ietf-nntp New draft available

[Paul Overell]

In article <199709010510.AAA22968 at academ.com>, Stan Barber <sob at academ.com> writes
>OOPS. Sorry. The URL  is wrong. Use this one:
>
>       ftp://ftp.academ.com/pub/nntp/ietf/nntpext.txt
>
>Sorry about that.
>

>          INTERNET DRAFT                                          S. Barber
>          Expires: February 1, 1998              Academ Consulting Services
>                                                             September 1997
>
>                           Network News Transport Protocol
>
>
>
>                           draft-ietf-nntpext-base-01.txt

[snip]
>          Barber                                              [Page 1]
[snip]

>            Every attempt is made to insure that the protocol
>            specification in this document is compatible with the version
>            specified in RFC 977[1].

I think you need to list any particular incompatibilities with RFC977, in particular
4 digit years in the NEWGROUPS and NEWNEWS command; and the removal of the SLAVE
command.  

[snip]

>            In this document, the words that are used to define the
>            significance of each particular requirement are capitalized.
>
>            These words are:
>
>            . "MUST"

This whole section concerning MUST and SHOULD etc could be replaced with a reference
to RFC2119.

[snip]

>          10.2.1    ARTICLE

[snip]

>          10.2.1.1  Responses
>
>                 220 n <a> article retrieved - head and body follow (n =
>                    article number, <a> = message-id)
>                 221 n <a> article retrieved - head follows
>                 222 n <a> article retrieved - body follows
>                 223 n <a> article retrieved - request text separately
>                 412 no news group has been selected
>                 420 no current article has been selected
>                 423 no such article number in this group
>                 430 no such article found

When an ARTICLE is requested by message-id what is the article number, n, given in
the response? for which newsgroup? perhaps that from the last GROUP command but what
if no GROUP command has been given?  Implementations I have used give 0 as the
article number in this case.  This needs to be specified.

[snip]
>          12.2 DATE
>
[snip]

>            This command returns a one-line response code of 111 followed
>            by the GMT date and time on the server in the form
                    ^^^
                    UTC

>          12.4 NEWGROUPS

[snip]
>            with HH being hours on the 24-hour clock, MM minutes 00-59,
>            and SS seconds 00-59.  The time is assumed to be in the
>            server's timezone unless the token "GMT" appears in which case
>            both time and date are evaluated at the 0 meridian.

Reword this as

        With HH being hours in the 24-hour clock 00-23, MM minutes 00-59, and SS
        seconds 00-60, which allows for leap seconds.  The token "GMT" specifies
        that the date and time are given in UTC.  If the token "GMT" is omitted then
        the date and time are specified in the server's local timezone.  Note that
        there is no way within this specification of NNTP to establish the server's
        local timezone.

[snip]

>          13.1 Initial IANA Registry

>            The IANA's initial registry of NNTP service extensions
>            consists of these entries:

[snip]
>          Identification and    AUTHINFO              Defined in this
>          Authentication        AUTHINFO SIMPLE       document

AUTHINFO SIMPLE is *not* defined in this document.


General Comments.
----------------

1.      Needs a contents page, difficult to find commands otherwise.

2.      Page 30 is missing, or rather page numbering has gone wrong.

3.      I am not clear on the status of the non-RFC977 commands.  Are they optional
        extensions or a mandatory part of the standard?  Does the LIST EXTENSION
        list the extensions to RFC977 or to this draft, RFC977bis?  I.e. would any
        of these be returned by LIST EXTENSIONS? 

        MODE READER
        AUTHINFO USER
        AUTHINFO PASS
        AUTHINFO GENERIC
        LIST EXTENSIONS
        LIST ACTIVE
        LIST ACTIVE.TIMES
        LIST DISTRIBUTIONS
        LIST DISTRIB.PATS
        LIST NEWSGROUPS
        LIST OVERVIEW.FMT
        LIST SUBSCRIPTIONS
        LISTGROUP
        OVER
        PAT
        CHARSET
        DATE

4.      Part of the vagueness in RFC977 was its lack of a precise, complete, formal
        syntax of both command and replies.  Please can we have one? preferably
        using ABNF (draft-ietf-drums-abnf-03.txt, vested interest declared).

5.      The SLAVE command has been removed.  This in an incompatible change so
        should either be noted as such or recommend that servers implement it as a
        NOP and always return 202.

6.      I agree with Jonathan Grobe that the STAT, BODY, and HEADER command deserve
        a section each, otherwise they get lost within the text about ARTICLE.

 
-- 
Paul Overell                                        T U R N P I K E  Ltd