ietf-nntp DEBUG command x9x (was: 9xx)

Charles Lindsey chl at clw.cs.man.ac.uk
Mon Aug 7 04:56:06 PDT 2000


In <Pine.LNX.3.93.1000806033931.1676A-100000 at one.softml.net> Chin Chee-Kai <cheekai at SoftML.net> writes:


>>>NNTP already does have a multiline response mechanism that's usable;
>>>it's not as flexible as the method used by FTP and SMTP,
>>>but that in and of itself I don't think is sufficient justification to
>>>introduce a new method.

>True, but the current mechanism is for multi-line data response.  
>When we talk about sending debugging information lines as part of the 
>"response" (generically), we will be forced into using the DOT CRLF
>mechanism to continue what is actually meta-data protocol response,
>if we don't delineate clearly between data and protocol response.
>For e.g., for debugging purposes, if we send:

>	[C]: BODY 1024 CRLF
>	[S]: 222-[DEBUG] newsgroup="rec.humor.funny"
>X	[S]: 222-[DEBUG] article="1024"
>	[S]: 222-[DEBUG] size=237
>	[S]: 222-[DEBUG] curmem=1.43Mbytes
>	[S]: 222 1024 <acct at nowhere.net> article retrieved  CRLF
>+	[S]: It was said that the 13 was not a prime in some culture.
>	[S]: ................
>	[S]: DOT CRLF

But surely that should be:

	[C]: BODY 1024 CRLF
	[S]: 292-[DEBUG] newsgroup="rec.humor.funny"
X	[S]: 292-[DEBUG] article="1024"
	[S]: 292-[DEBUG] size=237
	[S]: 292-[DEBUG] curmem=1.43Mbytes
	[S]: 222 1024 <acct at nowhere.net> article retrieved  CRLF
+	[S]: It was said that the 13 was not a prime in some culture.
	[S]: ................
	[S]: DOT CRLF

In which case the '292' should NOT be recognised as equivalent to '222'.

Agreed, a client that does does recognise '292' and treats it as a
generic '2xx' could be confused, but even then it would not be a complete
disaster for the DEBUG messages to be treated as articly body. It would
look odd, but nothing would break.

But life would be much simpler if debugging output were of the form 9XX.
Is it too late to do that now? I don't see why not if noone actually
implements X9X at the moment.

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