Appendix J - Character Sets

Character Sets

Appendix J — Character Sets

A.	UTF-8
	1.	Usage
	2.	Definition
B.	ISO 8859-1
	1.	Usage
	2.	Definition
C.	Reduced Character Set
	1.	Usage
	2.	Definition
D.	Password Character Set
	1.	Usage
	2.	Definition
E.	Domain Name Character Set
	1.	Usage
	2.	Definition
F.	E-mail Address Character Set
	1.	Usage
	2.	Definition

This appendix defines the different character sets being used by the registry operator.

A. UTF-8

1. Usage

This character set is for use in places where arbitrary strings are to be entered. Examples of places to use this character set include names of persons, addresses, descriptive texts, and communication protocols in need of transferring international content. Also, refer to RFC 2277 ("IETF Policy On Character Sets and Languages") for recommendations on when and where to implement UTF–8.

2. Definition

The UTF-8 character set will be interpreted according to the definition found in RFC 2279.

B. ISO 8859-1

1. Usage

This character set will mostly be used for logfile contents, error messages, and console text.

2. Definition

The interpretation of the ISO 8859-1 is per the ISO documentation for the ISO 8859 character set standard.

C. Reduced Character Set

1. Usage

This is a character set mostly for use in places where control characters are undesirable.

2. Definition

The reduced character set will be interpreted as a subset of the standard specification of the 7-bit US-ASCII character set found in the following document: 7-bit American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)," ANSI X3.4-1986.

The reduced character set consists of the following characters, specified in the Backus-Naur Form (BNF) meta-language.

References made to decimal character values are taken to mean corresponding US–ASCII values:

Reduced charset definition:
----------------------------

text = 1*CHAR ; max length depends on context

CHAR = (Decimal 32.-126.)

D. Password Character Set

1. Usage

This character set defines the characters available for specifying passwords.

2. Definition

The password character set will be interpreted as a subset of the standard specification of the 7–bit US-ASCII character set found in the following document: "7–bit American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII),"ANSI X3.4–1986.

The password character set consists of the following characters, specified in the Backus–Naur Form (BNF) meta-language.

References made to decimal character values are taken to mean corresponding US-ASCII values:

Password charset definition:
----------------------------

password = 1*CHAR ; max length depends on context

CHAR = (Decimal 33.-126.)

E. Domain Name Character Set

1. Usage

This character set will be used in places where a domain name is to be specified. It does not govern the specification of internationalised domain names, which are not authorized by the current specification.

2. Definition

The rules for the format and character set of domain names are defined by the following:

dot = %x2E ; "."

alpha = %x41-5A | %x61-7A ; A-Z | a-z

digit = %x30-39 ; 0-9

dash = %x2D ; "–"

dns-char = alpha | digit | dash

id-prefix = alpha | digit

label = id-prefix [*61dns–char id–prefix]

sldn = label dot label ; not to exceed 254 characters

hostname = 1*(label dot) sldn; not to exceed 254 characters

F. E-mail Address Character Set

1. Usage

This character set is for use in places where an e-mail address is to be specified.

2. Definition

The rules for the format and character set of e-mail addresses are defined by RFC 2822. Except where otherwise specified, or where restricted by other standards, the registry operator's system will allow any address that is a legal e-mail address per the definitions given in RFC 2822 where an -mail address is to be used. An SLD E-mail address registered under the SLD E-mail service must, however, comply with the format rules for a third-level domain name, except that the first "." is replaced with a "@".