Hello fellow structured logging enthusiasts,

It is me again with an update on the qlog drafts, which had new versions
published last week [1].

The focus this time was on finalizing (well-defined) extensibility in two
main ways:
1. making all events and structures properly extensible through CDDL
constructs [2] (meaning later extensions can use tools for automatic code
checking, schema validation, example generation, etc. by hooking into
extension points)
2. creating a framework to track which events/event documents are included
in a given qlog file [3] (we have an explicit list of "event_schemas"
defined by IANA-backed URIs, as well as a new "file_schema" concept)

This means the extensibility work is now 95% done (of course we found an
edge case right after submitting the drafts [4]) and that others can start
utilizing/exercising these setups for new extensions.
This has already been done in at least two concrete occasions:
A. the "Convergence of Congestion Control from Retained State" draft at
TSVWG has some qlog events defined [5]
B. the "RoQ qlog event definitions" draft proposes qlog events for RTP over
QUIC [6]

*At this point, we feel the basic mechanisms are robust and stable enough
for others to utilize them to define new qlog schemas. *

I personally feel these were the last of planned main/breaking changes, so
I'm also planning to start updating the qvis toolsuite [7] to support the
newest qlog versions in August/September.
I concretely plan to keep the current qvis version available as a "legacy"
option (as-is, unmaintained), with the newer versions ONLY supporting the
latest qlog drafts (so no backwards compat).

In conclusion, I think we're still on track to move qlog to WGLC by the end
of this year as planned.
Most of the open issues/PRs are either very old (and can be closed with
no/little action) or are simple/editorial-only changes.
Only a few discussion points remain (mainly: adding a new timestamp/clock
option [8]), which can probably be resolved by the editors/on the mailing
list.

*As such, early reviews of the documents are now welcomed.*
*Additionally, you can now slowly start thinking of updating your qlog
implementations to move to the new drafts. *
At least one stack (xquic [9]) is already doing this, and this will be a
big help in making sure the new qvis version remains a useful tool for
debugging.

Finally, I will personally sadly not be in Vancouver, but potentially Lucas
Pardue will give a (small) update on qlog during the QUIC WG meeting (TBD).
If people have any questions/remarks, do feel free to reach out via email
to me or the other editors!

With best regards,
Robin (on behalf of the qlog editors)

[1] https://github.com/quicwg/qlog
[2] https://github.com/quicwg/qlog/pull/417
[3] https://github.com/quicwg/qlog/pull/424
[4] https://github.com/quicwg/qlog/issues/432
[5]
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-tsvwg-careful-resume-10#name-qlog-support-for-quic
[6] https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-engelbart-qlog-roq-events-00.html
[7] https://qvis.quictools.info/
[8] https://github.com/quicwg/qlog/pull/290
[9]: https://github.com/alibaba/xquic/blob/main/docs/Features.md

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