Re: ietf-nntp NNTP doubling of starting periods

[Keith Moore <[e-mail]>]

> RFC 977 specifies the following for lines that start with a period (.)
> > [...]
> Is this still in use? It seems unnecessary to distinguish lines that
> contain *only* a period (etx) from text lines that start with a period. Any
> parser should be able to recognize that <cr><lf>.<cr><lf> is the end of the
> data stream and treat lines that start with a period as normal text lines.
>
> I tried sending lines that started with 1-5 periods on a line through INN
> and it passed them unaltered as the second paragraph suggests it should.
> 
> If this is not used should it be phased out for the sake of
> transparency? 

The current scheme provides transparency.  Senders add a dot to every
line that begins with a dot.  Receivers remove the initial dot from
any line that begins with a dot.  It's simple, it works, and anyone
can understand how to do it right.

Changing the spec can only lead to confusion and breakage.
It's not broken, so don't fix it.

Keith