RFC Editor Library

A Python library for parsing and editing RFC (Request for Comments) TXT documents.

Features

• Parse RFC TXT documents and extract all sections
• Download RFCs directly from rfc-editor.org
• Edit all RFC document sections including:
  • Title
  • Abstract
  • Status of This Memo
  • Copyright Notice
  • Table of Contents
  • Numbered sections (1., 2., etc.)
  • Acknowledgements
  • Contributors
  • Author's Address
• Add, update, and delete sections
• Save modified documents back to TXT format

Installation

pip install rfc-editor

Or install from source:

pip install -e .

Usage

Parse an RFC Document

from rfc_editor import RFCEditor

editor = RFCEditor()
doc = editor.load("rfc1234.txt")

# Or parse from string
doc = editor.parse(rfc_content_string)

Access Document Sections

print(doc.rfc_number)  # RFC number
print(doc.category)   # e.g., "Standards Track"
print(doc.title)      # RFC title
print(doc.abstract)  # Abstract content

Query Sections

# Get title
title = editor.get_title()

# Get abstract
abstract = editor.get_abstract()

# Get status of this memo
status = editor.get_status_of_memo()

# Get copyright (returns tuple of year and holders)
year, holders = editor.get_copyright()

# Get table of contents
toc = editor.get_toc()

# Get acknowledgements
acknowledgements = editor.get_acknowledgements()

# Get contributors
contributors = editor.get_contributors()

# Get author's address
address = editor.get_authors_address()

# Get section by title (returns RFCSection or None)
section = editor.get_section_by_title("Introduction")

Edit Sections

# Edit title
editor.set_title("New Title")

# Edit abstract
editor.set_abstract("New abstract content...")

# Edit status
editor.set_status_of_memo("New status content...")

# Edit copyright
editor.set_copyright(2024, "Example Corp")

# Edit TOC
editor.set_toc("1. Introduction\n2. Body")

# Update a numbered section
editor.update_section("1", content="Updated introduction content...")

# Add a new section
editor.add_section("5", "New Section", "Section content...")

# Delete a section
editor.delete_section("1")

# Edit by section title
editor.set_section_by_title("Introduction", "New content...")

Save the Document

editor.save("output.txt")

Convert to Dictionary

data = editor.to_dict()
print(data["title"])
print(data["sections"])
print(data["rfc_number"])
print(data["category"])

Download RFC from the Internet

from rfc_editor import download_rfc

# Download RFC directly as string
content = download_rfc(791)

# Download and save to file
download_rfc(791, "rfc791.txt")

Or use the editor's download method:

from rfc_editor import RFCEditor

editor = RFCEditor()
doc = editor.download(791)  # Download and parse

# Download and save to file first
doc = editor.download(791, "rfc791.txt")

Access Document Data Models

# Direct access to document attributes
print(doc.rfc_number)    # RFC number (e.g., "791")
print(doc.category)      # e.g., "Standards Track"
print(doc.title)         # RFC title
print(doc.abstract)      # Abstract content
print(doc.index)         # Index section (if present)

# Access authors
for author in doc.authors:
    print(author.name)
    print(author.organization)
    print(author.email)
    print(author.address)

# Get section by number
section = doc.get_section("1")
print(section.number, section.title, section.content)

Update Section Title

# Update only the title of a section
editor.update_section("1", title="New Introduction Title")

# Update both title and content
editor.update_section("1", title="New Title", content="New content...")

Development

Install Dev Dependencies

pip install -e ".[dev]"

Run Tests

pytest tests/

Run Linting

flake8 src/ tests/
ruff check src/ tests/
black --check src/ tests/

Project Structure

rfc-editor/
├── src/
│   └── rfc_editor/
│       └── __init__.py    # Main library code
├── tests/
│   ├── test_author.py
│   ├── test_document.py
│   ├── test_editor.py
│   └── test_section.py
├── pyproject.toml
├── README.md
├── .gitignore
└── SPEC.md

License

MIT