Updates

Draft 03 is in progress for an estimated submission of 31 March 2022

• HTML: https://uuid6.github.io/uuid6-ietf-draft/
• Text: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/uuid6/uuid6-ietf-draft/master/draft-peabody-dispatch-new-uuid-format-03.txt

Draft 02 was submitted 07 October 2021:

• HTML: https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-peabody-dispatch-new-uuid-format-02.html
• Text: https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-peabody-dispatch-new-uuid-format-02.txt

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New UUID Formats

This is the GitHub repo for the IETF draft surrounding the topic of new UUID formats. Various discussion will need to occur to arrive at a standard and this repo will be used to collect and organize that information.

High Level Overview

1. UUID version 6: A re-ordering of UUID version 1 so it is sortable as an opaque sequence of bytes. Easy to implement given an existing UUIDv1 implementation.

   time_high|time_mid|time_low_and_version|clk_seq_hi_res|clk_seq_low|node

2. UUID version 7: An entirely new time-based UUID bit layout sourced from the widely implemented and well known Unix Epoch timestamp source.

   unix_ts_ms|ver|rand_a|var|rand_b

3. UUID version 8: A free-form UUID format which has no explicit requirements except maintaining backward compatibility.

   custom_a|ver|custom_b|var|custom_c

4. Max UUID: A specialized UUID which is the inverse of the Nil UUID from RFC4122.

   FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF

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RFC Scope

In order to keep things on track the following topics have been decided as in-scope or out of scope for this particular RFC. For more information on any of these items refer to the XML, TXT, HTML draft, research and the issue tracker for a particular discussion (follow hyperlinks below.)

In Scope Topics - UUID Generation

• Timestamp Granularity
  • Sub-Topics: Timestamp epoch source, format, length, accuracy and bit layout
• Monotonicity and Counters for same Timestamp-tick collision avoidance during batch UUID creation
  • Sub-Topics: Counter position, length, rollover handling and seeding.
• Pseudo-random formatting, length and generation methods
• Distributed UUID Generation best practices
  • Sub-Topics: Shared Knowledge Schemes and embedded nondescript node identifiers
• Max UUID Usage

In Scope Topics - UUID Best Practices as it relates to the previous topics

• Global and Local Uniqueness (collision resistance mechanisms)
• Unguessability
• Sorting/Ordering techniques
• Storage and Opacity best practices
• Big Endian vs Little Endian bit layout
• Any and all UUID security concerns!
  • Sub-Topics: MAC address usage in next-generation UUIDs

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Out of Scope Topics (being rolled into a new Draft)

• Variant Bit E Usage
• Alternative text encoding techniques (Crockfords Base32, Base64, etc)
• Variable length UUIDs

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Out of Scope Topics (as as the result of discussion threads)

• Variable length subsecond precision encoding

Out of Scope Topics (for backwards compatibility)

• Changing the default 8-4-4-4-12 UUID text layout
• Changing anything about RFC4122's UUID versions 1 through 5
• Changing too much about UUIDv6 that would otherwise inhibit porting v1 to v6

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Contributing

• The XML draft in the root folder is the most recent working draft for re-submission to the IETF.
  • An HTML and Textual (.txt) RFC representation will be provided in the root folder to ease reader input and discussion.
  • Older drafts are available for view here or on the IETF Datatracker.
• The RFC Draft utilize an XML formatted document that follows RFC7742 markup. All XML changes MUST follow this format and pass conversion to .txt and .html via https://xml2rfc.tools.ietf.org/
• Utilize the issue tracker to discuss topics, solutions, problems, typos and anything else.
  • Where possible contribute to an existing Discussion Thread vs creating a new thread.
  • Reviewing is the pre-Draft 01 Research efforts is encouraged before diving into discussion threads.
  • New threads that propose alternative text SHOULD utilize Proposed Draft Change GitHub issue template to ensure proper information is captured for the draft authors.
  • Be civil!
• Pull requests will be accepted as long as the text is concise, clear and objective.
  • PRs will not be accepted for changes to the decision made for the draft without full discussion.
  • PRs MUST include the updated .xml and xml2rfc generated .txt and .html documents.
  • Draft versions are frozen until submission to the IETF; at which point new work constitutes a new draft version.

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Prototyping

Remember first and foremost that this specification is still a draft. Breaking changes are to be expected. Prototypes SHOULD only be implemented to verify or discredit topics of the draft text.

• Prototype Implementations are available via this repro.