ietf-nntp MODE READER

Russ Allbery rra at stanford.edu
Thu Mar 13 12:51:15 PST 2003


Ken Murchison <ken at oceana.com> writes:

> Section 5.2.2 of draft-ietf-nntpext-base-17 says:

>    MODE READER SHOULD be sent by any client that intends to use any
>    command other than IHAVE, HEAD, STAT, LIST ACTIVE, LIST EXTENSIONS,
>    or commands advertised by the server as available via LIST
>    EXTENSIONS.

> Why would a peer (non-reading client) use HEAD, STAT or LIST [ACTIVE]? 
> Do peers actually try to verify that the server has the group and wants
> an article before using IHAVE?  If so, why?  Otherwise, these seem like
> reader commands to me.

> I'm sure that there is some existing practice for this, but I'm curious.

HEAD and STAT are very useful for debugging problems with propagation or
figuring out why one's spam filter rejected a message (and whether one
cares).  I've used them from time to time.

LIST ACTIVE is used to fine-tune feeds between peers, where both sides
know that the other side is using LIST ACTIVE for that purpose, to avoid
feeding the remote host newsgroups that they don't want.

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



More information about the ietf-nntp mailing list