ietf-nntp Response codes - debugging, authentication & unknown

[Clive D.W. Feather]

Russ Allbery said:
> I'll bet there's been more thought expended on them on this working group
> than has ever been expended on them by NNTP software developers.

Indeed.

>>        x0x - Connection, setup, and miscellaneous messages
>>        x1x - Newsgroup selection
>>        x2x - Article selection
>>        x3x - Distribution functions
>>        x4x - Posting
>> !      x7x - Nonstandard (private implementation) extensions
>> !      x8x - Authentication
> 
> I'd rather see your x7x space merged with x9x rather than adding another
> reserved space.

Merging this with Stan's comment, what about:

      x8x - Reserved for authentication extensions
      x9x - Reserved for private extensions

and then:

    Neither this document nor any extension registered with IANA (see
    section 12) will specify any response codes of the x9x pattern.

>> !      that is the first part of the command. If a client receives
>> !      an unexpected response code from a command then it MUST make
>> !      a 'best guess' on how to treat the response - typically the
>> !      first digit is used for this purpose.
> 
> I would be very leery of specifying anything in the standard as a MUST
> without fully specifying it.

Agreed.

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