ietf-nntp HDR

Andrew Gierth andrew at erlenstar.demon.co.uk
Wed Jan 2 05:06:16 PST 2002


>>>>> "Clive" == Clive D W Feather <clive at demon.net> writes:

 Clive> Suggested approach: a server MAY restrict HDR to certain
 Clive> specific headers.  If so, any other header will produce a
 Clive> 503.

ok so far.

 Clive> If a server supports both the OVER and HDR extensions, it MUST
 Clive> allow HDR on any header returned by OVER.

what about Bytes and Lines? Several existing implementations of XHDR
will treat "XHDR Bytes" and "XHDR Lines" as requests for the overview
pseudo-headers rather than any actual Bytes: or Lines: header from the
article.

So do we (using Lines as an example)

 a) require that "HDR Lines" return only actual Lines headers from the
    article, which implies that it could return 503 if the server only
    has actual linecounts available

 b) define "HDR Lines" as returning either the actual linecount or the
    Lines: header at the server's whim

 c) define "HDR Lines" as referring to the actual Lines header, and provide
    an alternative way of specifying the "lines" and "bytes" overview
    fields (e.g. "HDR :Lines" - ':' is not valid in a header name, or
    alternatively require "HDR Lines:" to get the real header)

I would go for something like (c), because existing practice isn't an
issue for HDR, and the "XHDR Lines" behaviour is both a) very useful
and b) a nasty wart.

-- 
Andrew.



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