ietf-nntp Responses sections
Clive D. W. Feather
clive at on-the-train.demon.co.uk
Tue Jul 10 08:19:21 PDT 2001
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Following the discussion yesterday, I've formatted the "Responses"
section for each command in draft 13. Unless stated otherwise, the text
here would completely replace each such section. Commentary is
unindented.
7.1 Initial Connection
Add:
7.1.1 Responses
200 service available, POST allowed
201 service available, POST not allowed
400 service temporarily unavailable
502 client not authorised to use this server
Following a 400 or 502 response the server MUST immediately
close the connection.
Renumber:
7.1.1 Initial Connection Example
as 7.1.2.
7.2 MODE READER
7.2.1 Responses
200 service available, POST allowed
201 service available, POST not allowed
400 service about to terminate
502 client not authorised to use this server
Following a 400 or 502 response the server MUST immediately
close the connection.
Throughout the remainder of this I have omitted the generic responses
such as 400 (service about to terminate) and 502 (not authorised to use
this facility). I'm assuming that these would produce more confusion
than including them would save. But see below.
8.1 LIST EXTENSIONS
8.1.1 Responses
202 extension list follows (multiline)
402 no extensions available
503 unable to list extensions
Following a 503 response an extension might still be
available, and the client MAY attempt to use it.
9.1.1.1 GROUP
9.1.1.1.1 Responses
211 n l h ggg group successfully selected
(n = estimated number of articles in group,
l = low water mark, h = high water mark,
ggg = group name)
411 no such newsgroup
9.1.1.2 LAST
9.1.1.2.1 Responses
223 n a article found (n = number, a = message-id)
412 no newsgroup currently selected
420 current article pointer is invalid
422 no previous article in this group
9.1.1.3 NEXT
9.1.1.3.1 Responses
223 n a article found (n = number, a = message-id)
412 no newsgroup currently selected
420 current article pointer is invalid
421 no next article in this group
9.2.1 ARTICLE
9.2.1.1 Responses
First form (message-id specified):
220 0 a article retrieved and follows (multiline,
a = message-id)
430 no such article
Second form (optional article number specified):
220 n a article retrieved and follows (multiline,
n = number, a = message-id)
412 no newsgroup currently selected
420 current article pointer is invalid
423 no such article number in this group
The 420 response only occurs if no article number has been
specified.
In the 220 response, the first parameter is 0 for the first
form and the article number (within the current group) for the
second form. The second parameter is the message-id of the
article (within angle brackets). This is taken from the
message-id header line of the article (required by RFC 1036).
If there is no such line, the message-id "<0>" MUST be used
instead (without the double quotes).
Since the message-id field is unique for each article, it may
be used by a client to skip duplicate displays of articles
that have been posted more than once, or to more than one
newsgroup.
The article headers and body are returned as a multiline
response following the initial response line.
9.2.2 HEAD
9.2.2.1 Responses
First form (message-id specified):
221 0 a article retrieved, headers follow (multiline)
430 no such article
Second form (optional article number specified):
221 n a article retrieved, headers follow (multiline)
412 no newsgroup selected
420 no current article selected
423 no such article number in this group
Except that only the headers are included in the response, the
221 response behaves identically to the 220 response of the
ARTICLE command.
9.2.3 BODY
9.2.3.1 Responses
First form (message-id specified):
222 0 a article retrieved, body follows (multiline)
430 no such article
Second form (optional article number specified):
222 n a article retrieved, body follows (multiline)
412 no newsgroup selected
420 no current article selected
423 no such article number in this group
Except that only the body is included in the response, the 222
response behaves identically to the 220 response of the
ARTICLE command.
9.2.4 STAT
9.2.4.1 Responses
First form (message-id specified):
223 0 a article exists
430 no such article
Second form (optional article number specified):
223 n a article exists
412 no newsgroup selected
420 no current article selected
423 no such article number in this group
The parameters of the 223 response are identical to those that
would have been given in a 220 response to the equivalent
ARTICLE command. However, the response is NOT multiline.
9.3.1 POST
9.3.1.1 Responses
Responses to the initial command
340 send article to be posted
440 posting not allowed
Responses to the end of the posted article
240 article received successfully
441 posting failed
9.3.2 IHAVE
9.3.2.1 Responses
Responses to the initial command
335 send article
435 do not send article
Responses to the end of the article
235 article received successfully
436 transfer failed, try again later
437 article rejected, do not resend
The following text would, perhaps, better belong in the description than
in the responses.
Because some host news posting software may not be able to
immediately render status on the whether an article is
inappropriate for posting or forwarding, an NNTP server MAY
acknowledge the successful transfer of the article and later
silently discard it. Thus, an NNTP server MAY return the 235
acknowledgment code and later discard the received article.
9.4.1 LIST
9.4.1.1 Responses
215 list follows (multiline)
9.4.2 LIST ACTIVE.TIMES
9.4.2.1 Responses
215 list follows (multiline)
9.4.3 LIST DISTRIBUTIONS
9.4.3.1 Responses
215 list follows (multiline)
9.4.4 LIST DISTRIB.PATS
9.4.4.1 Responses
215 list follows (multiline)
9.4.5 LIST NEWSGROUPS
9.4.5.1 Responses
215 list follows (multiline)
9.5.1.1 The LISTGROUP Command
9.5.1.1.1 Responses
211 list of article numbers follow (multiline)
411 no such newsgroup
412 no newsgroup currently selected
9.5.2.1 LIST OVERVIEW.FMT
9.5.2.1.1 Responses
215 list follows (multiline)
9.5.2.2 OVER
9.5.2.2.1 Responses
224 information follows (multiline)
412 no newsgroup currently selected
420 no current article selected
9.5.3.1 HDR
9.5.3.1.1 Responses
First form (range specified):
221 headers follow (multiline)
412 no newsgroup currently selected
Second form (message-id specified):
221 headers follow (multiline)
412 no newsgroup currently selected
430 no such article
In the second form, the multiline response after a 221 code will
only contain a single line of data.
10.1 QUIT
10.1.1 Responses
205 closing connection
The server MUST immediately close the connection.
11.1 DATE
11.1.1 Responses
111 YYYYMMDDhhmmss date returned
11.2 The HELP Command
11.2.1 Responses
100 help text follows (multiline)
11.3 NEWGROUPS
11.3.1 Responses
231 list follows (multiline)
11.4 NEWNEWS
11.4.1 Responses
230 list follows (multiline)
More on generic responses:
An alternative approach to generic responses would be to add a "generic"
line to each section, saying which generic codes are allowed. This would
also make it clear which commands are optional and which are mandatory.
On the other hand, the generic responses only fall into two groups:
* 400, 401, 501, and 502 can always occur (can QUIT get any of these
other than 501 ?)
* 403, 500, and 503 can occur with optional commands but not mandatory
ones (and 500 isn't available if the command uses two words).
Here are examples of some sections with generic responses added:
7.2 MODE READER
7.2.1 Responses
200 service available, POST allowed
201 service available, POST not allowed
Generic: 400 401 501 502
Following a 400 or 502 response the server MUST immediately
close the connection.
9.4.1 LIST
9.4.1.1 Responses
215 list follows (multiline)
Generic: 400 401 501 502
9.4.2 LIST ACTIVE.TIMES
9.4.2.1 Responses
215 list follows (multiline)
Generic: 400 401 403 501 503 503
9.5.2.2 OVER
9.5.2.2.1 Responses
224 information follows (multiline)
412 no newsgroup currently selected
420 no current article selected
Generic: 400 401 403 500 501 502 503
10.1 QUIT
10.1.1 Responses
205 closing connection
Generic: 501
11.3 NEWGROUPS
11.3.1 Responses
231 list follows (multiline)
Generic: 400 401 501 502
- --
Clive D.W. Feather | Internet Expert | Work: <clive at demon.net>
Tel: +44 20 8371 1138 | Demon Internet | Home: <clive at davros.org>
Fax: +44 20 8371 1037 | Thus plc | Web: <http://www.davros.org>
Written on my laptop; please observe the Reply-To address
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