Editing Internet Standard (section)

==Overview==
An Internet Standard is documented by<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Huitema|first1=C.|last2=Postel|first2=J.|last3=Crocker|first3=S.|date=1995|title=Not All RFCs are Standards|journal=IETF Request for Comments (RFC) Pages - Test|url=https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1796|issn=2070-1721|access-date=2018-03-20|archive-date=2018-03-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320171141/https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1796|url-status=live}}</ref> a [[Request for Comments]] (RFC) or a set of RFCs. A specification that is to become a Standard or part of a Standard begins as an [[Internet Draft]], and is later, usually after several revisions, accepted and published by the [[RFC Editor]] as an RFC and labeled a ''Proposed Standard''. Later, an RFC is elevated as ''Internet Standard'', with an additional sequence number,  when maturity has reached an acceptable level. Collectively, these stages are known as the ''Standards Track'', and are defined in RFC 2026 and RFC 6410. The label ''Historic'' is applied to deprecated Standards Track documents or obsolete RFCs that were published before the Standards Track was established.

Only the [[IETF Administrative Support Activity|IETF]], represented by the [[Internet Engineering Steering Group]] (IESG), can approve Standards Track RFCs. The definitive list of Internet Standards is maintained in the [http://www.rfc-editor.org/standards Official Internet Protocol Standards]. Previously, STD 1 used to maintain a snapshot of the list.<ref>RFC 7100 Retirement of the "Internet Official Protocol Standards" Summary Document</ref>