Re: Early comments for merged document RFC 977 plus extensions draft

[USENET news manager <[e-mail]>]

Anne Bennett wrote:
>Comments on RFC 977:
>...
>| 3.7.1.  NEWGROUPS
>| 
>|    NEWGROUPS date time [GMT] [<distributions>]
>[...]
>|    The optional parameter "distributions" is a list of distribution
>|    groups, enclosed in angle brackets.  If specified, the distribution
>|    portion of a new newsgroup (e.g, 'net' in 'net.wombat') will be
>|    examined for a match with the distribution categories listed, and
>|    only those new newsgroups which match will be listed.  If more than
>|    one distribution group is to be listed, they must be separated by
>|    commas within the angle brackets.
>
>This use of the word "distributions", where really "hierarchy" is
>meant, has led to many misunderstandings and flame wars later.  Or
>perhaps it would be more fair to say that subsequent changes in usage
>were at fault -- I wasn't around NNTP ten years ago, so I should not
>venture an opinion as to the origin of the problem.
>
>However, the fact remains that "distributions" now refers to the
>content of the "Distributions:" field -- and indeed you use it that
>way in your draft, as I recall -- so I think it would be wise to use
>another word in the text above.
>
>The same can be said under the description of NEWNEWS.

The comment about NEWNEWS left me puzzled, since it contradicted my
recollection of what NEWNEWS actually does in INN.

Further investigation confirmed that both INN 1.4 and NNTP 1.5.11t5 treat
the "distributions" field of NEWNEWS as items to match against Distribution:
header values, *not* as hierarchy names (whereas for NEWGROUPS they are
indeed treated as hierarchy names). The handling of NEWNEWS distributions in
INN appears to have been broken (i.e. wouldn't work properly, though it was
trying to match Distribution:) prior to INN 1.4unoff3, though.

It appears, then, that the predominant news transports disagree with RFC 977!

Incidentally, the draft mentions both Distribution: and Distributions: as
article headers. 

                                John Line
-- 
Cambridge University Computing Service - USENET news manager. Usually John Line
[e-mail]    (alias {newsmaster,news,usenet}@news.cam.ac.uk)