ietf-nntp Alternative HDR parameter proposal

[Charles Lindsey]

In <3E8B2944.F9BEC725 at oceana.com> Ken Murchison <ken at oceana.com> writes:

>	HDR
>	HDR ALL

>- In the first form, the set of headers that may be retrieved from the
>server is limited and must be discovered by the client.  I propose that
>this can be done by using either the HDR command with _no_ arguments or
>a new LIST HEADERS command (I have no preference, this can be determined
>by the WG).  In either case, the output of the command is a list of
>available headers/metadata (identical to OVERVIEW.FMT without the
>suffixes).

But it may not be possible for the server to supply that information.
Suppose that the server actually implements by scanning the overview
database. Suppose that the headers stored in that database have changed
over time (the sysadmin keeps having "bright ideas"). Then there is no
single list that could be returned that would be guaranteed to be correct
for all articles currently stored on the server.

Russ argues that my HDR OVERVIEW suffers from the same problem - that it
does not tell the client whether any given header will be retrieved on
_all_ articles stored. That may be true, but at least it tells the client
what behaviours are possible.

-- 
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
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