Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4) Internet Drafts

      
 Internationalization for the NFSv4 Protocols
 
 draft-ietf-nfsv4-internationalization-13.txt
 Date: 15/08/2025
 Authors: David Noveck
 Working Group: Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4)
 This document describes the handling of internationalization for all NFSv4 protocols, including NFSv4.0, NFSv4.1, NFSv4.2 and extensions thereof, and future minor versions. It updates RFC7530 and RFC8881.
 The Network File System Access Control List Protocol
 
 draft-cel-nfsv4-nfs-acl-02.txt
 Date: 11/09/2025
 Authors: Chuck Lever
 Working Group: Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4)
 This Informational document describes the NFS_ACL protocol. NFS_ACL is a legacy member of the Network File System family of protocols that NFS clients use to view and update Access Control Lists stored on an NFS version 2 or version 3 server.
 Network File System (NFS) Version 4 Minor Version 1 Protocol
 
 draft-ietf-nfsv4-rfc8881bis-03.txt
 Date: 19/12/2025
 Authors: David Noveck
 Working Group: Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4)
 This document describes the Network File System (NFS) version 4 minor version 1, including features retained from the base protocol (NFS version 4 minor version 0, which is specified in RFC 7530) and protocol extensions made and part of Minor Version 1. The later minor version has no dependencies on NFS version 4 minor version 0, and was, until recently, documented as a completely separate protocol. This document is part of a set of documents which collectively obsolete RFCs 8881 and 8434. In addition to many corrections and clarifications, it will rely on NFSv4-wide documents to substantially revise the treatment of protocol extension, internationalization, and security, superseding the descriptions of those aspects of the protocol appearing in RFCs 5661 and 8881.
 Adding an Uncacheable File Attribute to NFSv4.2
 
 draft-ietf-nfsv4-uncacheable-files-00.txt
 Date: 18/11/2025
 Authors: Thomas Haynes
 Working Group: Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4)
 The Network File System version 4.2 (NFSv4.2) allows a client to cache data for file objects. Caching file data can lead to performance issues if the cache hit rate is low. This document introduces a new uncacheable file attribute for NFSv4.2. Files marked as uncacheable MUST NOT be stored in client-side caches. This document extends NFSv4.2 (see RFC7862).
 Adding an Uncacheable Directory Attribute to NFSv4.2
 
 draft-ietf-nfsv4-uncacheable-directories-00.txt
 Date: 18/11/2025
 Authors: Thomas Haynes
 Working Group: Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4)
 The Network File System version 4.2 (NFSv4.2) allows a client to cache both metadata for file and directory objects. While caching directory entries (dirents) can improve performance, it can also prevent the server from enforcing access control on individual dirents. This document introduces a new uncacheable directory attribute for NFSv4.2. Dirents marked as uncacheable MUST NOT be stored in client-side caches. This ensures data consistency and integrity by requiring clients to always retrieve the most recent data directly from the server. This document extends NFSv4.2 (see RFC7862).
 ACLs within the NFSv4 Protocols
 
 draft-ietf-nfsv4-acls-update-01.txt
 Date: 29/12/2025
 Authors: David Noveck
 Working Group: Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4)
 This document is part of the set of documents intended to update the description of NFSv4 Minor Version One as part of the rfc881bis respecification effort for NFSv4.1. It describes the structure and function of NFSv4 Access Control Lists within NFSv4.0 and NFSv4.1. These minor versions define ACLs using an ACL model based on Windows ACLs. Support for other ACL models such as draft POSIX ACLs remains an option that could be taken advantage of in later minor versions such as NFSv4.2. This document describes the structure of these Windows-derived NFSv4 ACLs and their role in the NFSv4 security architecture. While the focus of this document is on the role of these ACLs in providing a more flexible approach to file access authorization than is made available by the POSIX-derived authorization-related attributes, the potential provision of other security-related functionality is covered as well. Because of the failure of previous specifications to provide a satisfactory description of the authorization semantics of NFSv4 ACLs, this document takes a different approach to many matters while maintaining compatibility with implementations od previous specifications, which dealt with the need for support for UNIX- oriented clients and server by leaving many important matters unspecified. [Consensus Needed (Items #117a, #119a)]: In this document, the relationship among the multiple ACL models for which potential support was mentioned has changed. A core set of functionality, shared in large part with that derived from a subset of the functionality provided by the now-withdrawn draft-POSIX ACLs is presented as the conceptual base of the feature set. Additional sets of features used to provide the functionality needed by clients expecting Windows semantics as part of the NFSv4 ACL model are considered as OPTIONAL extensions to that core. In addition it is made clear that support for the draft POSIX ACL model is not yet present in NFSv4.1, but that a subset of that functionality is available. When the resulting document is eventually published as an RFC, it will supersede the descriptions of ACL structure and semantics appearing in existing minor version specification documents for NFSv4.0 and NFSv4.1, thereby updating RFC7530 and RFC8881.
 POSIX Draft ACL support for Network File System Version 4,Minor Version 2
 
 draft-ietf-nfsv4-posix-acls-00.txt
 Date: 05/12/2025
 Authors: Rick Macklem
 Working Group: Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4)
 This document proposes four new optional file attributes for NFSv4.2 to support POSIX ACLs conforming to the withdrawn POSIX 1003.1e draft 17. Although never ratified, POSIX ACLs are implemented in widely deployed operating systems. Existing attempts to map between NFSv4 and POSIX ACL models have been unsuccessful due to semantic incompatibilities. These new attributes allow servers to expose POSIX ACLs directly, avoiding lossy mapping.

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Network File System Version 4 (nfsv4)

WG Name Network File System Version 4
Acronym nfsv4
Area Web and Internet Transport (wit)
State Active
Charter charter-ietf-nfsv4-07 Approved
Document dependencies
Additional resources GitHub NFSv4 hub
Issue tracker
Wiki
Zulip stream
Personnel Chairs Brian Pawlowski, Christopher Inacio
Area Director Gorry Fairhurst
Tech Advisor Leif Johansson
Secretary Thomas Haynes
Mailing list Address nfsv4@ietf.org
To subscribe https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/nfsv4
Archive https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/nfsv4/
Chat Room address https://zulip.ietf.org/#narrow/stream/nfsv4

Charter for Working Group

Network File System version 4 (NFSv4) is an IETF standard for file
sharing.

To maintain NFS Version 4's utility and currency, the NFSv4 working
group is chartered to maintain the existing NFSv4.0, NFSv4.1, and
NFSv4.2 protocols and specifications of related ONC components, such as
those defining RPC, XDR, and RPCSECGSS.

The NFSv4 working group is also responsible for maintenance and
extension of the RDMA protocols originally developed by the
now-concluded RDDP WG (RFCs 5040-5045, e.g., RDMAP, DDP and MPA) ,
whose maintenance and extension were previously handled by the
now-concluded STORM WG.

In addition, extensions will be developed, as necessary, to correct
problems with the protocols as currently specified, to accommodate
needed file system semantics, and to respond to technological
developments in the areas of networking and persistent storage/memory.

Maintenance

The working group's experience has been that, as NFSv4 implementations
mature and deployments continue, clarifications and corrections to
existing RFCs are needed.

These specification updates help vendors in delivering high-quality and
interoperable implementations.

The NFSv4 working group is chartered with vetting reported issues and
determining correctness of submitted errata.

In addition, some areas may need more concentrated work to correct the
specifications already published, to deal with unanticipated
interactions between features, or to respond to evolving expectations
with regard to areas such as security. Since necessary changes in such
cases are generally not appropriate for the errata system, the working
group will assist in publication of new RFCs that provide implementation
guidance, editorial modification or technical updates to existing RFCs.

Since the new NFSv4 versioning framework has been approved, these
technical updates to NFSv4 minor versions could include limited XDR
changes.

Extensions

The NFSv4 protocol is designed to allow extension by the definition of
new operations, new attributes, and new Parallel NFS layout types, as
well as the creation of minor versions.

Similarly, associated ONC protocol components that have a versioning/
extension framework can be incrementally extended, when necessary.

The working group will discuss proposals for such extensions and assure
that they have adequate technical review, including discussion of their
interaction with existing features, before adopting them as working
group items and helping to draft specification documents.

Some likely motivations for such extensions would be to:

  • Maximize NFS performance on advanced network fabrics.

  • Accommodate new storage technologies.

  • Provide facilities useful in management of NFS-accessed storage in
    large-scale virtualization environments.

  • Provide more effective NFS response to security challenges.

New milestones that fall within the scope specified in this charter can
be added to the list below after working group consensus and upon
approval by the responsible Area Director.

The WG will extend RDMA to enhance the Memory Placement operations
such as Flush, Atomic Write and Validation using Integrity Signatures.

Milestones

Date Milestone Associated documents
Nov 2026 Submit Flex File v2 to IESG for publication draft-haynes-nfsv4-flex-filesv2
draft-haynes-nfsv4-flexfiles-v2
Jul 2026 Submit final draft of rfc5661bis draft-ietf-nfsv4-rfc5661bis
Dec 2025 Submit POSIX ACL to IESG for publication draft-rmacklem-nfsv4-posix-acls
Aug 2025 Submit final document describing NFSv4 security.
Dec 2024 NFSv4 Internationalization draft-ietf-nfsv4-internationalization