ietf-nntp HDR parameter proposal

[Charles Lindsey]

In <ylr88mp4z3.fsf at windlord.stanford.edu> Russ Allbery <rra at stanford.edu> writes:

>Charles Lindsey <chl at clw.cs.man.ac.uk> writes:

>> No, I've changed my position since I first proposed OVERVIEW as a HDR
>> parameter.

>> I now think it should mean
>>    "HDR will return (at least) those headers which would have appeared in
>>     an OVER command issued at that moment."

>I don't understand how a client could use this information.  From the
>perspective of the client, this is exactly equivalent to the server
>saying:

>    HDR BASE EXTRA

Depends how "EXTRA" is defined.

The point is that many current implementations of XHDR return only what
can be found in the overview, and there is no way to be sure what headers
that covers (because OVERVIEW.FMT is not 100% guaranteed). So what I am
proposing is exactly what they are getting at present.

>because it has no way of knowing or learning what headers those would be.

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