Towards a Semantic Preservation System

Abstract: Preserving access to file content requires preserving not just bits but also meaningful logical structures. The ongoing development of the Data Format Description Language (DFDL) is a completely general standard that addresses this need. The Defuddle parser is a generic parser that can use DFDL-style format descriptions to extract logical structures from ASCII or binary files written in those formats. DFDL and Defuddle provide a preservation capability that has minimal format-specific software and cleanly separates issues related to bits, formats, and logical content. Such a system has the potential to greatly reduce overall system development and maintenance costs as well as the per-file-format costs for long term preservation.