Pat> I'm trying to understand the lexical structure allowed for Pat> descriptors (RFC 2578) in the following:

Pat> descriptor OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { ... }

Pat> Is RFC 2578 the correct reference for SMIv2 syntax?

Yes. Along with RFCs 2579 and 2580.

Pat> RFC 2578 allows mixed case descriptors in this place in the Pat> syntax, provided they start with a lower case letter. As I would Pat> expect from my limited use of your fine product, libsmi supports Pat> this correctly :-)

Pat> However, we're seeing various vendor MIBs that have the initial Pat> letter in upper case. Did SMIv1 allow this or are the vendors Pat> just wrong? I can't find an RFC that seems to document the SMIv1 Pat> syntax with the clarity of RFC 2578 for SMIv2.

I don't know MIBs that try to define OID names with an upper case first letter. Can you send me an example to find out whether there is some misunderstanding? In SMIv1 uppercase OID names are forbidden as well.

Pat> As you'll appreciate, users object to having to modify the vendor Pat> MIBs to get them to compile.

I would say: MIBs must be correct wrt the SMI language. Otherwise libsmi cannot guarantee to work correctly (or it's not defined what `working correctly' means).

Pat> As a developer, I prefer the strict approach (if the source is Pat> wrong, fix it, don't accept it).

I agree.

Pat> However, I'm under some pressure from our customer support Pat> team to deliver what they term "a usability fix." We're not Pat> aiming at a technically sophisticated market.

Pat> Can anyone offer advice as to the consequences if I were to Pat> modify the SMI lexer/parser to allow these descriptors to start Pat> with an uppercase letter? Would it break valid MIBs?

It could. E.g., it could slashes with type definitions that differ only in the case of the first letter).

There are some areas where the libsmi parser could be less pedantic. But uppercase OID names are definitely illegal. -- !! This message is brought to you via the `libsmi' mailing list. !! Please do not reply to this message to unsubscribe. To subscribe or !! unsubscribe, send a mail message to libsmi-request@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de. !! See http://www.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de/projects/libsmi/ for more information.