<rpc message-id="101"
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"
xmlns:nc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"
xmlns:yang="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:1">
<edit-config>
<target>
<running/>
</target>
<config>
<system xmlns="http://example.com/schema/config">
<services>
<ssh>
<cipher nc:operation="create"
yang:insert="after"
yang:value="3des-cbc">blowfish-cbc</cipher>
</ssh>
</services>
</system>
</config>
</edit-config>
</rpc>

7.8. The list Statement

The "list" statement is used to define an interior data node in the
schema tree. A list node may exist in multiple instances in the data
tree. Each such instance is known as a list entry. The "list"
statement takes one argument, which is an identifier, followed by a
block of substatements that holds detailed list information.

A list entry is uniquely identified by the values of the list's keys,
if defined.

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7.8.1. The list's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| anyxml | 7.10 | 0..n |
| choice | 7.9 | 0..n |
| config | 7.19.1 | 0..1 |
| container | 7.5 | 0..n |
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| grouping | 7.11 | 0..n |
| if-feature | 7.18.2 | 0..n |
| key | 7.8.2 | 0..1 |
| leaf | 7.6 | 0..n |
| leaf-list | 7.7 | 0..n |
| list | 7.8 | 0..n |
| max-elements | 7.7.4 | 0..1 |
| min-elements | 7.7.3 | 0..1 |
| must | 7.5.3 | 0..n |
| ordered-by | 7.7.5 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
| typedef | 7.3 | 0..n |
| unique | 7.8.3 | 0..n |
| uses | 7.12 | 0..n |
| when | 7.19.5 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.8.2. The list's key Statement

The "key" statement, which MUST be present if the list represents
configuration, and MAY be present otherwise, takes as an argument a
string that specifies a space-separated list of leaf identifiers of
this list. A leaf identifier MUST NOT appear more than once in the
key. Each such leaf identifier MUST refer to a child leaf of the
list. The leafs can be defined directly in substatements to the
list, or in groupings used in the list.

The combined values of all the leafs specified in the key are used to
uniquely identify a list entry. All key leafs MUST be given values
when a list entry is created. Thus, any default values in the key
leafs or their types are ignored. It also implies that any mandatory
statement in the key leafs are ignored.

A leaf that is part of the key can be of any built-in or derived
type, except it MUST NOT be the built-in type "empty".

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All key leafs in a list MUST have the same value for their "config"
as the list itself.

The key string syntax is formally defined by the rule "key-arg" in
Section 12.

7.8.3. The list's unique Statement

The "unique" statement is used to put constraints on valid list
entries. It takes as an argument a string that contains a space-
separated list of schema node identifiers, which MUST be given in the
descendant form (see the rule "descendant-schema-nodeid" in
Section 12). Each such schema node identifier MUST refer to a leaf.

If one of the referenced leafs represents configuration data, then
all of the referenced leafs MUST represent configuration data.

The "unique" constraint specifies that the combined values of all the
leaf instances specified in the argument string, including leafs with
default values, MUST be unique within all list entry instances in
which all referenced leafs exist. The constraint is enforced
according to the rules in Section 8.

The unique string syntax is formally defined by the rule "unique-arg"
in Section 12.

7.8.3.1. Usage Example

With the following list:

list server {
key "name";
unique "ip port";
leaf name {
type string;
}
leaf ip {
type inet:ip-address;
}
leaf port {
type inet:port-number;
}
}

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The following configuration is not valid:

<server>
<name>smtp</name>
<ip>192.0.2.1</ip>
<port>25</port>
</server>

<server>
<name>http</name>
<ip>192.0.2.1</ip>
<port>25</port>
</server>

The following configuration is valid, since the "http" and "ftp" list
entries do not have a value for all referenced leafs, and are thus
not taken into account when the "unique" constraint is enforced:

<server>
<name>smtp</name>
<ip>192.0.2.1</ip>
<port>25</port>
</server>

<server>
<name>http</name>
<ip>192.0.2.1</ip>
</server>

<server>
<name>ftp</name>
<ip>192.0.2.1</ip>
</server>

7.8.4. The list's Child Node Statements

Within a list, the "container", "leaf", "list", "leaf-list", "uses",
"choice", and "anyxml" statements can be used to define child nodes
to the list.

7.8.5. XML Mapping Rules

A list is encoded as a series of XML elements, one for each entry in
the list. Each element's local name is the list's identifier, and
its namespace is the module's XML namespace (see Section 7.1.3).

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The list's key nodes are encoded as subelements to the list's
identifier element, in the same order as they are defined within the
"key" statement.

The rest of the list's child nodes are encoded as subelements to the
list element, after the keys. If the list defines RPC input or
output parameters, the subelements are encoded in the same order as
they are defined within the "list" statement. Otherwise, the
subelements are encoded in any order.

The XML elements representing list entries MUST appear in the order
specified by the user if the list is "ordered-by user", otherwise the
order is implementation-dependent. The XML elements representing
list entries MAY be interleaved with other sibling elements, unless
the list defines RPC input or output parameters.

7.8.6. NETCONF <edit-config> Operations

List entries can be created, deleted, replaced, and modified through
<edit-config>, by using the "operation" attribute in the list's XML
element. In each case, the values of all keys are used to uniquely
identify a list entry. If all keys are not specified for a list
entry, a "missing-element" error is returned.

In an "ordered-by user" list, the attributes "insert" and "key" in
the YANG XML namespace (Section 5.3.1) can be used to control where
in the list the entry is inserted. These can be used during "create"
operations to insert a new list entry, or during "merge" or "replace"
operations to insert a new list entry or move an existing one.

The "insert" attribute can take the values "first", "last", "before",
and "after". If the value is "before" or "after", the "key"
attribute MUST also be used, to specify an existing element in the
list. The value of the "key" attribute is the key predicates of the
full instance identifier (see Section 9.13) for the list entry.

If no "insert" attribute is present in the "create" operation, it
defaults to "last".

If several entries in an "ordered-by user" list are modified in the
same <edit-config> request, the entries are modified one at the time,
in the order of the XML elements in the request.

In a <copy-config>, or an <edit-config> with a "replace" operation
that covers the entire list, the list entry order is the same as the
order of the XML elements in the request.

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When a NETCONF server processes an <edit-config> request, the
elements of procedure for a list node are:

If the operation is "merge" or "replace", the list entry is
created if it does not exist. If the list entry already exists
and the "insert" and "key" attributes are present, the list entry
is moved according to the values of the "insert" and "key"
attributes. If the list entry exists and the "insert" and "key"
attributes are not present, the list entry is not moved.

If the operation is "create", the list entry is created if it does
not exist. If the list entry already exists, a "data-exists"
error is returned.

If the operation is "delete", the entry is deleted from the list
if it exists. If the list entry does not exist, a "data-missing"
error is returned.

7.8.7. Usage Example

Given the following list:

list user {
key "name";
config true;
description "This is a list of users in the system.";

leaf name {
type string;
}
leaf type {
type string;
}
leaf full-name {
type string;
}
}

A corresponding XML instance example:

<user>
<name>fred</name>
<type>admin</type>
<full-name>Fred Flintstone</full-name>
</user>

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To create a new user "barney":

<rpc message-id="101"
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"
xmlns:nc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<edit-config>
<target>
<running/>
</target>
<config>
<system xmlns="http://example.com/schema/config">
<user nc:operation="create">
<name>barney</name>
<type>admin</type>
<full-name>Barney Rubble</full-name>
</user>
</system>
</config>
</edit-config>
</rpc>

To change the type of "fred" to "superuser":

<rpc message-id="101"
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"
xmlns:nc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<edit-config>
<target>
<running/>
</target>
<config>
<system xmlns="http://example.com/schema/config">
<user>
<name>fred</name>
<type>superuser</type>
</user>
</system>
</config>
</edit-config>
</rpc>

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Given the following ordered-by user list:

list user {
description "This is a list of users in the system.";
ordered-by user;
config true;

key "name";

leaf name {
type string;
}
leaf type {
type string;
}
leaf full-name {
type string;
}
}

The following would be used to insert a new user "barney" after the
user "fred":

<rpc message-id="101"
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"
xmlns:nc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"
xmlns:yang="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:1">
<edit-config>
<target>
<running/>
</target>
<config>
<system xmlns="http://example.com/schema/config"
xmlns:ex="http://example.com/schema/config">
<user nc:operation="create"
yang:insert="after"
yang:key="[ex:name='fred']">
<name>barney</name>
<type>admin</type>
<full-name>Barney Rubble</full-name>
</user>
</system>
</config>
</edit-config>
</rpc>

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The following would be used to move the user "barney" before the user
"fred":

<rpc message-id="101"
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"
xmlns:nc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"
xmlns:yang="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:1">
<edit-config>
<target>
<running/>
</target>
<config>
<system xmlns="http://example.com/schema/config"
xmlns:ex="http://example.com/schema/config">
<user nc:operation="merge"
yang:insert="before"
yang:key="[ex:name='fred']">
<name>barney</name>
</user>
</system>
</config>
</edit-config>
</rpc>

7.9. The choice Statement

The "choice" statement defines a set of alternatives, only one of
which may exist at any one time. The argument is an identifier,
followed by a block of substatements that holds detailed choice
information. The identifier is used to identify the choice node in
the schema tree. A choice node does not exist in the data tree.

A choice consists of a number of branches, defined with the "case"
substatement. Each branch contains a number of child nodes. The
nodes from at most one of the choice's branches exist at the same
time.

See Section 8.3.2 for additional information.

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7.9.1. The choice's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| anyxml | 7.10 | 0..n |
| case | 7.9.2 | 0..n |
| config | 7.19.1 | 0..1 |
| container | 7.5 | 0..n |
| default | 7.9.3 | 0..1 |
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| if-feature | 7.18.2 | 0..n |
| leaf | 7.6 | 0..n |
| leaf-list | 7.7 | 0..n |
| list | 7.8 | 0..n |
| mandatory | 7.9.4 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
| when | 7.19.5 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.9.2. The choice's case Statement

The "case" statement is used to define branches of the choice. It
takes as an argument an identifier, followed by a block of
substatements that holds detailed case information.

The identifier is used to identify the case node in the schema tree.
A case node does not exist in the data tree.

Within a "case" statement, the "anyxml", "choice", "container",
"leaf", "list", "leaf-list", and "uses" statements can be used to
define child nodes to the case node. The identifiers of all these
child nodes MUST be unique within all cases in a choice. For
example, the following is illegal:

choice interface-type { // This example is illegal YANG
case a {
leaf ethernet { ... }
}
case b {
container ethernet { ...}
}
}

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As a shorthand, the "case" statement can be omitted if the branch
contains a single "anyxml", "container", "leaf", "list", or
"leaf-list" statement. In this case, the identifier of the case node
is the same as the identifier in the branch statement. The following
example:

choice interface-type {
container ethernet { ... }
}

is equivalent to:

choice interface-type {
case ethernet {
container ethernet { ... }
}
}

The case identifier MUST be unique within a choice.

7.9.2.1. The case's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| anyxml | 7.10 | 0..n |
| choice | 7.9 | 0..n |
| container | 7.5 | 0..n |
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| if-feature | 7.18.2 | 0..n |
| leaf | 7.6 | 0..n |
| leaf-list | 7.7 | 0..n |
| list | 7.8 | 0..n |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
| uses | 7.12 | 0..n |
| when | 7.19.5 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.9.3. The choice's default Statement

The "default" statement indicates if a case should be considered as
the default if no child nodes from any of the choice's cases exist.
The argument is the identifier of the "case" statement. If the
"default" statement is missing, there is no default case.

The "default" statement MUST NOT be present on choices where
"mandatory" is true.

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The default case is only important when considering the default
values of nodes under the cases. The default values for nodes under
the default case are used if none of the nodes under any of the cases
are present.

There MUST NOT be any mandatory nodes (Section 3.1) directly under
the default case.

Default values for child nodes under a case are only used if one of
the nodes under that case is present, or if that case is the default
case. If none of the nodes under a case are present and the case is
not the default case, the default values of the cases' child nodes
are ignored.

In this example, the choice defaults to "interval", and the default
value will be used if none of "daily", "time-of-day", or "manual" are
present. If "daily" is present, the default value for "time-of-day"
will be used.

container transfer {
choice how {
default interval;
case interval {
leaf interval {
type uint16;
default 30;
units minutes;
}
}
case daily {
leaf daily {
type empty;
}
leaf time-of-day {
type string;
units 24-hour-clock;
default 1am;
}
}
case manual {
leaf manual {
type empty;
}
}
}
}

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7.9.4. The choice's mandatory Statement

The "mandatory" statement, which is optional, takes as an argument
the string "true" or "false", and puts a constraint on valid data.
If "mandatory" is "true", at least one node from exactly one of the
choice's case branches MUST exist.

If not specified, the default is "false".

The behavior of the constraint depends on the type of the choice's
closest ancestor node in the schema tree which is not a non-presence
container (see Section 7.5.1):

o If this ancestor is a case node, the constraint is enforced if any
other node from the case exists.

o Otherwise, it is enforced if the ancestor node exists.

The constraint is further enforced according to the rules in
Section 8.

7.9.5. XML Mapping Rules

The choice and case nodes are not visible in XML.

The child nodes of the selected "case" statement MUST be encoded in
the same order as they are defined in the "case" statement if they
are part of an RPC input or output parameter definition. Otherwise,
the subelements are encoded in any order.

7.9.6. NETCONF <edit-config> Operations

Since only one of the choice's cases can be valid at any time, the
creation of a node from one case implicitly deletes all nodes from
all other cases. If an <edit-config> operation creates a node from a
case, the NETCONF server will delete any existing nodes that are
defined in other cases inside the choice.

7.9.7. Usage Example

Given the following choice:

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container protocol {
choice name {
case a {
leaf udp {
type empty;
}
}
case b {
leaf tcp {
type empty;
}
}
}
}

A corresponding XML instance example:

<protocol>
<tcp/>
</protocol>

To change the protocol from tcp to udp:

<rpc message-id="101"
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"
xmlns:nc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<edit-config>
<target>
<running/>
</target>
<config>
<system xmlns="http://example.com/schema/config">
<protocol>
<udp nc:operation="create"/>
</protocol>
</system>
</config>
</edit-config>
</rpc>

7.10. The anyxml Statement

The "anyxml" statement defines an interior node in the schema tree.
It takes one argument, which is an identifier, followed by a block of
substatements that holds detailed anyxml information.

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The "anyxml" statement is used to represent an unknown chunk of XML.
No restrictions are placed on the XML. This can be useful, for
example, in RPC replies. An example is the <filter> parameter in the
<get-config> operation.

An anyxml node cannot be augmented (see Section 7.15).

Since the use of anyxml limits the manipulation of the content, it is
RECOMMENDED that the "anyxml" statement not be used to represent
configuration data.

An anyxml node exists in zero or one instances in the data tree.

7.10.1. The anyxml's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| config | 7.19.1 | 0..1 |
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| if-feature | 7.18.2 | 0..n |
| mandatory | 7.6.5 | 0..1 |
| must | 7.5.3 | 0..n |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
| when | 7.19.5 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.10.2. XML Mapping Rules

An anyxml node is encoded as an XML element. The element's local
name is the anyxml's identifier, and its namespace is the module's
XML namespace (see Section 7.1.3). The value of the anyxml node is
encoded as XML content of this element.

Note that any prefixes used in the encoding are local to each
instance encoding. This means that the same XML may be encoded
differently by different implementations.

7.10.3. NETCONF <edit-config> Operations

An anyxml node is treated as an opaque chunk of data. This data can
be modified in its entirety only.

Any "operation" attributes present on subelements of an anyxml node
are ignored by the NETCONF server.

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When a NETCONF server processes an <edit-config> request, the
elements of procedure for the anyxml node are:

If the operation is "merge" or "replace", the node is created if
it does not exist, and its value is set to the XML content of the
anyxml node found in the XML RPC data.

If the operation is "create", the node is created if it does not
exist, and its value is set to the XML content of the anyxml node
found in the XML RPC data. If the node already exists, a
"data-exists" error is returned.

If the operation is "delete", the node is deleted if it exists.
If the node does not exist, a "data-missing" error is returned.

7.10.4. Usage Example

Given the following "anyxml" statement:

anyxml data;

The following are two valid encodings of the same anyxml value:

<data xmlns:if="http://example.com/ns/interface">
<if:interface>
<if:ifIndex>1</if:ifIndex>
</if:interface>
</data>

<data>
<interface xmlns="http://example.com/ns/interface">
<ifIndex>1</ifIndex>
</interface>
</data>

7.11. The grouping Statement

The "grouping" statement is used to define a reusable block of nodes,
which may be used locally in the module, in modules that include it,
and by other modules that import from it, according to the rules in
Section 5.5. It takes one argument, which is an identifier, followed
by a block of substatements that holds detailed grouping information.

The "grouping" statement is not a data definition statement and, as
such, does not define any nodes in the schema tree.

A grouping is like a "structure" or a "record" in conventional
programming languages.

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Once a grouping is defined, it can be referenced in a "uses"
statement (see Section 7.12). A grouping MUST NOT reference itself,
neither directly nor indirectly through a chain of other groupings.

If the grouping is defined at the top level of a YANG module or
submodule, the grouping's identifier MUST be unique within the
module.

A grouping is more than just a mechanism for textual substitution,
but defines a collection of nodes. Identifiers appearing inside the
grouping are resolved relative to the scope in which the grouping is
defined, not where it is used. Prefix mappings, type names, grouping
names, and extension usage are evaluated in the hierarchy where the
"grouping" statement appears. For extensions, this means that
extensions are applied to the grouping node, not the uses node.

7.11.1. The grouping's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| anyxml | 7.10 | 0..n |
| choice | 7.9 | 0..n |
| container | 7.5 | 0..n |
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| grouping | 7.11 | 0..n |
| leaf | 7.6 | 0..n |
| leaf-list | 7.7 | 0..n |
| list | 7.8 | 0..n |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
| typedef | 7.3 | 0..n |
| uses | 7.12 | 0..n |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

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7.11.2. Usage Example

import ietf-inet-types {
prefix "inet";
}

grouping endpoint {
description "A reusable endpoint group.";
leaf ip {
type inet:ip-address;
}
leaf port {
type inet:port-number;
}
}

7.12. The uses Statement

The "uses" statement is used to reference a "grouping" definition.
It takes one argument, which is the name of the grouping.

The effect of a "uses" reference to a grouping is that the nodes
defined by the grouping are copied into the current schema tree, and
then updated according to the "refine" and "augment" statements.

The identifiers defined in the grouping are not bound to a namespace
until the contents of the grouping are added to the schema tree via a
"uses" statement that does not appear inside a "grouping" statement,
at which point they are bound to the namespace of the current module.

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7.12.1. The uses's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| augment | 7.15 | 0..1 |
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| if-feature | 7.18.2 | 0..n |
| refine | 7.12.2 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
| when | 7.19.5 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.12.2. The refine Statement

Some of the properties of each node in the grouping can be refined
with the "refine" statement. The argument is a string that
identifies a node in the grouping. This node is called the refine's
target node. If a node in the grouping is not present as a target
node of a "refine" statement, it is not refined, and thus used
exactly as it was defined in the grouping.

The argument string is a descendant schema node identifier (see
Section 6.5).

The following refinements can be done:

o A leaf or choice node may get a default value, or a new default
value if it already had one.

o Any node may get a specialized "description" string.

o Any node may get a specialized "reference" string.

o Any node may get a different "config" statement.

o A leaf, anyxml, or choice node may get a different "mandatory"
statement.

o A container node may get a "presence" statement.

o A leaf, leaf-list, list, container, or anyxml node may get
additional "must" expressions.

o A leaf-list or list node may get a different "min-elements" or
"max-elements" statement.

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7.12.3. XML Mapping Rules

Each node in the grouping is encoded as if it was defined inline,
even if it is imported from another module with another XML
namespace.

7.12.4. Usage Example

To use the "endpoint" grouping defined in Section 7.11.2 in a
definition of an HTTP server in some other module, we can do:

import acme-system {
prefix "acme";
}

container http-server {
leaf name {
type string;
}
uses acme:endpoint;
}

A corresponding XML instance example:

<http-server>
<name>extern-web</name>
<ip>192.0.2.1</ip>
<port>80</port>
</http-server>

If port 80 should be the default for the HTTP server, default can be
added:

container http-server {
leaf name {
type string;
}
uses acme:endpoint {
refine port {
default 80;
}
}
}

If we want to define a list of servers, and each server has the ip
and port as keys, we can do:

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list server {
key "ip port";
leaf name {
type string;
}
uses acme:endpoint;
}

The following is an error:

container http-server {
uses acme:endpoint;
leaf ip { // illegal - same identifier "ip" used twice
type string;
}
}

7.13. The rpc Statement

The "rpc" statement is used to define a NETCONF RPC operation. It
takes one argument, which is an identifier, followed by a block of
substatements that holds detailed rpc information. This argument is
the name of the RPC, and is used as the element name directly under
the <rpc> element, as designated by the substitution group
"rpcOperation" in [RFC4741].

The "rpc" statement defines an rpc node in the schema tree. Under
the rpc node, a schema node with the name "input", and a schema node
with the name "output" are also defined. The nodes "input" and
"output" are defined in the module's namespace.

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7.13.1. The rpc's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| grouping | 7.11 | 0..n |
| if-feature | 7.18.2 | 0..n |
| input | 7.13.2 | 0..1 |
| output | 7.13.3 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
| typedef | 7.3 | 0..n |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.13.2. The input Statement

The "input" statement, which is optional, is used to define input
parameters to the RPC operation. It does not take an argument. The
substatements to "input" define nodes under the RPC's input node.

If a leaf in the input tree has a "mandatory" statement with the
value "true", the leaf MUST be present in a NETCONF RPC invocation.
Otherwise, the server MUST return a "missing-element" error.

If a leaf in the input tree has a default value, the NETCONF server
MUST use this value in the same cases as described in Section 7.6.1.
In these cases, the server MUST operationally behave as if the leaf
was present in the NETCONF RPC invocation with the default value as
its value.

If a "config" statement is present for any node in the input tree,
the "config" statement is ignored.

If any node has a "when" statement that would evaluate to false, then
this node MUST NOT be present in the input tree.

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7.13.2.1. The input's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| anyxml | 7.10 | 0..n |
| choice | 7.9 | 0..n |
| container | 7.5 | 0..n |
| grouping | 7.11 | 0..n |
| leaf | 7.6 | 0..n |
| leaf-list | 7.7 | 0..n |
| list | 7.8 | 0..n |
| typedef | 7.3 | 0..n |
| uses | 7.12 | 0..n |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.13.3. The output Statement

The "output" statement, which is optional, is used to define output
parameters to the RPC operation. It does not take an argument. The
substatements to "output" define nodes under the RPC's output node.

If a leaf in the output tree has a "mandatory" statement with the
value "true", the leaf MUST be present in a NETCONF RPC reply.

If a leaf in the output tree has a default value, the NETCONF client
MUST use this value in the same cases as described in Section 7.6.1.
In these cases, the client MUST operationally behave as if the leaf
was present in the NETCONF RPC reply with the default value as its
value.

If a "config" statement is present for any node in the output tree,
the "config" statement is ignored.

If any node has a "when" statement that would evaluate to false, then
this node MUST NOT be present in the output tree.

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7.13.3.1. The output's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| anyxml | 7.10 | 0..n |
| choice | 7.9 | 0..n |
| container | 7.5 | 0..n |
| grouping | 7.11 | 0..n |
| leaf | 7.6 | 0..n |
| leaf-list | 7.7 | 0..n |
| list | 7.8 | 0..n |
| typedef | 7.3 | 0..n |
| uses | 7.12 | 0..n |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.13.4. XML Mapping Rules

An rpc node is encoded as a child XML element to the <rpc> element
defined in [RFC4741]. The element's local name is the rpc's
identifier, and its namespace is the module's XML namespace (see
Section 7.1.3).

Input parameters are encoded as child XML elements to the rpc node's
XML element, in the same order as they are defined within the "input"
statement.

If the RPC operation invocation succeeded, and no output parameters
are returned, the <rpc-reply> contains a single <ok/> element defined
in [RFC4741]. If output parameters are returned, they are encoded as
child elements to the <rpc-reply> element defined in [RFC4741], in
the same order as they are defined within the "output" statement.

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7.13.5. Usage Example

The following example defines an RPC operation:

module rock {
namespace "http://example.net/rock";
prefix "rock";

rpc rock-the-house {
input {
leaf zip-code {
type string;
}
}
}
}

A corresponding XML instance example of the complete rpc and rpc-
reply:

<rpc message-id="101"
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<rock-the-house xmlns="http://example.net/rock">
<zip-code>27606-0100</zip-code>
</rock-the-house>
</rpc>

<rpc-reply message-id="101"
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<ok/>
</rpc-reply>

7.14. The notification Statement

The "notification" statement is used to define a NETCONF
notification. It takes one argument, which is an identifier,
followed by a block of substatements that holds detailed notification
information. The "notification" statement defines a notification
node in the schema tree.

If a leaf in the notification tree has a "mandatory" statement with
the value "true", the leaf MUST be present in a NETCONF notification.

If a leaf in the notification tree has a default value, the NETCONF
client MUST use this value in the same cases as described in
Section 7.6.1. In these cases, the client MUST operationally behave
as if the leaf was present in the NETCONF notification with the
default value as its value.

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If a "config" statement is present for any node in the notification
tree, the "config" statement is ignored.

7.14.1. The notification's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| anyxml | 7.10 | 0..n |
| choice | 7.9 | 0..n |
| container | 7.5 | 0..n |
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| grouping | 7.11 | 0..n |
| if-feature | 7.18.2 | 0..n |
| leaf | 7.6 | 0..n |
| leaf-list | 7.7 | 0..n |
| list | 7.8 | 0..n |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
| typedef | 7.3 | 0..n |
| uses | 7.12 | 0..n |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.14.2. XML Mapping Rules

A notification node is encoded as a child XML element to the
<notification> element defined in NETCONF Event Notifications
[RFC5277]. The element's local name is the notification's
identifier, and its namespace is the module's XML namespace (see
Section 7.1.3).

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7.14.3. Usage Example

The following example defines a notification:

module event {

namespace "http://example.com/event";
prefix "ev";

notification event {
leaf event-class {
type string;
}
anyxml reporting-entity;
leaf severity {
type string;
}
}
}

A corresponding XML instance example of the complete notification:

<notification
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:notification:1.0">
<eventTime>2008-07-08T00:01:00Z</eventTime>
<event xmlns="http://example.com/event">
<event-class>fault</event-class>
<reporting-entity>
<card>Ethernet0</card>
</reporting-entity>
<severity>major</severity>
</event>
</notification>

7.15. The augment Statement

The "augment" statement allows a module or submodule to add to the
schema tree defined in an external module, or the current module and
its submodules, and to add to the nodes from a grouping in a "uses"
statement. The argument is a string that identifies a node in the
schema tree. This node is called the augment's target node. The
target node MUST be either a container, list, choice, case, input,
output, or notification node. It is augmented with the nodes defined
in the substatements that follow the "augment" statement.

The argument string is a schema node identifier (see Section 6.5).
If the "augment" statement is on the top level in a module or
submodule, the absolute form (defined by the rule

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"absolute-schema-nodeid" in Section 12) of a schema node identifier
MUST be used. If the "augment" statement is a substatement to the
"uses" statement, the descendant form (defined by the rule
"descendant-schema-nodeid" in Section 12) MUST be used.

If the target node is a container, list, case, input, output, or
notification node, the "container", "leaf", "list", "leaf-list",
"uses", and "choice" statements can be used within the "augment"
statement.

If the target node is a choice node, the "case" statement, or a case
shorthand statement (see Section 7.9.2) can be used within the
"augment" statement.

If the target node is in another module, then nodes added by the
augmentation MUST NOT be mandatory nodes (see Section 3.1).

The "augment" statement MUST NOT add multiple nodes with the same
name from the same module to the target node.

7.15.1. The augment's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| anyxml | 7.10 | 0..n |
| case | 7.9.2 | 0..n |
| choice | 7.9 | 0..n |
| container | 7.5 | 0..n |
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| if-feature | 7.18.2 | 0..n |
| leaf | 7.6 | 0..n |
| leaf-list | 7.7 | 0..n |
| list | 7.8 | 0..n |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
| uses | 7.12 | 0..n |
| when | 7.19.5 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.15.2. XML Mapping Rules

All data nodes defined in the "augment" statement are defined as XML
elements in the XML namespace of the module where the "augment" is
specified.

When a node is augmented, the augmenting child nodes are encoded as
subelements to the augmented node, in any order.

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7.15.3. Usage Example

In namespace http://example.com/schema/interfaces, we have:

container interfaces {
list ifEntry {
key "ifIndex";

leaf ifIndex {
type uint32;
}
leaf ifDescr {
type string;
}
leaf ifType {
type iana:IfType;
}
leaf ifMtu {
type int32;
}
}
}

Then, in namespace http://example.com/schema/ds0, we have:

import interface-module {
prefix "if";
}
augment "/if:interfaces/if:ifEntry" {
when "if:ifType='ds0'";
leaf ds0ChannelNumber {
type ChannelNumber;
}
}

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A corresponding XML instance example:

<interfaces xmlns="http://example.com/schema/interfaces"
xmlns:ds0="http://example.com/schema/ds0">
<ifEntry>
<ifIndex>1</ifIndex>
<ifDescr>Flintstone Inc Ethernet A562</ifDescr>
<ifType>ethernetCsmacd</ifType>
<ifMtu>1500</ifMtu>
</ifEntry>
<ifEntry>
<ifIndex>2</ifIndex>
<ifDescr>Flintstone Inc DS0</ifDescr>
<ifType>ds0</ifType>
<ds0:ds0ChannelNumber>1</ds0:ds0ChannelNumber>
</ifEntry>
</interfaces>

As another example, suppose we have the choice defined in
Section 7.9.7. The following construct can be used to extend the
protocol definition:

augment /ex:system/ex:protocol/ex:name {
case c {
leaf smtp {
type empty;
}
}
}

A corresponding XML instance example:

<ex:system>
<ex:protocol>
<ex:tcp/>
</ex:protocol>
</ex:system>

or

<ex:system>
<ex:protocol>
<other:smtp/>
</ex:protocol>
</ex:system>

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7.16. The identity Statement

The "identity" statement is used to define a new globally unique,
abstract, and untyped identity. Its only purpose is to denote its
name, semantics, and existence. An identity can either be defined
from scratch or derived from a base identity. The identity's
argument is an identifier that is the name of the identity. It is
followed by a block of substatements that holds detailed identity
information.

The built-in datatype "identityref" (see Section 9.10) can be used to
reference identities within a data model.

7.16.1. The identity's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| base | 7.16.2 | 0..1 |
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.16.2. The base Statement

The "base" statement, which is optional, takes as an argument a
string that is the name of an existing identity, from which the new
identity is derived. If no "base" statement is present, the identity
is defined from scratch.

If a prefix is present on the base name, it refers to an identity
defined in the module that was imported with that prefix, or the
local module if the prefix matches the local module's prefix.
Otherwise, an identity with the matching name MUST be defined in the
current module or an included submodule.

Since submodules cannot include the parent module, any identities in
the module that need to be exposed to submodules MUST be defined in a
submodule. Submodules can then include this submodule to find the
definition of the identity.

An identity MUST NOT reference itself, neither directly nor
indirectly through a chain of other identities.

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7.16.3. Usage Example

module crypto-base {
namespace "http://example.com/crypto-base";
prefix "crypto";

identity crypto-alg {
description
"Base identity from which all crypto algorithms
are derived.";
}
}

module des {
namespace "http://example.com/des";
prefix "des";

import "crypto-base" {
prefix "crypto";
}

identity des {
base "crypto:crypto-alg";
description "DES crypto algorithm";
}

identity des3 {
base "crypto:crypto-alg";
description "Triple DES crypto algorithm";
}
}

7.17. The extension Statement

The "extension" statement allows the definition of new statements
within the YANG language. This new statement definition can be
imported and used by other modules.

The statement's argument is an identifier that is the new keyword for
the extension and must be followed by a block of substatements that
holds detailed extension information. The purpose of the "extension"
statement is to define a keyword, so that it can be imported and used
by other modules.

The extension can be used like a normal YANG statement, with the
statement name followed by an argument if one is defined by the
extension, and an optional block of substatements. The statement's
name is created by combining the prefix of the module in which the

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extension was defined, a colon (":"), and the extension's keyword,
with no interleaving whitespace. The substatements of an extension
are defined by the extension, using some mechanism outside the scope
of this specification. Syntactically, the substatements MUST be YANG
statements, or also defined using "extension" statements. YANG
statements in extensions MUST follow the syntactical rules in
Section 12.

7.17.1. The extension's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| argument | 7.17.2 | 0..1 |
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.17.2. The argument Statement

The "argument" statement, which is optional, takes as an argument a
string that is the name of the argument to the keyword. If no
argument statement is present, the keyword expects no argument when
it is used.

The argument's name is used in the YIN mapping, where it is used as
an XML attribute or element name, depending on the argument's "yin-
element" statement.

7.17.2.1. The argument's Substatements

+--------------+----------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+----------+-------------+
| yin-element | 7.17.2.2 | 0..1 |
+--------------+----------+-------------+

7.17.2.2. The yin-element Statement

The "yin-element" statement, which is optional, takes as an argument
the string "true" or "false". This statement indicates if the
argument is mapped to an XML element in YIN or to an XML attribute
(see Section 11).

If no "yin-element" statement is present, it defaults to "false".

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7.17.3. Usage Example

To define an extension:

module my-extensions {
...

extension c-define {
description
"Takes as argument a name string.
Makes the code generator use the given name in the
#define.";
argument "name";
}
}

To use the extension:

module my-interfaces {
...
import my-extensions {
prefix "myext";
}
...

container interfaces {
...
myext:c-define "MY_INTERFACES";
}
}

7.18. Conformance-Related Statements

This section defines statements related to conformance, as described
in Section 5.6.

7.18.1. The feature Statement

The "feature" statement is used to define a mechanism by which
portions of the schema are marked as conditional. A feature name is
defined that can later be referenced using the "if-feature" statement
(see Section 7.18.2). Schema nodes tagged with a feature are ignored
by the device unless the device supports the given feature. This
allows portions of the YANG module to be conditional based on
conditions on the device. The model can represent the abilities of
the device within the model, giving a richer model that allows for
differing device abilities and roles.

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The argument to the "feature" statement is the name of the new
feature, and follows the rules for identifiers in Section 6.2. This
name is used by the "if-feature" statement to tie the schema nodes to
the feature.

In this example, a feature called "local-storage" represents the
ability for a device to store syslog messages on local storage of
some sort. This feature is used to make the "local-storage-limit"
leaf conditional on the presence of some sort of local storage. If
the device does not report that it supports this feature, the
"local-storage-limit" node is not supported.

module syslog {
...
feature local-storage {
description
"This feature means the device supports local
storage (memory, flash or disk) that can be used to
store syslog messages.";
}

container syslog {
leaf local-storage-limit {
if-feature local-storage;
type uint64;
units "kilobyte";
config false;
description
"The amount of local storage that can be
used to hold syslog messages.";
}
}
}

The "if-feature" statement can be used in many places within the YANG
syntax. Definitions tagged with "if-feature" are ignored when the
device does not support that feature.

A feature MUST NOT reference itself, neither directly nor indirectly
through a chain of other features.

In order for a device to implement a feature that is dependent on any
other features (i.e., the feature has one or more "if-feature" sub-
statements), the device MUST also implement all the dependant
features.

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7.18.1.1. The feature's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| if-feature | 7.18.2 | 0..n |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.18.2. The if-feature Statement

The "if-feature" statement makes its parent statement conditional.
The argument is the name of a feature, as defined by a "feature"
statement. The parent statement is implemented by servers that
support this feature. If a prefix is present on the feature name, it
refers to a feature defined in the module that was imported with that
prefix, or the local module if the prefix matches the local module's
prefix. Otherwise, a feature with the matching name MUST be defined
in the current module or an included submodule.

Since submodules cannot include the parent module, any features in
the module that need to be exposed to submodules MUST be defined in a
submodule. Submodules can then include this submodule to find the
definition of the feature.

7.18.3. The deviation Statement

The "deviation" statement defines a hierarchy of a module that the
device does not implement faithfully. The argument is a string that
identifies the node in the schema tree where a deviation from the
module occurs. This node is called the deviation's target node. The
contents of the "deviation" statement give details about the
deviation.

The argument string is an absolute schema node identifier (see
Section 6.5).

Deviations define the way a device or class of devices deviate from a
standard. This means that deviations MUST never be part of a
published standard, since they are the mechanism for learning how
implementations vary from the standards.

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Device deviations are strongly discouraged and MUST only be used as a
last resort. Telling the application how a device fails to follow a
standard is no substitute for implementing the standard correctly. A
device that deviates from a module is not fully compliant with the
module.

However, in some cases, a particular device may not have the hardware
or software ability to support parts of a standard module. When this
occurs, the device makes a choice either to treat attempts to
configure unsupported parts of the module as an error that is
reported back to the unsuspecting application or ignore those
incoming requests. Neither choice is acceptable.

Instead, YANG allows devices to document portions of a base module
that are not supported or supported but with different syntax, by
using the "deviation" statement.

7.18.3.1. The deviation's Substatements

+--------------+----------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+----------+-------------+
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| deviate | 7.18.3.2 | 1..n |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
+--------------+----------+-------------+

7.18.3.2. The deviate Statement

The "deviate" statement defines how the device's implementation of
the target node deviates from its original definition. The argument
is one of the strings "not-supported", "add", "replace", or "delete".

The argument "not-supported" indicates that the target node is not
implemented by this device.

The argument "add" adds properties to the target node. The
properties to add are identified by substatements to the "deviate"
statement. If a property can only appear once, the property MUST NOT
exist in the target node.

The argument "replace" replaces properties of the target node. The
properties to replace are identified by substatements to the
"deviate" statement. The properties to replace MUST exist in the
target node.

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The argument "delete" deletes properties from the target node. The
properties to delete are identified by substatements to the "delete"
statement. The substatement's keyword MUST match a corresponding
keyword in the target node, and the argument's string MUST be equal
to the corresponding keyword's argument string in the target node.

The deviates's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| config | 7.19.1 | 0..1 |
| default | 7.6.4 | 0..1 |
| mandatory | 7.6.5 | 0..1 |
| max-elements | 7.7.4 | 0..1 |
| min-elements | 7.7.3 | 0..1 |
| must | 7.5.3 | 0..n |
| type | 7.4 | 0..1 |
| unique | 7.8.3 | 0..n |
| units | 7.3.3 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

7.18.3.3. Usage Example

In this example, the device is informing client applications that it
does not support the "daytime" service in the style of RFC 867.

deviation /base:system/base:daytime {
deviate not-supported;
}

The following example sets a device-specific default value to a leaf
that does not have a default value defined:

deviation /base:system/base:user/base:type {
deviate add {
default "admin"; // new users are 'admin' by default
}
}

In this example, the device limits the number of name servers to 3:

deviation /base:system/base:name-server {
deviate replace {
max-elements 3;
}
}

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If the original definition is:

container system {
must "daytime or time";
...
}

a device might remove this must constraint by doing:

deviation "/base:system" {
deviate delete {
must "daytime or time";
}
}

7.19. Common Statements

This section defines substatements common to several other
statements.

7.19.1. The config Statement

The "config" statement takes as an argument the string "true" or
"false". If "config" is "true", the definition represents
configuration. Data nodes representing configuration will be part of
the reply to a <get-config> request, and can be sent in a
<copy-config> or <edit-config> request.

If "config" is "false", the definition represents state data. Data
nodes representing state data will be part of the reply to a <get>,
but not to a <get-config> request, and cannot be sent in a
<copy-config> or <edit-config> request.

If "config" is not specified, the default is the same as the parent
schema node's "config" value. If the parent node is a "case" node,
the value is the same as the "case" node's parent "choice" node.

If the top node does not specify a "config" statement, the default is
"true".

If a node has "config" set to "false", no node underneath it can have
"config" set to "true".

7.19.2. The status Statement

The "status" statement takes as an argument one of the strings
"current", "deprecated", or "obsolete".

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o "current" means that the definition is current and valid.

o "deprecated" indicates an obsolete definition, but it permits new/
continued implementation in order to foster interoperability with
older/existing implementations.

o "obsolete" means the definition is obsolete and SHOULD NOT be
implemented and/or can be removed from implementations.

If no status is specified, the default is "current".

If a definition is "current", it MUST NOT reference a "deprecated" or
"obsolete" definition within the same module.

If a definition is "deprecated", it MUST NOT reference an "obsolete"
definition within the same module.

For example, the following is illegal:

typedef my-type {
status deprecated;
type int32;
}

leaf my-leaf {
status current;
type my-type; // illegal, since my-type is deprecated
}

7.19.3. The description Statement

The "description" statement takes as an argument a string that
contains a human-readable textual description of this definition.
The text is provided in a language (or languages) chosen by the
module developer; for the sake of interoperability, it is RECOMMENDED
to choose a language that is widely understood among the community of
network administrators who will use the module.

7.19.4. The reference Statement

The "reference" statement takes as an argument a string that is used
to specify a textual cross-reference to an external document, either
another module that defines related management information, or a
document that provides additional information relevant to this
definition.

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For example, a typedef for a "uri" data type could look like:

typedef uri {
type string;
reference
"RFC 3986: Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax";
...
}

7.19.5. The when Statement

The "when" statement makes its parent data definition statement
conditional. The node defined by the parent data definition
statement is only valid when the condition specified by the "when"
statement is satisfied. The statement's argument is an XPath
expression (see Section 6.4), which is used to formally specify this
condition. If the XPath expression conceptually evaluates to "true"
for a particular instance, then the node defined by the parent data
definition statement is valid; otherwise, it is not.

See Section 8.3.2 for additional information.

The XPath expression is conceptually evaluated in the following
context, in addition to the definition in Section 6.4.1:

o If the "when" statement is a child of an "augment" statement, then
the context node is the augment's target node in the data tree, if
the target node is a data node. Otherwise, the context node is
the closest ancestor node to the target node that is also a data
node.

o If the "when" statement is a child of a "uses", "choice", or
"case" statement, then the context node is the closest ancestor
node to the "uses", "choice", or "case" node that is also a data
node.

o If the "when" statement is a child of any other data definition
statement, the context node is the data definition's node in the
data tree.

o The accessible tree is made up of all nodes in the data tree, and
all leafs with default values in use (see Section 7.6.1).

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The accessible tree depends on the context node:

o If the context node represents configuration, the tree is the data
in the NETCONF datastore where the context node exists. The XPath
root node has all top-level configuration data nodes in all
modules as children.

o If the context node represents state data, the tree is all state
data on the device, and the <running/> datastore. The XPath root
node has all top-level data nodes in all modules as children.

o If the context node represents notification content, the tree is
the notification XML instance document. The XPath root node has
the element representing the notification being defined as the
only child.

o If the context node represents RPC input parameters, the tree is
the RPC XML instance document. The XPath root node has the
element representing the RPC operation being defined as the only
child.

o If the context node represents RPC output parameters, the tree is
the RPC reply instance document. The XPath root node has the
elements representing the RPC output parameters as children.

The result of the XPath expression is converted to a boolean value
using the standard XPath rules.

Note that the XPath expression is conceptually evaluated. This means
that an implementation does not have to use an XPath evaluator on the
device. The "when" statement can very well be implemented with
specially written code.

8. Constraints

8.1. Constraints on Data

Several YANG statements define constraints on valid data. These
constraints are enforced in different ways, depending on what type of
data the statement defines.

o If the constraint is defined on configuration data, it MUST be
true in a valid configuration data tree.

o If the constraint is defined on state data, it MUST be true in a
reply to a <get> operation without a filter.

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o If the constraint is defined on notification content, it MUST be
true in any notification instance.

o If the constraint is defined on RPC input parameters, it MUST be
true in an invocation of the RPC operation.

o If the constraint is defined on RPC output parameters, it MUST be
true in the RPC reply.

8.2. Hierarchy of Constraints

Conditions on parent nodes affect constraints on child nodes as a
natural consequence of the hierarchy of nodes. "must", "mandatory",
"min-elements", and "max-elements" constraints are not enforced if
the parent node has a "when" or "if-feature" property that is not
satisfied on the current device.

In this example, the "mandatory" constraint on the "longitude" leaf
are not enforced on devices that lack the "has-gps" feature:

container location {
if-feature has-gps;
leaf longitude {
mandatory true;
...
}
}

8.3. Constraint Enforcement Model

For configuration data, there are three windows when constraints MUST
be enforced:

o during parsing of RPC payloads

o during processing of NETCONF operations

o during validation

Each of these scenarios is considered in the following sections.

8.3.1. Payload Parsing

When content arrives in RPC payloads, it MUST be well-formed XML,
following the hierarchy and content rules defined by the set of
models the device implements.

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o If a leaf data value does not match the type constraints for the
leaf, including those defined in the type's "range", "length", and
"pattern" properties, the server MUST reply with an
"invalid-value" error-tag in the rpc-error, and with the error-
app-tag and error-message associated with the constraint, if any
exist.

o If all keys of a list entry are not present, the server MUST reply
with a "missing-element" error-tag in the rpc-error.

o If data for more than one case branch of a choice is present, the
server MUST reply with a "bad-element" in the rpc-error.

o If data for a node tagged with "if-feature" is present, and the
feature is not supported by the device, the server MUST reply with
an "unknown-element" error-tag in the rpc-error.

o If data for a node tagged with "when" is present, and the "when"
condition evaluates to "false", the server MUST reply with an
"unknown-element" error-tag in the rpc-error.

o For insert handling, if the value for the attributes "before" and
"after" are not valid for the type of the appropriate key leafs,
the server MUST reply with a "bad-attribute" error-tag in the rpc-
error.

o If the attributes "before" and "after" appears in any element that
is not a list whose "ordered-by" property is "user", the server
MUST reply with an "unknown-attribute" error-tag in the rpc-error.

8.3.2. NETCONF <edit-config> Processing

After the incoming data is parsed, the NETCONF server performs the
<edit-config> operation by applying the data to the configuration
datastore. During this processing, the following errors MUST be
detected:

o Delete requests for non-existent data.

o Create requests for existent data.

o Insert requests with "before" or "after" parameters that do not
exist.

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During <edit-config> processing:

o If the NETCONF operation creates data nodes under a "choice", any
existing nodes from other "case" branches are deleted by the
server.

o If the NETCONF operation modifies a data node such that any node's
"when" expression becomes false, then the node with the "when"
expression is deleted by the server.

8.3.3. Validation

When datastore processing is complete, the final contents MUST obey
all validation constraints. This validation processing is performed
at differing times according to the datastore. If the datastore is
<running/> or <startup/>, these constraints MUST be enforced at the
end of the <edit-config> or <copy-config> operation. If the
datastore is <candidate/>, the constraint enforcement is delayed
until a <commit> or <validate> operation.

o Any "must" constraints MUST evaluate to "true".

o Any referential integrity constraints defined via the "path"
statement MUST be satisfied.

o Any "unique" constraints on lists MUST be satisfied.

o The "min-elements" and "max-elements" constraints are enforced for
lists and leaf-lists.

9. Built-In Types

YANG has a set of built-in types, similar to those of many
programming languages, but with some differences due to special
requirements from the management information model.

Additional types may be defined, derived from those built-in types or
from other derived types. Derived types may use subtyping to
formally restrict the set of possible values.

The different built-in types and their derived types allow different
kinds of subtyping, namely length and regular expression restrictions
of strings (Sections 9.4.4 and 9.4.6) and range restrictions of
numeric types (Section 9.2.4).

The lexical representation of a value of a certain type is used in
the NETCONF messages and when specifying default values and numerical
ranges in YANG modules.

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9.1. Canonical Representation

For most types, there is a single canonical representation of the
type's values. Some types allow multiple lexical representations of
the same value, for example, the positive integer "17" can be
represented as "+17" or "17". Implementations MUST support all
lexical representations specified in this document.

When a NETCONF server sends data, it MUST be in the canonical form.

Some types have a lexical representation that depends on the XML
context in which they occur. These types do not have a canonical
form.

9.2. The Integer Built-In Types

The integer built-in types are int8, int16, int32, int64, uint8,
uint16, uint32, and uint64. They represent signed and unsigned
integers of different sizes:

int8 represents integer values between -128 and 127, inclusively.

int16 represents integer values between -32768 and 32767,
inclusively.

int32 represents integer values between -2147483648 and 2147483647,
inclusively.

int64 represents integer values between -9223372036854775808 and
9223372036854775807, inclusively.

uint8 represents integer values between 0 and 255, inclusively.

uint16 represents integer values between 0 and 65535, inclusively.

uint32 represents integer values between 0 and 4294967295,
inclusively.

uint64 represents integer values between 0 and 18446744073709551615,
inclusively.

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9.2.1. Lexical Representation

An integer value is lexically represented as an optional sign ("+" or
"-"), followed by a sequence of decimal digits. If no sign is
specified, "+" is assumed.

For convenience, when specifying a default value for an integer in a
YANG module, an alternative lexical representation can be used, which
represents the value in a hexadecimal or octal notation. The
hexadecimal notation consists of an optional sign ("+" or "-"), the
characters "0x" followed a number of hexadecimal digits, where
letters may be uppercase or lowercase. The octal notation consists
of an optional sign ("+" or "-"), the character "0" followed a number
of octal digits.

Note that if a default value in a YANG module has a leading zero
("0"), it is interpreted as an octal number. In the XML instance
documents, an integer is always interpreted as a decimal number, and
leading zeros are allowed.

Examples:

// legal values
+4711 // legal positive value
4711 // legal positive value
-123 // legal negative value
0xf00f // legal positive hexadecimal value
-0xf // legal negative hexadecimal value
052 // legal positive octal value

// illegal values
- 1 // illegal intermediate space

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9.2.2. Canonical Form

The canonical form of a positive integer does not include the sign
"+". Leading zeros are prohibited. The value zero is represented as
"0".

9.2.3. Restrictions

All integer types can be restricted with the "range" statement
(Section 9.2.4).

9.2.4. The range Statement

The "range" statement, which is an optional substatement to the
"type" statement, takes as an argument a range expression string. It
is used to restrict integer and decimal built-in types, or types
derived from those.

A range consists of an explicit value, or a lower-inclusive bound,
two consecutive dots "..", and an upper-inclusive bound. Multiple
values or ranges can be given, separated by "|". If multiple values
or ranges are given, they all MUST be disjoint and MUST be in
ascending order. If a range restriction is applied to an already
range-restricted type, the new restriction MUST be equal or more
limiting, that is raising the lower bounds, reducing the upper
bounds, removing explicit values or ranges, or splitting ranges into
multiple ranges with intermediate gaps. Each explicit value and
range boundary value given in the range expression MUST match the
type being restricted, or be one of the special values "min" or
"max". "min" and "max" mean the minimum and maximum value accepted
for the type being restricted, respectively.

The range expression syntax is formally defined by the rule
"range-arg" in Section 12.

9.2.4.1. The range's Substatements

+---------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+---------------+---------+-------------+
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| error-app-tag | 7.5.4.2 | 0..1 |
| error-message | 7.5.4.1 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
+---------------+---------+-------------+

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9.2.5. Usage Example

typedef my-base-int32-type {
type int32 {
range "1..4 | 10..20";
}
}

typedef my-type1 {
type my-base-int32-type {
// legal range restriction
range "11..max"; // 11..20
}
}

typedef my-type2 {
type my-base-int32-type {
// illegal range restriction
range "11..100";
}
}

9.3. The decimal64 Built-In Type

The decimal64 type represents a subset of the real numbers, which can
be represented by decimal numerals. The value space of decimal64 is
the set of numbers that can be obtained by multiplying a 64-bit
signed integer by a negative power of ten, i.e., expressible as
"i x 10^-n" where i is an integer64 and n is an integer between 1 and
18, inclusively.

9.3.1. Lexical Representation

A decimal64 value is lexically represented as an optional sign ("+"
or "-"), followed by a sequence of decimal digits, optionally
followed by a period ('.') as a decimal indicator and a sequence of
decimal digits. If no sign is specified, "+" is assumed.

9.3.2. Canonical Form

The canonical form of a positive decimal64 does not include the sign
"+". The decimal point is required. Leading and trailing zeros are
prohibited, subject to the rule that there MUST be at least one digit
before and after the decimal point. The value zero is represented as
"0.0".

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9.3.3. Restrictions

A decimal64 type can be restricted with the "range" statement
(Section 9.2.4).

9.3.4. The fraction-digits Statement

The "fraction-digits" statement, which is a substatement to the
"type" statement, MUST be present if the type is "decimal64". It
takes as an argument an integer between 1 and 18, inclusively. It
controls the size of the minimum difference between values of a
decimal64 type, by restricting the value space to numbers that are
expressible as "i x 10^-n" where n is the fraction-digits argument.

The following table lists the minimum and maximum value for each
fraction-digit value:

+----------------+-----------------------+----------------------+
| fraction-digit | min | max |
+----------------+-----------------------+----------------------+
| 1 | -922337203685477580.8 | 922337203685477580.7 |
| 2 | -92233720368547758.08 | 92233720368547758.07 |
| 3 | -9223372036854775.808 | 9223372036854775.807 |
| 4 | -922337203685477.5808 | 922337203685477.5807 |
| 5 | -92233720368547.75808 | 92233720368547.75807 |
| 6 | -9223372036854.775808 | 9223372036854.775807 |
| 7 | -922337203685.4775808 | 922337203685.4775807 |
| 8 | -92233720368.54775808 | 92233720368.54775807 |
| 9 | -9223372036.854775808 | 9223372036.854775807 |
| 10 | -922337203.6854775808 | 922337203.6854775807 |
| 11 | -92233720.36854775808 | 92233720.36854775807 |
| 12 | -9223372.036854775808 | 9223372.036854775807 |
| 13 | -922337.2036854775808 | 922337.2036854775807 |
| 14 | -92233.72036854775808 | 92233.72036854775807 |
| 15 | -9223.372036854775808 | 9223.372036854775807 |
| 16 | -922.3372036854775808 | 922.3372036854775807 |
| 17 | -92.23372036854775808 | 92.23372036854775807 |
| 18 | -9.223372036854775808 | 9.223372036854775807 |
+----------------+-----------------------+----------------------+

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9.3.5. Usage Example

typedef my-decimal {
type decimal64 {
fraction-digits 2;
range "1 .. 3.14 | 10 | 20..max";
}
}

9.4. The string Built-In Type

The string built-in type represents human-readable strings in YANG.
Legal characters are tab, carriage return, line feed, and the legal
characters of Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 [ISO.10646]:

;; any Unicode character, excluding the surrogate blocks,
;; FFFE, and FFFF.
string = *char
char = %x9 / %xA / %xD / %x20-D7FF / %xE000-FFFD /
%x10000-10FFFF

9.4.1. Lexical Representation

A string value is lexically represented as character data in the XML
instance documents.

9.4.2. Canonical Form

The canonical form is the same as the lexical representation. No
Unicode normalization is performed of string values.

9.4.3. Restrictions

A string can be restricted with the "length" (Section 9.4.4) and
"pattern" (Section 9.4.6) statements.

9.4.4. The length Statement

The "length" statement, which is an optional substatement to the
"type" statement, takes as an argument a length expression string.
It is used to restrict the built-in type "string", or types derived
from "string".

A "length" statement restricts the number of Unicode characters in
the string.

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A length range consists of an explicit value, or a lower bound, two
consecutive dots "..", and an upper bound. Multiple values or ranges
can be given, separated by "|". Length-restricting values MUST NOT
be negative. If multiple values or ranges are given, they all MUST
be disjoint and MUST be in ascending order. If a length restriction
is applied to an already length-restricted type, the new restriction
MUST be equal or more limiting, that is, raising the lower bounds,
reducing the upper bounds, removing explicit length values or ranges,
or splitting ranges into multiple ranges with intermediate gaps. A
length value is a non-negative integer, or one of the special values
"min" or "max". "min" and "max" mean the minimum and maximum length
accepted for the type being restricted, respectively. An
implementation is not required to support a length value larger than
18446744073709551615.

The length expression syntax is formally defined by the rule
"length-arg" in Section 12.

9.4.4.1. The length's Substatements

+---------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+---------------+---------+-------------+
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| error-app-tag | 7.5.4.2 | 0..1 |
| error-message | 7.5.4.1 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
+---------------+---------+-------------+

9.4.5. Usage Example

typedef my-base-str-type {
type string {
length "1..255";
}
}

type my-base-str-type {
// legal length refinement
length "11 | 42..max"; // 11 | 42..255
}

type my-base-str-type {
// illegal length refinement
length "1..999";
}

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9.4.6. The pattern Statement

The "pattern" statement, which is an optional substatement to the
"type" statement, takes as an argument a regular expression string,
as defined in [XSD-TYPES]. It is used to restrict the built-in type
"string", or types derived from "string", to values that match the
pattern.

If the type has multiple "pattern" statements, the expressions are
ANDed together, i.e., all such expressions have to match.

If a pattern restriction is applied to an already pattern-restricted
type, values must match all patterns in the base type, in addition to
the new patterns.

9.4.6.1. The pattern's Substatements

+---------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+---------------+---------+-------------+
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| error-app-tag | 7.5.4.2 | 0..1 |
| error-message | 7.5.4.1 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
+---------------+---------+-------------+

9.4.7. Usage Example

With the following type:

type string {
length "0..4";
pattern "[0-9a-fA-F]*";
}

the following strings match:

AB // legal
9A00 // legal

and the following strings do not match:

00ABAB // illegal, too long
xx00 // illegal, bad characters

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9.5. The boolean Built-In Type

The boolean built-in type represents a boolean value.

9.5.1. Lexical Representation

The lexical representation of a boolean value is a string with a
value of "true" or "false". These values MUST be in lowercase.

9.5.2. Canonical Form

The canonical form is the same as the lexical representation.

9.5.3. Restrictions

A boolean cannot be restricted.

9.6. The enumeration Built-In Type

The enumeration built-in type represents values from a set of
assigned names.

9.6.1. Lexical Representation

The lexical representation of an enumeration value is the assigned
name string.

9.6.2. Canonical Form

The canonical form is the assigned name string.

9.6.3. Restrictions

An enumeration cannot be restricted.

9.6.4. The enum Statement

The "enum" statement, which is a substatement to the "type"
statement, MUST be present if the type is "enumeration". It is
repeatedly used to specify each assigned name of an enumeration type.
It takes as an argument a string which is the assigned name. The
string MUST NOT be empty and MUST NOT have any leading or trailing
whitespace characters. The use of Unicode control codes SHOULD be
avoided.

The statement is optionally followed by a block of substatements that
holds detailed enum information.

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All assigned names in an enumeration MUST be unique.

9.6.4.1. The enum's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
| value | 9.6.4.2 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

9.6.4.2. The value Statement

The "value" statement, which is optional, is used to associate an
integer value with the assigned name for the enum. This integer
value MUST be in the range -2147483648 to 2147483647, and it MUST be
unique within the enumeration type. The value is unused by YANG and
the XML encoding, but is carried as a convenience to implementors.

If a value is not specified, then one will be automatically assigned.
If the "enum" substatement is the first one defined, the assigned
value is zero (0); otherwise, the assigned value is one greater than
the current highest enum value.

If the current highest value is equal to 2147483647, then an enum
value MUST be specified for "enum" substatements following the one
with the current highest value.

9.6.5. Usage Example

leaf myenum {
type enumeration {
enum zero;
enum one;
enum seven {
value 7;
}
}
}

The lexical representation of the leaf "myenum" with value "seven"
is:

<myenum>seven</myenum>

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9.7. The bits Built-In Type

The bits built-in type represents a bit set. That is, a bits value
is a set of flags identified by small integer position numbers
starting at 0. Each bit number has an assigned name.

9.7.1. Restrictions

A bits type cannot be restricted.

9.7.2. Lexical Representation

The lexical representation of the bits type is a space-separated list
of the individual bit values that are set. An empty string thus
represents a value where no bits are set.

9.7.3. Canonical Form

In the canonical form, the bit values are separated by a single space
character and they appear ordered by their position (see
Section 9.7.4.2).

9.7.4. The bit Statement

The "bit" statement, which is a substatement to the "type" statement,
MUST be present if the type is "bits". It is repeatedly used to
specify each assigned named bit of a bits type. It takes as an
argument a string that is the assigned name of the bit. It is
followed by a block of substatements that holds detailed bit
information. The assigned name follows the same syntax rules as an
identifier (see Section 6.2).

All assigned names in a bits type MUST be unique.

9.7.4.1. The bit's Substatements

+--------------+---------+-------------+
| substatement | section | cardinality |
+--------------+---------+-------------+
| description | 7.19.3 | 0..1 |
| reference | 7.19.4 | 0..1 |
| status | 7.19.2 | 0..1 |
| position | 9.7.4.2 | 0..1 |
+--------------+---------+-------------+

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9.7.4.2. The position Statement

The "position" statement, which is optional, takes as an argument a
non-negative integer value that specifies the bit's position within a
hypothetical bit field. The position value MUST be in the range 0 to
4294967295, and it MUST be unique within the bits type. The value is
unused by YANG and the NETCONF messages, but is carried as a
convenience to implementors.

If a bit position is not specified, then one will be automatically
assigned. If the "bit" substatement is the first one defined, the
assigned value is zero (0); otherwise, the assigned value is one
greater than the current highest bit position.

If the current highest bit position value is equal to 4294967295,
then a position value MUST be specified for "bit" substatements
following the one with the current highest position value.

9.7.5. Usage Example

Given the following leaf:

leaf mybits {
type bits {
bit disable-nagle {
position 0;
}
bit auto-sense-speed {
position 1;
}
bit 10-Mb-only {
position 2;
}
}
default "auto-sense-speed";
}

The lexical representation of this leaf with bit values disable-nagle
and 10-Mb-only set would be:

<mybits>disable-nagle 10-Mb-only</mybits>

9.8. The binary Built-In Type

The binary built-in type represents any binary data, i.e., a sequence
of octets.

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9.8.1. Restrictions

A binary can be restricted with the "length" (Section 9.4.4)
statement. The length of a binary value is the number of octets it
contains.

9.8.2. Lexical Representation

Binary values are encoded with the base64 encoding scheme (see
[RFC4648], Section 4).

9.8.3. Canonical Form

The canonical form of a binary value follows the rules in [RFC4648].

9.9. The leafref Built-In Type

The leafref type is used to reference a particular leaf instance in
the data tree. The "path" substatement (Section 9.9.2) selects a set
of leaf instances, and the leafref value space is the set of values
of these leaf instances.

If the leaf with the leafref type represents configuration data, the
leaf it refers to MUST also represent configuration. Such a leaf
puts a constraint on valid data. All leafref nodes MUST reference
existing leaf instances or leafs with default values in use (see
Section 7.6.1) for the data to be valid. This constraint is enforced
according to the rules in Section 8.

There MUST NOT be any circular chains of leafrefs.

If the leaf that the leafref refers to is conditional based on one or
more features (see Section 7.18.2), then the leaf with the leafref
type MUST also be conditional based on at least the same set of
features.

9.9.1. Restrictions

A leafref cannot be restricted.

9.9.2. The path Statement

The "path" statement, which is a substatement to the "type"
statement, MUST be present if the type is "leafref". It takes as an
argument a string that MUST refer to a leaf or leaf-list node.

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The syntax for a path argument is a subset of the XPath abbreviated
syntax. Predicates are used only for constraining the values for the
key nodes for list entries. Each predicate consists of exactly one
equality test per key, and multiple adjacent predicates MAY be
present if a list has multiple keys. The syntax is formally defined
by the rule "path-arg" in Section 12.

The predicates are only used when more than one key reference is
needed to uniquely identify a leaf instance. This occurs if a list
has multiple keys, or a reference to a leaf other than the key in a
list is needed. In these cases, multiple leafrefs are typically
specified, and predicates are used to tie them together.

The "path" expression evaluates to a node set consisting of zero,
one, or more nodes. If the leaf with the leafref type represents
configuration data, this node set MUST be non-empty.

The "path" XPath expression is conceptually evaluated in the
following context, in addition to the definition in Section 6.4.1:

o The context node is the node in the data tree for which the "path"
statement is defined.

The accessible tree depends on the context node:

o If the context node represents configuration data, the tree is the
data in the NETCONF datastore where the context node exists. The
XPath root node has all top-level configuration data nodes in all
modules as children.

o Otherwise, the tree is all state data on the device, and the
<running/> datastore. The XPath root node has all top-level data
nodes in all modules as children.

9.9.3. Lexical Representation

A leafref value is encoded the same way as the leaf it references.

9.9.4. Canonical Form

The canonical form of a leafref is the same as the canonical form of
the leaf it references.

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9.9.5. Usage Example

With the following list:

list interface {
key "name";
leaf name {
type string;
}
leaf admin-status {
type admin-status;
}
list address {
key "ip";
leaf ip {
type yang:ip-address;
}
}
}

The following leafref refers to an existing interface:

leaf mgmt-interface {
type leafref {
path "../interface/name";
}
}

An example of a corresponding XML snippet:

<interface>
<name>eth0</name>
</interface>
<interface>
<name>lo</name>
</interface>

<mgmt-interface>eth0</mgmt-interface>

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The following leafrefs refer to an existing address of an interface:

container default-address {
leaf ifname {
type leafref {
path "../../interface/name";
}
}
leaf address {
type leafref {
path "../../interface[name = current()/../ifname]"
+ "/address/ip";
}
}
}

An example of a corresponding XML snippet:

<interface>
<name>eth0</name>
<admin-status>up</admin-status>
<address>
<ip>192.0.2.1</ip>
</address>
<address>
<ip>192.0.2.2</ip>
</address>
</interface>
<interface>
<name>lo</name>
<admin-status>up</admin-status>
<address>
<ip>127.0.0.1</ip>
</address>
</interface>

<default-address>
<ifname>eth0</ifname>
<address>192.0.2.2</address>
</default-address>

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The following list uses a leafref for one of its keys. This is
similar to a foreign key in a relational database.

list packet-filter {
key "if-name filter-id";
leaf if-name {
type leafref {
path "/interface/name";
}
}
leaf filter-id {
type uint32;
}
...
}

An example of a corresponding XML snippet:

<interface>
<name>eth0</name>
<admin-status>up</admin-status>
<address>
<ip>192.0.2.1</ip>
</address>
<address>
<ip>192.0.2.2</ip>
</address>
</interface>

<packet-filter>
<if-name>eth0</if-name>
<filter-id>1</filter-id>
...
</packet-filter>
<packet-filter>
<if-name>eth0</if-name>
<filter-id>2</filter-id>
...
</packet-filter>

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The following notification defines two leafrefs to refer to an
existing admin-status:

notification link-failure {
leaf if-name {
type leafref {
path "/interface/name";
}
}
leaf admin-status {
type leafref {
path
"/interface[name = current()/../if-name]"
+ "/admin-status";
}
}
}

An example of a corresponding XML notification:

<notification
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:notification:1.0">
<eventTime>2008-04-01T00:01:00Z</eventTime>
<link-failure xmlns="http://acme.example.com/system">
<if-name>eth0</if-name>
<admin-status>up</admin-status>
</link-failure>
</notification>

9.10. The identityref Built-In Type

The identityref type is used to reference an existing identity (see
Section 7.16).

9.10.1. Restrictions

An identityref cannot be restricted.

9.10.2. The identityref's base Statement

The "base" statement, which is a substatement to the "type"
statement, MUST be present if the type is "identityref". The
argument is the name of an identity, as defined by an "identity"
statement. If a prefix is present on the identity name, it refers to
an identity defined in the module that was imported with that prefix.
Otherwise, an identity with the matching name MUST be defined in the
current module or an included submodule.

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Valid values for an identityref are any identities derived from the
identityref's base identity. On a particular server, the valid
values are further restricted to the set of identities defined in the
modules supported by the server.

9.10.3. Lexical Representation

An identityref is encoded as the referred identity's qualified name
as defined in [XML-NAMES]. If the prefix is not present, the
namespace of the identityref is the default namespace in effect on
the element that contains the identityref value.

When an identityref is given a default value using the "default"
statement, the identity name in the default value MAY have a prefix.
If a prefix is present on the identity name, it refers to an identity
defined in the module that was imported with that prefix. Otherwise,
an identity with the matching name MUST be defined in the current
module or an included submodule.

9.10.4. Canonical Form

Since the lexical form depends on the XML context in which the value
occurs, this type does not have a canonical form.

9.10.5. Usage Example

With the identity definitions in Section 7.16.3 and the following
module:

module my-crypto {

namespace "http://example.com/my-crypto";
prefix mc;

import "crypto-base" {
prefix "crypto";
}

identity aes {
base "crypto:crypto-alg";
}

leaf crypto {
type identityref {
base "crypto:crypto-alg";
}
}
}

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the leaf "crypto" will be encoded as follows, if the value is the
"des3" identity defined in the "des" module:

<crypto xmlns:des="http://example.com/des">des:des3</crypto>

Any prefixes used in the encoding are local to each instance
encoding. This means that the same identityref may be encoded
differently by different implementations. For example, the following
example encodes the same leaf as above:

<crypto xmlns:x="http://example.com/des">x:des3</crypto>

If the "crypto" leaf's value instead is "aes" defined in the
"my-crypto" module, it can be encoded as:

<crypto xmlns:mc="http://example.com/my-crypto">mc:aes</crypto>

or, using the default namespace:

<crypto>aes</crypto>

9.11. The empty Built-In Type

The empty built-in type represents a leaf that does not have any
value, it conveys information by its presence or absence.

An empty type cannot have a default value.

9.11.1. Restrictions

An empty type cannot be restricted.

9.11.2. Lexical Representation

Not applicable.

9.11.3. Canonical Form

Not applicable.

9.11.4. Usage Example

The following leaf

leaf enable-qos {
type empty;
}

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will be encoded as

<enable-qos/>

if it exists.

9.12. The union Built-In Type

The union built-in type represents a value that corresponds to one of
its member types.

When the type is "union", the "type" statement (Section 7.4) MUST be
present. It is used to repeatedly specify each member type of the
union. It takes as an argument a string that is the name of a member
type.

A member type can be of any built-in or derived type, except it MUST
NOT be one of the built-in types "empty" or "leafref".

When a string representing a union data type is validated, the string
is validated against each member type, in the order they are
specified in the "type" statement, until a match is found.

Any default value or "units" property defined in the member types is
not inherited by the union type.

Example:

type union {
type int32;
type enumeration {
enum "unbounded";
}
}

9.12.1. Restrictions

A union cannot be restricted. However, each member type can be
restricted, based on the rules defined in Section 9.

9.12.2. Lexical Representation

The lexical representation of a union is a value that corresponds to
the representation of any one of the member types.

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9.12.3. Canonical Form

The canonical form of a union value is the same as the canonical form
of the member type of the value.

9.13. The instance-identifier Built-In Type

The instance-identifier built-in type is used to uniquely identify a
particular instance node in the data tree.

The syntax for an instance-identifier is a subset of the XPath
abbreviated syntax, formally defined by the rule
"instance-identifier" in Section 12. It is used to uniquely identify
a node in the data tree. Predicates are used only for specifying the
values for the key nodes for list entries, a value of a leaf-list
entry, or a positional index for a list without keys. For
identifying list entries with keys, each predicate consists of one
equality test per key, and each key MUST have a corresponding
predicate.

If the leaf with the instance-identifier type represents
configuration data, and the "require-instance" property
(Section 9.13.2) is "true", the node it refers to MUST also represent
configuration. Such a leaf puts a constraint on valid data. All
such leaf nodes MUST reference existing nodes or leaf nodes with
their default value in use (see Section 7.6.1) for the data to be
valid. This constraint is enforced according to the rules in
Section 8.

The "instance-identifier" XPath expression is conceptually evaluated
in the following context, in addition to the definition in
Section 6.4.1:

o The context node is the root node in the accessible tree.

The accessible tree depends on the leaf with the instance-identifier
type:

o If this leaf represents configuration data, the tree is the data
in the NETCONF datastore where the leaf exists. The XPath root
node has all top-level configuration data nodes in all modules as
children.

o Otherwise, the tree is all state data on the device, and the
<running/> datastore. The XPath root node has all top-level data
nodes in all modules as children.

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9.13.1. Restrictions

An instance-identifier can be restricted with the "require-instance"
statement (Section 9.13.2).

9.13.2. The require-instance Statement

The "require-instance" statement, which is a substatement to the
"type" statement, MAY be present if the type is
"instance-identifier". It takes as an argument the string "true" or
"false". If this statement is not present, it defaults to "true".

If "require-instance" is "true", it means that the instance being
referred MUST exist for the data to be valid. This constraint is
enforced according to the rules in Section 8.

If "require-instance" is "false", it means that the instance being
referred MAY exist in valid data.

9.13.3. Lexical Representation

An instance-identifier value is lexically represented as a string.
All node names in an instance-identifier value MUST be qualified with
explicit namespace prefixes, and these prefixes MUST be declared in
the XML namespace scope in the instance-identifier's XML element.

Any prefixes used in the encoding are local to each instance
encoding. This means that the same instance-identifier may be
encoded differently by different implementations.

9.13.4. Canonical Form

Since the lexical form depends on the XML context in which the value
occurs, this type does not have a canonical form.

9.13.5. Usage Example

The following are examples of instance identifiers:

/* instance-identifier for a container */
/ex:system/ex:services/ex:ssh

/* instance-identifier for a leaf */
/ex:system/ex:services/ex:ssh/ex:port

/* instance-identifier for a list entry */
/ex:system/ex:user[ex:name='fred']

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/* instance-identifier for a leaf in a list entry */
/ex:system/ex:user[ex:name='fred']/ex:type

/* instance-identifier for a list entry with two keys */
/ex:system/ex:server[ex:ip='192.0.2.1'][ex:port='80']

/* instance-identifier for a leaf-list entry */
/ex:system/ex:services/ex:ssh/ex:cipher[.='blowfish-cbc']

/* instance-identifier for a list entry without keys */
/ex:stats/ex:port[3]

10. Updating a Module

As experience is gained with a module, it may be desirable to revise
that module. However, changes are not allowed if they have any
potential to cause interoperability problems between a client using
an original specification and a server using an updated
specification.

For any published change, a new "revision" statement (Section 7.1.9)
MUST be included in front of the existing "revision" statements. If
there are no existing "revision" statements, then one MUST be added
to identify the new revision. Furthermore, any necessary changes
MUST be applied to any meta-data statements, including the
"organization" and "contact" statements (Sections 7.1.7, 7.1.8).

Note that definitions contained in a module are available to be
imported by any other module, and are referenced in "import"
statements via the module name. Thus, a module name MUST NOT be
changed. Furthermore, the "namespace" statement MUST NOT be changed,
since all XML elements are qualified by the namespace.

Obsolete definitions MUST NOT be removed from modules since their
identifiers may still be referenced by other modules.

A definition may be revised in any of the following ways:

o An "enumeration" type may have new enums added, provided the old
enums's values do not change.

o A "bits" type may have new bits added, provided the old bit
positions do not change.

o A "range", "length", or "pattern" statement may expand the allowed
value space.

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o A "default" statement may be added to a leaf that does not have a
default value (either directly or indirectly through its type).

o A "units" statement may be added.

o A "reference" statement may be added or updated.

o A "must" statement may be removed or its constraint relaxed.

o A "mandatory" statement may be removed or changed from "true" to
"false".

o A "min-elements" statement may be removed, or changed to require
fewer elements.

o A "max-elements" statement may be removed, or changed to allow
more elements.

o A "description" statement may be added or clarified without
changing the semantics of the definition.

o New typedefs, groupings, rpcs, notifications, extensions,
features, and identities may be added.

o New data definition statements may be added if they do not add
mandatory nodes (Section 3.1) to existing nodes or at the top
level in a module or submodule, or if they are conditionally
dependent on a new feature (i.e., have an "if-feature" statement
that refers to a new feature).

o A new "case" statement may be added.

o A node that represented state data may be changed to represent
configuration, provided it is not mandatory (Section 3.1).

o An "if-feature" statement may be removed, provided its node is not
mandatory (Section 3.1).

o A "status" statement may be added, or changed from "current" to
"deprecated" or "obsolete", or from "deprecated" to "obsolete".

o A "type" statement may be replaced with another "type" statement
that does not change the syntax or semantics of the type. For
example, an inline type definition may be replaced with a typedef,
but an int8 type cannot be replaced by an int16, since the syntax
would change.

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o Any set of data definition nodes may be replaced with another set
of syntactically and semantically equivalent nodes. For example,
a set of leafs may be replaced by a uses of a grouping with the
same leafs.

o A module may be split into a set of submodules, or a submodule may
be removed, provided the definitions in the module do not change
in any other way than allowed here.

o The "prefix" statement may be changed, provided all local uses of
the prefix also are changed.

Otherwise, if the semantics of any previous definition are changed
(i.e., if a non-editorial change is made to any definition other than
those specifically allowed above), then this MUST be achieved by a
new definition with a new identifier.

In statements that have any data definition statements as
substatements, those data definition substatements MUST NOT be
reordered.

11. YIN

A YANG module can be translated into an alternative XML-based syntax
called YIN. The translated module is called a YIN module. This
section describes symmetric mapping rules between the two formats.

The YANG and YIN formats contain equivalent information using
different notations. The YIN notation enables developers to
represent YANG data models in XML and therefore use the rich set of
XML-based tools for data filtering and validation, automated
generation of code and documentation, and other tasks. Tools like
XSLT or XML validators can be utilized.

The mapping between YANG and YIN does not modify the information
content of the model. Comments and whitespace are not preserved.

11.1. Formal YIN Definition

There is a one-to-one correspondence between YANG keywords and YIN
elements. The local name of a YIN element is identical to the
corresponding YANG keyword. This means, in particular, that the
document element (root) of a YIN document is always <module> or
<submodule>.

YIN elements corresponding to the YANG keywords belong to the
namespace whose associated URI is
"urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:yin:1".

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YIN elements corresponding to extension keywords belong to the
namespace of the YANG module where the extension keyword is declared
via the "extension" statement.

The names of all YIN elements MUST be properly qualified with their
namespaces specified above using the standard mechanisms of
[XML-NAMES], i.e., "xmlns" and "xmlns:xxx" attributes.

The argument of a YANG statement is represented in YIN either as an
XML attribute or a subelement of the keyword element. Table 1
defines the mapping for the set of YANG keywords. For extensions,
the argument mapping is specified within the "extension" statement
(see Section 7.17). The following rules hold for arguments:

o If the argument is represented as an attribute, this attribute has
no namespace.

o If the argument is represented as an element, it is qualified by
the same namespace as its parent keyword element.

o If the argument is represented as an element, it MUST be the first
child of the keyword element.

Substatements of a YANG statement are represented as (additional)
children of the keyword element and their relative order MUST be the
same as the order of substatements in YANG.

Comments in YANG MAY be mapped to XML comments.

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Mapping of arguments of the YANG statements.

+------------------+---------------+-------------+
| keyword | argument name | yin-element |
+------------------+---------------+-------------+
| anyxml | name | false |
| argument | name | false |
| augment | target-node | false |
| base | name | false |
| belongs-to | module | false |
| bit | name | false |
| case | name | false |
| choice | name | false |
| config | value | false |
| contact | text | true |
| container | name | false |
| default | value | false |
| description | text | true |
| deviate | value | false |
| deviation | target-node | false |
| enum | name | false |
| error-app-tag | value | false |
| error-message | value | true |
| extension | name | false |
| feature | name | false |
| fraction-digits | value | false |
| grouping | name | false |
| identity | name | false |
| if-feature | name | false |
| import | module | false |
| include | module | false |
| input | <no argument> | n/a |
| key | value | false |
| leaf | name | false |
| leaf-list | name | false |
| length | value | false |
| list | name | false |
| mandatory | value | false |
| max-elements | value | false |
| min-elements | value | false |
| module | name | false |
| must | condition | false |
| namespace | uri | false |
| notification | name | false |
| ordered-by | value | false |
| organization | text | true |
| output | <no argument> | n/a |
| path | value | false |

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| pattern | value | false |
| position | value | false |
| prefix | value | false |
| presence | value | false |
| range | value | false |
| reference | text | true |
| refine | target-node | false |
| require-instance | value | false |
| revision | date | false |
| revision-date | date | false |
| rpc | name | false |
| status | value | false |
| submodule | name | false |
| type | name | false |
| typedef | name | false |
| unique | tag | false |
| units | name | false |
| uses | name | false |
| value | value | false |
| when | condition | false |
| yang-version | value | false |
| yin-element | value | false |
+------------------+---------------+-------------+

Table 1

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11.1.1. Usage Example

The following YANG module:

module acme-foo {
namespace "http://acme.example.com/foo";
prefix "acfoo";

import my-extensions {
prefix "myext";
}

list interface {
key "name";
leaf name {
type string;
}

leaf mtu {
type uint32;
description "The MTU of the interface.";
myext:c-define "MY_MTU";
}
}
}

where the extension "c-define" is defined in Section 7.17.3, is
translated into the following YIN:

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<module name="acme-foo"
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:yin:1"
xmlns:acfoo="http://acme.example.com/foo"
xmlns:myext="http://example.com/my-extensions">

<namespace uri="http://acme.example.com/foo"/>
<prefix value="acfoo"/>

<import module="my-extensions">
<prefix value="myext"/>
</import>

<list name="interface">
<key value="name"/>
<leaf name="name">
<type name="string"/>
</leaf>
<leaf name="mtu">
<type name="uint32"/>
<description>
<text>The MTU of the interface.</text>
</description>
<myext:c-define name="MY_MTU"/>
</leaf>
</list>
</module>

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12. YANG ABNF Grammar

In YANG, almost all statements are unordered. The ABNF grammar
[RFC5234] defines the canonical order. To improve module
readability, it is RECOMMENDED that clauses be entered in this order.

Within the ABNF grammar, unordered statements are marked with
comments.

This grammar assumes that the scanner replaces YANG comments with a
single space character.

<CODE BEGINS> file "yang.abnf"

module-stmt = optsep module-keyword sep identifier-arg-str
optsep
"{" stmtsep
module-header-stmts
linkage-stmts
meta-stmts
revision-stmts
body-stmts
"}" optsep

submodule-stmt = optsep submodule-keyword sep identifier-arg-str
optsep
"{" stmtsep
submodule-header-stmts
linkage-stmts
meta-stmts
revision-stmts
body-stmts
"}" optsep

module-header-stmts = ;; these stmts can appear in any order
[yang-version-stmt stmtsep]
namespace-stmt stmtsep
prefix-stmt stmtsep

submodule-header-stmts =
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[yang-version-stmt stmtsep]
belongs-to-stmt stmtsep

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meta-stmts = ;; these stmts can appear in any order
[organization-stmt stmtsep]
[contact-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]

linkage-stmts = ;; these stmts can appear in any order
*(import-stmt stmtsep)
*(include-stmt stmtsep)

revision-stmts = *(revision-stmt stmtsep)

body-stmts = *((extension-stmt /
feature-stmt /
identity-stmt /
typedef-stmt /
grouping-stmt /
data-def-stmt /
augment-stmt /
rpc-stmt /
notification-stmt /
deviation-stmt) stmtsep)

data-def-stmt = container-stmt /
leaf-stmt /
leaf-list-stmt /
list-stmt /
choice-stmt /
anyxml-stmt /
uses-stmt

yang-version-stmt = yang-version-keyword sep yang-version-arg-str
optsep stmtend

yang-version-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
yang-version-arg >

yang-version-arg = "1"

import-stmt = import-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
"{" stmtsep
prefix-stmt stmtsep
[revision-date-stmt stmtsep]
"}"

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include-stmt = include-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
[revision-date-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

namespace-stmt = namespace-keyword sep uri-str optsep stmtend

uri-str = < a string that matches the rule
URI in RFC 3986 >

prefix-stmt = prefix-keyword sep prefix-arg-str
optsep stmtend

belongs-to-stmt = belongs-to-keyword sep identifier-arg-str
optsep
"{" stmtsep
prefix-stmt stmtsep
"}"

organization-stmt = organization-keyword sep string
optsep stmtend

contact-stmt = contact-keyword sep string optsep stmtend

description-stmt = description-keyword sep string optsep
stmtend

reference-stmt = reference-keyword sep string optsep stmtend

units-stmt = units-keyword sep string optsep stmtend

revision-stmt = revision-keyword sep revision-date optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

revision-date = date-arg-str

revision-date-stmt = revision-date-keyword sep revision-date stmtend

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extension-stmt = extension-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[argument-stmt stmtsep]
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

argument-stmt = argument-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
[yin-element-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

yin-element-stmt = yin-element-keyword sep yin-element-arg-str
stmtend

yin-element-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
yin-element-arg >

yin-element-arg = true-keyword / false-keyword

identity-stmt = identity-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[base-stmt stmtsep]
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

base-stmt = base-keyword sep identifier-ref-arg-str
optsep stmtend

feature-stmt = feature-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
*(if-feature-stmt stmtsep)
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

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if-feature-stmt = if-feature-keyword sep identifier-ref-arg-str
optsep stmtend

typedef-stmt = typedef-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
type-stmt stmtsep
[units-stmt stmtsep]
[default-stmt stmtsep]
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
"}"

type-stmt = type-keyword sep identifier-ref-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
type-body-stmts
"}")

type-body-stmts = numerical-restrictions /
decimal64-specification /
string-restrictions /
enum-specification /
leafref-specification /
identityref-specification /
instance-identifier-specification /
bits-specification /
union-specification

numerical-restrictions = range-stmt stmtsep

range-stmt = range-keyword sep range-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[error-message-stmt stmtsep]
[error-app-tag-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

decimal64-specification = fraction-digits-stmt

fraction-digits-stmt = fraction-digits-keyword sep
fraction-digits-arg-str stmtend

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fraction-digits-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
fraction-digits-arg >

fraction-digits-arg = ("1" ["0" / "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" /
"5" / "6" / "7" / "8"])
/ "2" / "3" / "4" / "5" / "6" / "7" / "8" / "9"

string-restrictions = ;; these stmts can appear in any order
[length-stmt stmtsep]
*(pattern-stmt stmtsep)

length-stmt = length-keyword sep length-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[error-message-stmt stmtsep]
[error-app-tag-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

pattern-stmt = pattern-keyword sep string optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[error-message-stmt stmtsep]
[error-app-tag-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

default-stmt = default-keyword sep string stmtend

enum-specification = 1*(enum-stmt stmtsep)

enum-stmt = enum-keyword sep string optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[value-stmt stmtsep]
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

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leafref-specification =
;; these stmts can appear in any order
path-stmt stmtsep
[require-instance-stmt stmtsep]

path-stmt = path-keyword sep path-arg-str stmtend

require-instance-stmt = require-instance-keyword sep
require-instance-arg-str stmtend

require-instance-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
require-instance-arg >

require-instance-arg = true-keyword / false-keyword

instance-identifier-specification =
[require-instance-stmt stmtsep]

identityref-specification =
base-stmt stmtsep

union-specification = 1*(type-stmt stmtsep)

bits-specification = 1*(bit-stmt stmtsep)

bit-stmt = bit-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[position-stmt stmtsep]
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
"}"
"}")

position-stmt = position-keyword sep
position-value-arg-str stmtend

position-value-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
position-value-arg >

position-value-arg = non-negative-integer-value

status-stmt = status-keyword sep status-arg-str stmtend

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status-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
status-arg >

status-arg = current-keyword /
obsolete-keyword /
deprecated-keyword

config-stmt = config-keyword sep
config-arg-str stmtend

config-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
config-arg >

config-arg = true-keyword / false-keyword

mandatory-stmt = mandatory-keyword sep
mandatory-arg-str stmtend

mandatory-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
mandatory-arg >

mandatory-arg = true-keyword / false-keyword

presence-stmt = presence-keyword sep string stmtend

ordered-by-stmt = ordered-by-keyword sep
ordered-by-arg-str stmtend

ordered-by-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
ordered-by-arg >

ordered-by-arg = user-keyword / system-keyword

must-stmt = must-keyword sep string optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[error-message-stmt stmtsep]
[error-app-tag-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

error-message-stmt = error-message-keyword sep string stmtend

error-app-tag-stmt = error-app-tag-keyword sep string stmtend

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min-elements-stmt = min-elements-keyword sep
min-value-arg-str stmtend

min-value-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
min-value-arg >

min-value-arg = non-negative-integer-value

max-elements-stmt = max-elements-keyword sep
max-value-arg-str stmtend

max-value-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
max-value-arg >

max-value-arg = unbounded-keyword /
positive-integer-value

value-stmt = value-keyword sep integer-value stmtend

grouping-stmt = grouping-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
*((typedef-stmt /
grouping-stmt) stmtsep)
*(data-def-stmt stmtsep)
"}")

container-stmt = container-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[when-stmt stmtsep]
*(if-feature-stmt stmtsep)
*(must-stmt stmtsep)
[presence-stmt stmtsep]
[config-stmt stmtsep]
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
*((typedef-stmt /
grouping-stmt) stmtsep)
*(data-def-stmt stmtsep)
"}")

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leaf-stmt = leaf-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[when-stmt stmtsep]
*(if-feature-stmt stmtsep)
type-stmt stmtsep
[units-stmt stmtsep]
*(must-stmt stmtsep)
[default-stmt stmtsep]
[config-stmt stmtsep]
[mandatory-stmt stmtsep]
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
"}"

leaf-list-stmt = leaf-list-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[when-stmt stmtsep]
*(if-feature-stmt stmtsep)
type-stmt stmtsep
[units-stmt stmtsep]
*(must-stmt stmtsep)
[config-stmt stmtsep]
[min-elements-stmt stmtsep]
[max-elements-stmt stmtsep]
[ordered-by-stmt stmtsep]
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
"}"

list-stmt = list-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[when-stmt stmtsep]
*(if-feature-stmt stmtsep)
*(must-stmt stmtsep)
[key-stmt stmtsep]
*(unique-stmt stmtsep)
[config-stmt stmtsep]
[min-elements-stmt stmtsep]
[max-elements-stmt stmtsep]
[ordered-by-stmt stmtsep]
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]

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*((typedef-stmt /
grouping-stmt) stmtsep)
1*(data-def-stmt stmtsep)
"}"

key-stmt = key-keyword sep key-arg-str stmtend

key-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
key-arg >

key-arg = node-identifier *(sep node-identifier)

unique-stmt = unique-keyword sep unique-arg-str stmtend

unique-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
unique-arg >

unique-arg = descendant-schema-nodeid
*(sep descendant-schema-nodeid)

choice-stmt = choice-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[when-stmt stmtsep]
*(if-feature-stmt stmtsep)
[default-stmt stmtsep]
[config-stmt stmtsep]
[mandatory-stmt stmtsep]
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
*((short-case-stmt / case-stmt) stmtsep)
"}")

short-case-stmt = container-stmt /
leaf-stmt /
leaf-list-stmt /
list-stmt /
anyxml-stmt

case-stmt = case-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[when-stmt stmtsep]
*(if-feature-stmt stmtsep)
[status-stmt stmtsep]

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[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
*(data-def-stmt stmtsep)
"}")

anyxml-stmt = anyxml-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[when-stmt stmtsep]
*(if-feature-stmt stmtsep)
*(must-stmt stmtsep)
[config-stmt stmtsep]
[mandatory-stmt stmtsep]
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

uses-stmt = uses-keyword sep identifier-ref-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[when-stmt stmtsep]
*(if-feature-stmt stmtsep)
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
*(refine-stmt stmtsep)
*(uses-augment-stmt stmtsep)
"}")

refine-stmt = refine-keyword sep refine-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
(refine-container-stmts /
refine-leaf-stmts /
refine-leaf-list-stmts /
refine-list-stmts /
refine-choice-stmts /
refine-case-stmts /
refine-anyxml-stmts)
"}")

refine-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
refine-arg >

refine-arg = descendant-schema-nodeid

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refine-container-stmts =
;; these stmts can appear in any order
*(must-stmt stmtsep)
[presence-stmt stmtsep]
[config-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]

refine-leaf-stmts = ;; these stmts can appear in any order
*(must-stmt stmtsep)
[default-stmt stmtsep]
[config-stmt stmtsep]
[mandatory-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]

refine-leaf-list-stmts =
;; these stmts can appear in any order
*(must-stmt stmtsep)
[config-stmt stmtsep]
[min-elements-stmt stmtsep]
[max-elements-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]

refine-list-stmts = ;; these stmts can appear in any order
*(must-stmt stmtsep)
[config-stmt stmtsep]
[min-elements-stmt stmtsep]
[max-elements-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]

refine-choice-stmts = ;; these stmts can appear in any order
[default-stmt stmtsep]
[config-stmt stmtsep]
[mandatory-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]

refine-case-stmts = ;; these stmts can appear in any order
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]

refine-anyxml-stmts = ;; these stmts can appear in any order
*(must-stmt stmtsep)
[config-stmt stmtsep]

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[mandatory-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]

uses-augment-stmt = augment-keyword sep uses-augment-arg-str optsep
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[when-stmt stmtsep]
*(if-feature-stmt stmtsep)
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
1*((data-def-stmt stmtsep) /
(case-stmt stmtsep))
"}"

uses-augment-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
uses-augment-arg >

uses-augment-arg = descendant-schema-nodeid

augment-stmt = augment-keyword sep augment-arg-str optsep
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[when-stmt stmtsep]
*(if-feature-stmt stmtsep)
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
1*((data-def-stmt stmtsep) /
(case-stmt stmtsep))
"}"

augment-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
augment-arg >

augment-arg = absolute-schema-nodeid

unknown-statement = prefix ":" identifier [sep string] optsep
(";" / "{" *unknown-statement2 "}")

unknown-statement2 = [prefix ":"] identifier [sep string] optsep
(";" / "{" *unknown-statement2 "}")

when-stmt = when-keyword sep string optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order

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[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

rpc-stmt = rpc-keyword sep identifier-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
*(if-feature-stmt stmtsep)
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
*((typedef-stmt /
grouping-stmt) stmtsep)
[input-stmt stmtsep]
[output-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

input-stmt = input-keyword optsep
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
*((typedef-stmt /
grouping-stmt) stmtsep)
1*(data-def-stmt stmtsep)
"}"

output-stmt = output-keyword optsep
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
*((typedef-stmt /
grouping-stmt) stmtsep)
1*(data-def-stmt stmtsep)
"}"

notification-stmt = notification-keyword sep
identifier-arg-str optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
*(if-feature-stmt stmtsep)
[status-stmt stmtsep]
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
*((typedef-stmt /
grouping-stmt) stmtsep)
*(data-def-stmt stmtsep)
"}")

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deviation-stmt = deviation-keyword sep
deviation-arg-str optsep
"{" stmtsep
;; these stmts can appear in any order
[description-stmt stmtsep]
[reference-stmt stmtsep]
(deviate-not-supported-stmt /
1*(deviate-add-stmt /
deviate-replace-stmt /
deviate-delete-stmt))
"}"

deviation-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
deviation-arg >

deviation-arg = absolute-schema-nodeid

deviate-not-supported-stmt =
deviate-keyword sep
not-supported-keyword optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
"}")

deviate-add-stmt = deviate-keyword sep add-keyword optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
[units-stmt stmtsep]
*(must-stmt stmtsep)
*(unique-stmt stmtsep)
[default-stmt stmtsep]
[config-stmt stmtsep]
[mandatory-stmt stmtsep]
[min-elements-stmt stmtsep]
[max-elements-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

deviate-delete-stmt = deviate-keyword sep delete-keyword optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
[units-stmt stmtsep]
*(must-stmt stmtsep)
*(unique-stmt stmtsep)
[default-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

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deviate-replace-stmt = deviate-keyword sep replace-keyword optsep
(";" /
"{" stmtsep
[type-stmt stmtsep]
[units-stmt stmtsep]
[default-stmt stmtsep]
[config-stmt stmtsep]
[mandatory-stmt stmtsep]
[min-elements-stmt stmtsep]
[max-elements-stmt stmtsep]
"}")

;; Ranges

range-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
range-arg >

range-arg = range-part *(optsep "|" optsep range-part)

range-part = range-boundary
[optsep ".." optsep range-boundary]

range-boundary = min-keyword / max-keyword /
integer-value / decimal-value

;; Lengths

length-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
length-arg >

length-arg = length-part *(optsep "|" optsep length-part)

length-part = length-boundary
[optsep ".." optsep length-boundary]

length-boundary = min-keyword / max-keyword /
non-negative-integer-value

;; Date

date-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
date-arg >

date-arg = 4DIGIT "-" 2DIGIT "-" 2DIGIT

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;; Schema Node Identifiers

schema-nodeid = absolute-schema-nodeid /
descendant-schema-nodeid

absolute-schema-nodeid = 1*("/" node-identifier)

descendant-schema-nodeid =
node-identifier
absolute-schema-nodeid

node-identifier = [prefix ":"] identifier

;; Instance Identifiers

instance-identifier = 1*("/" (node-identifier *predicate))

predicate = "[" *WSP (predicate-expr / pos) *WSP "]"

predicate-expr = (node-identifier / ".") *WSP "=" *WSP
((DQUOTE string DQUOTE) /
(SQUOTE string SQUOTE))

pos = non-negative-integer-value

;; leafref path

path-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
path-arg >

path-arg = absolute-path / relative-path

absolute-path = 1*("/" (node-identifier *path-predicate))

relative-path = 1*(".." "/") descendant-path

descendant-path = node-identifier
[*path-predicate absolute-path]

path-predicate = "[" *WSP path-equality-expr *WSP "]"

path-equality-expr = node-identifier *WSP "=" *WSP path-key-expr

path-key-expr = current-function-invocation *WSP "/" *WSP
rel-path-keyexpr

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rel-path-keyexpr = 1*(".." *WSP "/" *WSP)
*(node-identifier *WSP "/" *WSP)
node-identifier

;;; Keywords, using abnfgen's syntax for case-sensitive strings

;; statement keywords
anyxml-keyword = 'anyxml'
argument-keyword = 'argument'
augment-keyword = 'augment'
base-keyword = 'base'
belongs-to-keyword = 'belongs-to'
bit-keyword = 'bit'
case-keyword = 'case'
choice-keyword = 'choice'
config-keyword = 'config'
contact-keyword = 'contact'
container-keyword = 'container'
default-keyword = 'default'
description-keyword = 'description'
enum-keyword = 'enum'
error-app-tag-keyword = 'error-app-tag'
error-message-keyword = 'error-message'
extension-keyword = 'extension'
deviation-keyword = 'deviation'
deviate-keyword = 'deviate'
feature-keyword = 'feature'
fraction-digits-keyword = 'fraction-digits'
grouping-keyword = 'grouping'
identity-keyword = 'identity'
if-feature-keyword = 'if-feature'
import-keyword = 'import'
include-keyword = 'include'
input-keyword = 'input'
key-keyword = 'key'
leaf-keyword = 'leaf'
leaf-list-keyword = 'leaf-list'
length-keyword = 'length'
list-keyword = 'list'
mandatory-keyword = 'mandatory'
max-elements-keyword = 'max-elements'
min-elements-keyword = 'min-elements'
module-keyword = 'module'
must-keyword = 'must'
namespace-keyword = 'namespace'
notification-keyword= 'notification'
ordered-by-keyword = 'ordered-by'
organization-keyword= 'organization'

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output-keyword = 'output'
path-keyword = 'path'
pattern-keyword = 'pattern'
position-keyword = 'position'
prefix-keyword = 'prefix'
presence-keyword = 'presence'
range-keyword = 'range'
reference-keyword = 'reference'
refine-keyword = 'refine'
require-instance-keyword = 'require-instance'
revision-keyword = 'revision'
revision-date-keyword = 'revision-date'
rpc-keyword = 'rpc'
status-keyword = 'status'
submodule-keyword = 'submodule'
type-keyword = 'type'
typedef-keyword = 'typedef'
unique-keyword = 'unique'
units-keyword = 'units'
uses-keyword = 'uses'
value-keyword = 'value'
when-keyword = 'when'
yang-version-keyword= 'yang-version'
yin-element-keyword = 'yin-element'

;; other keywords

add-keyword = 'add'
current-keyword = 'current'
delete-keyword = 'delete'
deprecated-keyword = 'deprecated'
false-keyword = 'false'
max-keyword = 'max'
min-keyword = 'min'
not-supported-keyword = 'not-supported'
obsolete-keyword = 'obsolete'
replace-keyword = 'replace'
system-keyword = 'system'
true-keyword = 'true'
unbounded-keyword = 'unbounded'
user-keyword = 'user'

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current-function-invocation = current-keyword *WSP "(" *WSP ")"

;; Basic Rules

prefix-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
prefix-arg >

prefix-arg = prefix

prefix = identifier

identifier-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
identifier-arg >

identifier-arg = identifier

;; An identifier MUST NOT start with (('X'|'x') ('M'|'m') ('L'|'l'))
identifier = (ALPHA / "_")
*(ALPHA / DIGIT / "_" / "-" / ".")

identifier-ref-arg-str = < a string that matches the rule
identifier-ref-arg >

identifier-ref-arg = [prefix ":"] identifier

string = < an unquoted string as returned by
the scanner >

integer-value = ("-" non-negative-integer-value) /
non-negative-integer-value

non-negative-integer-value = "0" / positive-integer-value

positive-integer-value = (non-zero-digit *DIGIT)

zero-integer-value = 1*DIGIT

stmtend = ";" / "{" *unknown-statement "}"

sep = 1*(WSP / line-break)
; unconditional separator

optsep = *(WSP / line-break)

stmtsep = *(WSP / line-break / unknown-statement)

line-break = CRLF / LF

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non-zero-digit = %x31-39

decimal-value = integer-value ("." zero-integer-value)

SQUOTE = %x27
; ' (Single Quote)

;;
;; RFC 5234 core rules.
;;

ALPHA = %x41-5A / %x61-7A
; A-Z / a-z

CR = %x0D
; carriage return

CRLF = CR LF
; Internet standard new line

DIGIT = %x30-39
; 0-9

DQUOTE = %x22
; " (Double Quote)

HEXDIG = DIGIT /
%x61 / %x62 / %x63 / %x64 / %x65 / %x66
; only lower-case a..f

HTAB = %x09
; horizontal tab

LF = %x0A
; linefeed

SP = %x20
; space

VCHAR = %x21-7E
; visible (printing) characters

WSP = SP / HTAB
; whitespace

<CODE ENDS>

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13. Error Responses for YANG Related Errors

A number of NETCONF error responses are defined for error cases
related to the data-model handling. If the relevant YANG statement
has an "error-app-tag" substatement, that overrides the default value
specified below.

13.1. Error Message for Data That Violates a unique Statement

If a NETCONF operation would result in configuration data where a
unique constraint is invalidated, the following error is returned:

error-tag: operation-failed
error-app-tag: data-not-unique
error-info: <non-unique>: Contains an instance identifier that
points to a leaf that invalidates the unique
constraint. This element is present once for each
non-unique leaf.

The <non-unique> element is in the YANG
namespace ("urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:1").

13.2. Error Message for Data That Violates a max-elements Statement

If a NETCONF operation would result in configuration data where a
list or a leaf-list would have too many entries the following error
is returned:

error-tag: operation-failed
error-app-tag: too-many-elements

This error is returned once, with the error-path identifying the list
node, even if there are more than one extra child present.

13.3. Error Message for Data That Violates a min-elements Statement

If a NETCONF operation would result in configuration data where a
list or a leaf-list would have too few entries the following error is
returned:

error-tag: operation-failed
error-app-tag: too-few-elements

This error is returned once, with the error-path identifying the list
node, even if there are more than one child missing.

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13.4. Error Message for Data That Violates a must Statement

If a NETCONF operation would result in configuration data where the
restrictions imposed by a "must" statement is violated the following
error is returned, unless a specific "error-app-tag" substatement is
present for the "must" statement.

error-tag: operation-failed
error-app-tag: must-violation

13.5. Error Message for Data That Violates a require-instance Statement

If a NETCONF operation would result in configuration data where a
leaf of type "instance-identifier" marked with require-instance
"true" refers to a non-existing instance, the following error is
returned:

error-tag: data-missing
error-app-tag: instance-required
error-path: Path to the instance-identifier leaf.

13.6. Error Message for Data That Does Not Match a leafref Type

If a NETCONF operation would result in configuration data where a
leaf of type "leafref" refers to a non-existing instance, the
following error is returned:

error-tag: data-missing
error-app-tag: instance-required
error-path: Path to the leafref leaf.

13.7. Error Message for Data That Violates a mandatory choice Statement

If a NETCONF operation would result in configuration data where no
nodes exists in a mandatory choice, the following error is returned:

error-tag: data-missing
error-app-tag: missing-choice
error-path: Path to the element with the missing choice.
error-info: <missing-choice>: Contains the name of the missing
mandatory choice.

The <missing-choice> element is in the YANG
namespace ("urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:1").

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13.8. Error Message for the "insert" Operation

If the "insert" and "key" or "value" attributes are used in an
<edit-config> for a list or leaf-list node, and the "key" or "value"
refers to a non-existing instance, the following error is returned:

error-tag: bad-attribute
error-app-tag: missing-instance

14. IANA Considerations

This document defines a registry for YANG module and submodule names.
The name of the registry is "YANG Module Names".

The registry shall record for each entry:

o the name of the module or submodule

o for modules, the assigned XML namespace

o for modules, the prefix of the module

o for submodules, the name of the module it belongs to

o a reference to the (sub)module's documentation (e.g., the RFC
number)

There are no initial assignments.

For allocation, RFC publication is required as per RFC 5226
[RFC5226]. All registered YANG module names MUST comply with the
rules for identifiers stated in Section 6.2, and MUST have a module
name prefix.

The module name prefix 'ietf-' is reserved for IETF stream documents
[RFC4844], while the module name prefix 'irtf-' is reserved for IRTF
stream documents. Modules published in other RFC streams MUST have a
similar suitable prefix.

All module and submodule names in the registry MUST be unique.

All XML namespaces in the registry MUST be unique.

This document registers two URIs for the YANG and YIN XML namespaces
in the IETF XML registry [RFC3688]. Following the format in RFC
3688, the following have been registered.

URI: urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:yin:1

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URI: urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:1

Registrant Contact: The IESG.

XML: N/A, the requested URIs are XML namespaces.

This document registers two new media types as defined in the
following sections.

14.1. Media type application/yang

MIME media type name: application

MIME subtype name: yang

Mandatory parameters: none

Optional parameters: none

Encoding considerations: 8-bit

Security considerations: See Section 15 in RFC 6020

Interoperability considerations: None

Published specification: RFC 6020

Applications that use this media type:

YANG module validators, web servers used for downloading YANG
modules, email clients, etc.

Additional information:

Magic Number: None

File Extension: .yang

Macintosh file type code: 'TEXT'

Personal and email address for further information:
Martin Bjorklund <[email-masked]>

Intended usage: COMMON

Author:
This specification is a work item of the IETF NETMOD working group,
with mailing list address <[email-masked]>.

Bjorklund Standards Track [Page 168]

RFC 6020 YANG October 2010

Change controller:
The IESG <[email-masked]>

14.2. Media type application/yin+xml

MIME media type name: application

MIME subtype name: yin+xml

Mandatory parameters: none

Optional parameters:

"charset": This parameter has identical semantics to the charset
parameter of the "application/xml" media type as specified in
[RFC3023].

Encoding considerations:

Identical to those of "application/xml" as
described in [RFC3023], Section 3.2.

Security considerations: See Section 15 in RFC 6020

Interoperability considerations: None

Published specification: RFC 6020

Applications that use this media type:

YANG module validators, web servers used for downloading YANG
modules, email clients, etc.

Additional information:

Magic Number: As specified for "application/xml" in [RFC3023],
Section 3.2.

File Extension: .yin

Macintosh file type code: 'TEXT'

Personal and email address for further information:
Martin Bjorklund <[email-masked]>

Intended usage: COMMON

Bjorklund Standards Track [Page 169]

RFC 6020 YANG October 2010

Author:
This specification is a work item of the IETF NETMOD working group,
with mailing list address <[email-masked]>.

Change controller:
The IESG <[email-masked]>

15. Security Considerations

This document defines a language with which to write and read
descriptions of management information. The language itself has no
security impact on the Internet.

The same considerations are relevant as for the base NETCONF protocol
(see [RFC4741], Section 9).

Data modeled in YANG might contain sensitive information. RPCs or
notifications defined in YANG might transfer sensitive information.

Security issues are related to the usage of data modeled in YANG.
Such issues shall be dealt with in documents describing the data
models and documents about the interfaces used to manipulate the data
e.g., the NETCONF documents.

Data modeled in YANG is dependent upon:

o the security of the transmission infrastructure used to send
sensitive information.

o the security of applications that store or release such sensitive
information.

o adequate authentication and access control mechanisms to restrict
the usage of sensitive data.

YANG parsers need to be robust with respect to malformed documents.
Reading malformed documents from unknown or untrusted sources could
result in an attacker gaining privileges of the user running the YANG
parser. In an extreme situation, the entire machine could be
compromised.

Bjorklund Standards Track [Page 170]

RFC 6020 YANG October 2010

16. Contributors

The following people all contributed significantly to the initial
YANG document:

- Andy Bierman (Brocade)
- Balazs Lengyel (Ericsson)
- David Partain (Ericsson)
- Juergen Schoenwaelder (Jacobs University Bremen)
- Phil Shafer (Juniper Networks)

17. Acknowledgements

The editor wishes to thank the following individuals, who all
provided helpful comments on various versions of this document:
Mehmet Ersue, Washam Fan, Joel Halpern, Leif Johansson, Ladislav
Lhotka, Gerhard Muenz, Tom Petch, Randy Presuhn, David Reid, and Bert
Wijnen.

18. References

18.1. Normative References

[ISO.10646] International Organization for Standardization,
"Information Technology - Universal Multiple-Octet Coded
Character Set (UCS)", ISO Standard 10646:2003, 2003.

[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

[RFC3023] Murata, M., St. Laurent, S., and D. Kohn, "XML Media
Types", RFC 3023, January 2001.

[RFC3629] Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO
10646", STD 63, RFC 3629, November 2003.

[RFC3688] Mealling, M., "The IETF XML Registry", BCP 81, RFC 3688,
January 2004.

[RFC3986] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66,
RFC 3986, January 2005.

[RFC4648] Josefsson, S., "The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data
Encodings", RFC 4648, October 2006.

[RFC4741] Enns, R., "NETCONF Configuration Protocol", RFC 4741,
December 2006.

Bjorklund Standards Track [Page 171]

RFC 6020 YANG October 2010

[RFC5226] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226,
May 2008.

[RFC5234] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234, January 2008.

[RFC5277] Chisholm, S. and H. Trevino, "NETCONF Event
Notifications", RFC 5277, July 2008.

[XML-NAMES] Hollander, D., Tobin, R., Thompson, H., Bray, T., and A.
Layman, "Namespaces in XML 1.0 (Third Edition)", World
Wide Web Consortium Recommendation REC-xml-names-
20091208, December 2009,
<http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/REC-xml-names-20091208>.

[XPATH] Clark, J. and S. DeRose, "XML Path Language (XPath)
Version 1.0", World Wide Web Consortium
Recommendation REC-xpath-19991116, November 1999,
<http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xpath-19991116>.

[XSD-TYPES] Malhotra, A. and P. Biron, "XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes
Second Edition", World Wide Web Consortium
Recommendation REC-xmlschema-2-20041028, October 2004,
<http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xmlschema-2-20041028>.

18.2. Informative References

[RFC2578] McCloghrie, K., Ed., Perkins, D., Ed., and J.
Schoenwaelder, Ed., "Structure of Management Information
Version 2 (SMIv2)", STD 58, RFC 2578, April 1999.

[RFC2579] McCloghrie, K., Ed., Perkins, D., Ed., and J.
Schoenwaelder, Ed., "Textual Conventions for SMIv2",
STD 58, RFC 2579, April 1999.

[RFC3780] Strauss, F. and J. Schoenwaelder, "SMIng - Next
Generation Structure of Management Information",
RFC 3780, May 2004.

[RFC4844] Daigle, L. and Internet Architecture Board, "The RFC
Series and RFC Editor", RFC 4844, July 2007.

[XPATH2.0] Berglund, A., Boag, S., Chamberlin, D., Fernandez, M.,
Kay, M., Robie, J., and J. Simeon, "XML Path Language
(XPath) 2.0", World Wide Web Consortium
Recommendation REC-xpath20-20070123, January 2007,
<http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/REC-xpath20-20070123>.

Bjorklund Standards Track [Page 172]

RFC 6020 YANG October 2010

[XSLT] Clark, J., "XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 1.0",
World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation REC-xslt-
19991116, November 1999,
<http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xslt-19991116>.

Author's Address

Martin Bjorklund (editor)
Tail-f Systems

EMail: [email-masked]

Bjorklund Standards Track [Page 173]

Html markup produced by rfcmarkup 1.106, available from
http://tools.ietf.org/tools/rfcmarkup/

---

From: Radek Krejčí <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 12:19:46 +0100

Hi Balazs,

IMHO it depends on the ordered-by attribute of the leaf-list (by default, leaf-list is system-ordered):

a) ordered-by system - then the 1) applies

b) ordered-by user - the result should be [a,c,d,b] - as you stated, insert defaults to 'last'. But in that case replace works as "move" of the existing item. The value of the leaf-list item works as a key to identify the item to move.

Regards,
Radek

Dne 3.10.2014 v 14:57 Balazs Lengyel napsal(a):
> Hello,
> I am trying to formulate my proposal about non-Unique values in a leaf-list, and during this I found, I do not understand what an edit-config: replace operation means in YANG 1.0 for a leaf-list.
>
> If I have a leaf-list [a,b,c,d] and I issue an edit-config opertion where the value "b" of the leaf-list is replaced by "b"
> what is the result:
> 1) [a,b,c,d]  - seems natural as replacing something with itself should not modified the data
>
> or
>
>    "value" in the YANG XML namespace (Section 5.3.1 <imap://[email-masked]:993/fetch%3EUID%3E.%5BIETF%20NETMOD%5D%3E3063?header=quotebody&part=1.1.2&filename=RFC%206020%20-%20YANG%20-%20A%20Data%20Modeling%20Language%20for%20the%20Network%20Configuration%20Protocol%20%28NETCONF%29.htm>) can be used to
> So replace can be used on a leaf-list. Insert defaults to last. This would point at 2) as the solution.
>
> Opinions?
> regards balazs
>
>
>
> -- 
> _______________________________________________
> netmod mailing list
> [email-masked]
> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/netmod

-- 
Radek Krejci
mobile  : +420 732 212 714
office  : +420 234 680 256
e-mail  : [email-masked]
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/radekkrejci

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