ietf-nntp MODE READER

[Andrew Gierth]

>>>>> "Clive" == Clive D W Feather <clive at demon.net> writes:

 > Andrew Gierth said:
 >> Diablo uses it similarly to INN, to engage normal reader mode on a
 >> connection that is otherwise in feeder mode. Unlike INN, though,
 >> this doesn't involve handing off to another process, it only
 >> changes some per-connection flags.

 Clive> Again, what's the effect - for the client - of those flags
 Clive> being set or clear ? What changes ?

I'm not 100% certain (I don't have a Diablo reader setup, I'm just
looking at the code). What I think happens is that:

  - if the connection is in feeder mode, then commands GROUP, LIST,
    LISTGROUP, NEXT, LAST, NEWGROUPS, POST, STAT, XGTITLE, XHDR,
    XOVER, XPAT are not recognised, but CHECK, IHAVE and TAKETHIS
    are accepted

  - putting the connection in reader mode turns off CHECK, IHAVE,
    TAKETHIS and enables the other commands

(the Diablo reader works by having a single incoming feed, which can
be a header-only feed, which it uses to build the group overviews.  It
doesn't store actual articles, it relies on fetching those from a
separate spool server.)

-- 
Andrew.