Re: ietf-nntp Backfill

["Clive D.W. Feather" <[e-mail]>]

Rich Salz <[e-mail]> writes
>Jon Ribbens wrote a very nice note.  Article numbers should be considered
>unique resources, never to be re-used unless there is a "change in epoch"
>which requires out-of-band coordination between client and server.

Unique resources, I certainly agree with. My original note relates to
the question of whether articles are ordered - as a thought experiment,
would the following conform to 977 and, if not, why not ?

  - Articles never expire.
  - Articles are given numbers at random.

Or, for that matter:

  - Articles are numbered uniquely across the entire newsbase (with an
    article having the same number in every group it appears in).
  - Articles are numbered sequentially as they arrive from 1.

I see nothing stating that article numbers must be less than (say) 2^32.

These sort of questions need answering in the production of 977bis.

-- 
Clive D.W. Feather    | Associate Director  | Director
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