ietf-nntp HDR

[Clive D. W. Feather]

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In message <G9vM6B.CMu at clw.cs.man.ac.uk>, Charles Lindsey 
<chl at clw.cs.man.ac.uk> writes
>>* Can the command restrict the header parameter (other than syntactically)
>>or is any valid string permitted ? If I write:
>
>>    HDR X-Haddock 1-
>
>>am I guaranteed a 221 response, or can I be sent a 503 on the grounds that
>>this server does not support the X-Haddock header for the HDR command.
>
>I think either should be allowed. What I would say is that implementations
>MAY limit the headers they allow (perhaps to those they keep in their
>overview).

Then what you mean is "yes, it can restrict the header". But why not use 
overview when you can and just grep the spool when you have to ?

The next question I had, then, is whether there should be a standard 
list of headers (e.g. Subject, From, Newsgroups) that must always be 
supported.

> I could provide a more precise wording if we agree that is what
>we want to do.

If we do, then I'm sure that would be welcome.

>Being Devil's Advocate for a moment, I can see that it would be useful,
>for implementors who wanted to use overview to implement HDR, to know
>which newsgroup's overview file to use. But OTOH I would still prefer to
>be able to use HDR without having the newsgroup fixed (for example, I
>might want to use it on a list of <message-id>s returned by NEWNEWS).

Indeed. And I don't see the point of the <message-id> feature if I've 
got to figure out the newsgroup first.

>>    If the second argument is a message-ID, then:
>>    - If the article exists and includes that header, the server MUST
>>      return a 221 code followed by a list containing exactly one line.
>>      If the article is in the current group, the article number on that
>>      line MUST be either zero or its actual number in that group; if the
>            ^^^^
>           MAY
>>      article is not in the current group or if no group is selected, the
>>      article number MUST be zero.

MAY ?

What's the correct wording for "the server must do either A or B; it has 
a free choice, but it must not do C" ? I thought that was MUST; surely, 
if you say MAY there, it allows the server to return any number. I want 
to force 0 or actual number. In other words, to parse it as:

     ... MUST be (either 0 or actual number).

- -- 
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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