[ietf-nntp] :bytes metadata

[Russ Allbery]

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

> No. I think there are three sizes that can arise:

> A. Canonical size excluding Xref header and a bit of Path.
> B. Canonical size as delivered to client (incl. both those).
> C. Wire size as delivered to client (includes dot stuffing).

> so A <= B <= C

> (and I suppose there is also a wire size excluding Xref and Path, which
> could be anywhere between A and C).

Yup.

> So can we be clear which problem we are trying to address. It is that A
> might differ from B, or that B might differ from C, or is it both? OUr
> final wording must make it clear.

It's all of them, with existing implementations.

>> He has the most practical experience with the issues raised and with
>> how clients react to them in practice, so I'm inclined to go with his
>> expertise here.  The only change I may argue for is s/wire
>> size/canonical size/ in the second statement as well and just saying
>> "tough" to servers who don't have easy access to the canonical size,
>> but I don't have a strong feeling about that.

> I think that would be solving the A <= B problem, but not the B <= C
> problem. Maybe that's what we want to solve.

I'm not sure what you're talking about here.  It would be declaring that
you may not return C; you have to return A or B or something like them.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra at stanford.edu)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>