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Clarify IRI reference resolution in Turtle (absolute vs. relative) #116

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Clarify IRI reference resolution in Turtle (absolute vs. relative) #116

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Clarify IRI reference resolution in Turtle (absolute vs. relative)
domel Oct 23, 2025
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Update spec/index.html
domel Oct 24, 2025
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39 changes: 37 additions & 2 deletions spec/index.html
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Expand Up @@ -421,11 +421,46 @@ <h3>IRIs</h3>
may contain <a>numeric escape sequences</a> (described below).
For example, <code>&lt;http://example.org/#green-goblin&gt;</code>.
</p>
<p id="relative-iri"><a data-cite="RDF12-CONCEPTS#dfn-relative-iri">Relative IRI references</a> like <code>&lt;#green-goblin&gt;</code>
<p id="relative-iri">
<a data-cite="RDF12-CONCEPTS#dfn-relative-iri">Relative IRI references</a> like <code>&lt;#green-goblin&gt;</code>
are resolved relative to the current base IRI.
A new base IRI can be defined using the <code>@base</code> or <a href="#grammar-production-sparqlBase"><code>BASE</code></a>
directive. Specifics of this operation are defined in
<a href="#sec-iri-references" class="sectionRef"></a>.</p>
<a href="#iri-resolution" class="sectionRef">Reference Resolution</a>.
</p>

<section id="iri-resolution">
<h4>Reference Resolution</h4>
<p>
When parsing an IRI written in angle brackets (<code>&ld; &gt;</code>, <code>IRIREF</code>),
processors MUST distinguish between:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Absolute IRI references</strong> (i.e., with a scheme per [[RFC3986]]): the IRI MUST be used <em>verbatim</em>
to construct the RDF term. Processors MUST NOT apply reference resolution
(including the <em>remove_dot_segments</em> step from [[RFC3986]] §5.2) nor perform
any path normalization on such IRIs.
</li>
<li>
<strong>Relative IRI references</strong>: the reference MUST be resolved against the current
<a data-cite="RDF12-CONCEPTS#dfn-base-iri">base IRI</a> following [[RFC3986]] §5.1–§5.2. This resolution can
remove “<code>/./</code>” and “<code>/../</code>” path segments as part of the algorithm.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
This rule prevents the same lexical IRI from yielding different RDF terms depending on whether a
<code>BASE</code> directive is present. It aligns with
<a data-cite="RDF12-CONCEPTS#iri-equality">IRI equality</a> in RDF 1.2 Concepts, which uses simple string comparison and
forbids additional normalization before comparison.
</p>
<p class="note">
Data publishers are encouraged to mint <a data-cite="RDF12-CONCEPTS#reference-iris">RDF Reference IRIs</a>,
i.e., IRIs suitable as global references that are unchanged by reference resolution and whose path
starts with “<code>/</code>” and does not contain “<code>.</code>” or “<code>..</code>” segments.
This improves interoperability across concrete syntaxes.
</p>
</section>

<p id="iri-a">
The token <a href="#cp-lowercase-a"><code>a</code></a> in the predicate position of a Turtle triple
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