jdev - 2026-04-11

RFC 6120 section 8.3.3.7 says that "the associated error type [of an item-not-found error] SHOULD be 'cancel'." Why shouldn't it be "modify" if the error could be remedied by specifying a different item which could be found?

i think someone rolled a dice

but looking at the other errors, and trying to find a pattern, i would argue that there is nothing to "modify"

because the server cannot tell if you made an error

maybe that was your goal to find out if the item exists

while if you have a malformed-jid error, its clear that this could not have been your goal so please "modify"

same story with "not-allowed", server cannot tell if you made an error, its just not allowed what you are trying to do

while "not-acceptable" is again "modify" because you you most likely will modify your message to make it acceptable