The Jabber protocols have long included a method for discovering version information about the software running at another entity's JID. This method makes use of the 'jabber:iq:version' namespace and has been documented variously in Internet-Drafts and elsewhere. Because this protocol is not required by &rfc2779;, the 'jabber:iq:version' namespace was removed from &xmppim;. This specification fills the void for canonical documentation.

Note Well: The jabber:iq:version protocol SHOULD NOT be used to determine the identity of entities from which an application receives presence (e.g., contacts in a user's roster and certain kinds of gateways); &xep0115; SHOULD be used instead. However, the jabber:iq:version protocol MAY be used to determine the identity of entities from which an application does not receive presence (e.g., servers and many kinds of components). The jabber:iq:version protocol MAY also be used to determine information available only via jabber:iq:version (e.g., operating system information) for contacts from which a user receives presence, but only if the user specifically requests such information for a particular contact.

The 'jabber:iq:version' namespace provides a standard way for Jabber entities to exchange information about the software version used by the entities. The information is communicated in a request/response pair using an <iq/> element that contains a <query/> scoped by the 'jabber:iq:version' namespace. The following children of the <query/> are allowed in an IQ result:

• <name/> -- The natural-language name of the software. This element is REQUIRED in a result.
• <version/> -- The specific version of the software. This element is REQUIRED in a result.
• <os/> -- The operating system of the queried entity. This element is OPTIONAL in a result (see also the Security Considerations).

The standard error conditions described in &xep0086; apply (e.g., service unavailable if the entity does not support the namespace).

Revealing the application's underlying operating system may open the user or system to attacks directed against that operating system; therefore, an application MUST provide a way for a human user or administrator to disable sharing of information about the operating system.

This document requires no interaction with &IANA;.

The 'jabber:iq:version' namespace is registered in the protocol namespaces registry maintained by the ®ISTRAR;.