ietf-nntp <distributions> parameter to NEWGROUPS and NEWNEWS

[Charles Lindsey]

In <ylwvgw8rwq.fsf at windlord.stanford.edu> Russ Allbery <rra at stanford.edu> writes:


>I assume that the general consensus was to kill this?

There was a decision to that effect.

>    NEWGROUPS 20000831 000000 UTC <comp,rec>

>For NEWGROUPS, INN implements this exactly as described in RFC 977, namely
>by finding the first hierarchy component of the new newsgroups and
>comparing it against the list of provided "distributions" and only
>returning new newsgroups that match.  This is actually oddly useful, as
>it's functionally like having wildmat support in NEWGROUPS to select what
>groups you care about except that you can only match on the first
>component of the newsgroup.

Treating the first component of the newsgroups as a distribution is a
dreadful hack and should go (if it is really to be a feature of Usenet,
then it should go in USEFOR, if anywhere).

But interpreting DIstributions in the ordinary sense would be a good idea
and it would be a piy to lose it. BUT there is that performance penalty,
so I fear it has to go (even though you only pay the penalty if you use
the feature).

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