ietf-nntp MODE READER

[Russ Allbery]

Stan O Barber <sob at verio.net> writes:

> I guess it was not clear. All servers that support news reading should
> not require MODE READER in order to allow folks to read news. All
> servers that don't support news reading should generate appropriate
> error codes (502, typically) to indicate that they will not process news
> reading commands. MODE READER may be used by a client to cause the
> server to "change" to news reader mode if it does not start up that way
> automatically, however MODE READER should not be required to get the
> server to "change".... the usage of a news reading command should also
> cause the server to "change"....

So that means that no news reading command can be pipelined unless the
client is sure it isn't the first reading command that it's issued.

Are people sure they've actually thought this through?

At the very least, if we're going to be suddenly declaring the way that
INN has behaved since 1991 is non-compliant with the NNTP protocol, I
would like to see this standard standardize a second port number for the
use of server-to-server connections.  It seems like the least that the
standard could offer given a change of this magnitude.

I think this is a really, *really* bad idea given the scope of this
working group, incidentally.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra at stanford.edu)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>