ietf-nntp OVER extension

[greg andruk]

chl at clw.cs.man.ac.uk (Charles Lindsey) wrote:

> In <20020102104241.GA30372 at k0deZ.scriptkiddie.net> greg andruk <gja at meowing.net> writes:
>
>>In a correct NOV implementation, only two fields (lines and references) are
>>allowed to be blank.  All of the labeled fields must include labels, though
>>of course there will only be text after the colon if the article contains
>>some.  The one exception is that if _all_ the extension fields are blank,
>>then all of the tabs following the unlabeled fields may be omitted.
>
> Well that is not what the current draft says, nor what Clive's new text
> says, because the extension fields are all labelled, so do not give rise
> to trailing TABs. In fact you NEVER get a trailing TAB at all, since the
> 'bytes' and 'lines' fields cannot be empty (I cannot see anything in our
> draft that allows lines to be empty, though it might be '0').


1. "tab" is in the sense of column or field, not the ASCII HT
   character.

2. Guaranteed server-generated values for the line count is a change
   from existing practice, but even if still allowed to be blank that HT
   character would appear.  It is the set of site-defined fields that may
   be omitted in their entirety.