[usefor] Issue with ABNF grammar in RFC 5536

[Julien ÉLIE <[e-mail]>]

Hi all,

Paul Kyzivat noticed in the IETF Gen-ART mailing-list
   https://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/gen-art/current/msg14921.html
that there is an issue in the ABNF of RFC 5536 (USEFOR).

RFC 5536 defines the following extension:

    fields          =/ *( approved /
                          archive /
                          control /
                          distribution /
                          expires /
                          followup-to /
                          injection-date /
                          injection-info /
                          lines /
                          newsgroups /
                          organization /
                          path /
                          summary /
                          supersedes /
                          user-agent /
                          xref )

to the following element in RFC 5322:

    fields          =   *(trace
                          *optional-field /
                          *(resent-date /
                           resent-from /
                           resent-sender /
                           resent-to /
                           resent-cc /
                           resent-bcc /
                           resent-msg-id))
                        *(orig-date /
                        from /
                        sender /
                        reply-to /
                        to /
                        cc /
                        bcc /
                        message-id /
                        in-reply-to /
                        references /
                        subject /
                        comments /
                        keywords /
                        optional-field)

and a message is defined this way:

    message         =   (fields / obs-fields)
                        [CRLF body]



It appears that the extension done in RFC 5536 is wrong because of how 
"fields" is constructed in RFC 5322; as a matter of fact, (*a *b) in RFC 
5322 is extended to (*a *b) / *c in RFC 5536 whereas (*a *b *c) was wanted.

I believe an erratum should be filled to RFC 5536.  Maybe by just 
changing the wording in Section 3:

    The following news header fields extend those defined in Section 3.6
    of [RFC5322]:

      fields        =/ *( approved /
                          archive /
                          control /
                          distribution /
                          expires /
                          followup-to /
                          injection-date /
                          injection-info /
                          lines /
                          newsgroups /
                          organization /
                          path /
                          summary /
                          supersedes /
                          user-agent /
                          xref )

to:

    The following news header fields are defined by this document:

      news-fields    =    approved /
                          archive /
                          control /
                          distribution /
                          expires /
                          followup-to /
                          injection-date /
                          injection-info /
                          lines /
                          newsgroups /
                          organization /
                          path /
                          summary /
                          supersedes /
                          user-agent /
                          xref

    The definition of message in Section 3.5 of [RFC5322] is changed to:

      message       =   *(fields / obs-fields / news-fields)
                        [CRLF body]



Any better idea of fix in RFC 5536?

-- 
Julien ÉLIE

« You know what I did before I married?  Anything I wanted to. »