ietf-nntp Dropping the Distribution option from Newnews?

[Jon Ribbens]

Brian Kantor <brian at karoshi.ucsd.edu> wrote:
> The intention was that the distribution specification in the NEWNEWS
> command could be used to filter articles presented in the newnews output,
> restricted by the contents of the Distribution: header in the articles.
> I.e., NEWNEWS would only present a host with articles that matched the news
> groups and distributions specified.

I can't match this up with what the RFC actually says, though:

:    The optional parameter "distributions" is a list of distribution
:    groups, enclosed in angle brackets.  If specified, the distribution
:    portion of an article's newsgroup (e.g, 'net' in 'net.wombat') will
:    be examined for a match with the distribution categories listed, and
:    only those articles which have at least one newsgroup belonging to
:    the list of distributions will be listed.

It says specifically that it's matching some portion of the newsgroup
name, and doesn't mention the Distribution header at all. What you describe
above as your intent matches what INN does, but it doesn't match the
specification ;-). New wording is required to standardise INN's behaviour.

Does anyone have any experience of this sub-feature of NEWNEWS ever
being used? I would have no particular objection to it being removed
personally, unless someone knows that it is actually in use.

Cheers


Jon
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