ietf-nntp LISTGROUP

[Charles Lindsey]

In <20020102175436.GA30478 at k0deZ.scriptkiddie.net> greg andruk <gja at meowing.net> writes:

>[Charles]
>> > What use are clients likely to use that information for?

>The extension originated with nn, which uses the list of article numbers to
>expire the nnmaster database.

The latest nn release seems to have finally got rid of nnmaster, and
relies entirely on overview AIUI. I doubt many sites still use it, and
thos that do are unlikely to be using NNTP. One could ask around on
news.software.nn.


>LISTGROUP is cute but ugly little hack.  In its original implementation, the
>command is a wrapper around the GROUP function.  That's why in nntp 1.5.x we
>see the GROUP response line complete with article number summary, and why
>the context changes.  GROUP populates the article array by stat'ing the
>spool directory, and LISTGROUP is simply a parasite that prints out those
>numbers.

OK. Who (apart from some really ancient nn sites) actually uses LISTGROUP?
And for what? Maybe we should seriously consider removing it from the
draft if it serves no useful purpose. Note that it would still remain in
the "Common Extensions" RFC.

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Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
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