About RFC Search

This page is about the RFC search page. Please report bugs to rfc-editor@rfc-editor.org.

A. BASIC SEARCHING

RFC Number (or Subseries Number) – Search by the RFC number or the subseries number (STD, BCP, FYI). Leading zeros are ignored. The prefix is optional. Examples:

  • 2119 – Returns RFC 2119
  • std5 – Returns the RFCs that make up STD 5
  • 5 – Returns RFC 5, as well as the RFCs that make up STD 5, BCP 5, and FYI 5
  • bcp – Returns the RFCs that have BCP numbers
  • std – Returns the RFCs that have STD numbers
  • fyi – Returns the RFCs that have FYI numbers
  • rfc 83, rfc83, rfc0083 – Returns RFC 83
  • 83 – Returns RFC 83 (as well as BCP 83 and STD 83)

Title/Keyword – Search by words in the title of the RFC or keywords of the RFC. The OR and AND operators can be used; they are not case sensitive. Quotation marks can be used for an exact phrase. Without quotes, a space between words indicates AND. Examples:

  • “optical network” – Returns RFCs that contain “optical network” in the Title or Keywords
  • optical OR network – Returns RFCs that contain optical OR network in the Title or Keywords
  • optical AND network – Returns RFCs that contain optical AND network in the Title or Keywords
  • optical network – Returns RFCs that contain optical AND network in the Title or Keywords (same as above)

Note: Using multiple ANDs or using multiple ORs is supported; however, combining AND, OR, and double quotes is not supported currently. Examples:

  • RTP AND audio AND ITU-T
  • RTP OR audio OR ITU-T
  • RTP AND (audio OR ITU-T): not supported.

B. MATCHING

Matches are always case insensitive. The default is to search all RFCs and the STD, BCP, and FYI subseries for a match.

C. RESULTS

By default, the search results are displayed by RFC number (ascending). They can be ordered by RFC number (ascending or descending) or publication date (ascending or descending) by clicking the title of the column.

By default, the number of results shown is 25. Click “All” to show all results.

To display the abstract and keywords associated with each RFC entry, click the “Show Abstract” and “Show Keywords” checkboxes.

The results include the following fields:

  • Number – RFC number. Includes subseries identifier, if any.
  • Files – The files that are available for the RFC.
  • Title – Title of the RFC. Displayed in gray if the document is obsolete.
  • Authors – Names of the authors of the RFC.
  • Date – Month and year of publication.
  • More Info – Links to the info pages for related RFCs, if any. Includes link to errata, if any.
  • Status – As defined by RFC 2026. Includes “was published as” if the status has changed since publication. To see the list of all RFCs that have changed status since publication, click here.

D. REFINE RESULTS

  • Status – As defined by RFC 2026. Note: “Unknown” means the RFC was published before status was defined.
  • Publication Date
  • Stream – As defined by RFC 8729. Note: “Legacy” means the RFC was published before a formal source (e.g., working group or stream) existed or was recorded.
  • Area
  • WG Acronym – As listed on Active Working Groups and Concluded Working Groups. (To find IETF non-WG documents, enter “none”.)
  • Author (surname)
  • Abstract contains – The AND and OR operators and double quotes can be used as described above.

E. NOTES ON THE TOP-RIGHT SEARCH BOX

This allows search by “number, title, keyword, or author surname”. In most cases, results are as expected. In some cases, there are unexpected results due to partial match with author surname. Quotation marks can be used to force title/keyword matches. For example:

  • If the input is “SSH” in quotation marks, the results are title/keyword matches.
  • Without quotation marks, the results are author surname matches.

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