ietf-nntp OVER extension

[Clive D.W. Feather]

Charles Lindsey said:
> P47. S9.5.2.1 (LIST OVERVIEW.FMT)

The previous draft says "This is command is part of the optional OVER
extension ...". This paragraph is unnecessary, since the section heading is
"The OVER Extension".

It is also worded very badly, since the first paragraph mixes up the
overview.fmt file with a description of how OVER works.

I think that 9.5.2 would be better written if it had the OVER command
first, describing the overview database and how the fields appear. *Then*
have the LIST OVERVIEW.FMT command, which describes which optional fields
OVER offers.

> 9.5.2.2 (OVER) defines 8 obligatory fields which MUST appear, in order, in
> every overview line. 5 of these correspond to headers in the article, 3 of
> them (article number, byte count, line count) do not. Question: are these
> obligatory entries supposed to be included in the LIST OVERVIEW.FMT
> output?

My reading of the wording for OVER is that they are *not*; furthermore,
they MUST NOT have the header name prepended. However, I agree that the
wording is less than ideal (you have to look at the examples to be clear).

> If so, then the Example in 9.5.2.1.2 is wrong (it omits References;
> moreover what is to be shown for the non-header entries?). If not, then
> the Example in 9.5.2.1.2 is still wrong, because it includes the other 4
> of them.

Whereas the OVER example does *not* have 8 fields even though 8 are
mandatory ! Is it permitted for OVER to return less than 8 items ?

> Also, what is the point of the "full" parameter (as in
> 	"Xref: full"
> I presume)? I thought all of the non-obligatory entries were REQUIRED to
> include the header-name (in which case that "full" is redundant, or have I
> got it wrong?). Either way, it would be a good idea to include one of the
> non-obligatory entries (Xref is the obvious choice) in the Example,
> together with its "full" (if that remains).

I think we need to be clear on what is *supposed* to happen. Once we know,
it will be easy to write proper words.

(1) Should LIST OVERVIEW.FMT include the 8 mandatory fields ?
(2) If so, what are the names for the last two of the 8 ?
(3) Can the mandatory fields have the header name prepended ?
(4) Can any optional fields have the header name prepended ?
(5) Must any optional fields have the header name prepended ?
(6) In LIST OVERVIEW.FMT, should "full" have a space before it ?

> P48. S9.5.2.2
> I am slightly surprised that the OVER command does not have a <message-id>
> alternative (since all the other commands with a [range] parameter seem to
> have one).

The overview databases (as I understand it) are per-newsgroup. There is no
easy way (without fetching the article) to map an ID to a newsgroup, so
this version is not provided.

I would not object to it being optional.

-- 
Clive D.W. Feather  | Work:  <clive at demon.net>   | Tel:  +44 20 8371 1138
Internet Expert     | Home:  <clive at davros.org>  | Fax:  +44 20 8371 4037
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