(registered 2022-10-21, last updated 2022-10-21)

Media type name: application

Media subtype name: vnd.gentoo.catmetadata+xml

Required parameters: N/A.

Optional parameters: "charset", with semantics identical to those of 
   "application/xml" as described in RFC7303 § 9.1.

Encoding considerations: 8bit

   Identical to those of "application/xml" as described in RFC7303 § 
   9.1.

Security considerations: Category metadata file is a structured XML 
   file providing supplementary metadata for Gentoo package category. 
   No executable content is defined by the data format.

   The metadata file provides additional information for end users
   and utility scripts. It does not affect the build or installation
   of Gentoo packages. However, alteration of this data could be used
   to misguide users and therefore pose a security risk.

   Metadata files are normally distributed as part of larger 
   repositories.

   Depending on the repository distribution method, authenticity of 
   all distributed files could be asserted using OpenPGP signatures 
   made on git commits, snapshot archives or Gentoo Manifest files 
   inside the repository.

   The specification explicitly forbids using external markup 
   declarations and fetching or processing DTDs, in order to protect 
   against known XML parser vulnerabilities. Nevertheless, the format 
   may be subject to other XML parser vulnerabilities.

Interoperability considerations: There are no known interoperability 
   issues.

Published specification: GLEP 68: Package and category metadata
   https://www.gentoo.org/glep/glep-0068.html

Applications which use this media: Gentoo package managers such as 
   Portage [1] and PkgCore [2] provide an API to process category 
   metadata files. This list is not exhaustive.

   [1] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Portage
   [2] https://github.com/pkgcore/pkgcore

Fragment identifier considerations: N/A.

Restrictions on usage: N/A.

Provisional registration? (standards tree only): No

Additional information:

   1. Deprecated alias names for this type: N/A.
   2. Magic number(s): N/A.
   3. File extension(s): .xml (the file is always named 
      "metadata.xml")
   4. Macintosh file type code: N/A.
   5. Object Identifiers: N/A.

General Comments: Draft posted for review @ 
   https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/media-types/oIuliBXPz9xxZFsVir1De0Ajcc4/

Person to contact for further information:

   1. Name: Michał Górny
   2. Email: mgorny&gentoo.org

Intended usage: COMMON

Author/Change controller: 

   Gentoo Council <council&gentoo.org>
   (https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Council)