[NNTP] LIST EXTENSIONS (again)

[Russ Allbery]

Mark Crispin <MRC at CAC.Washington.EDU> writes:
> On Tue, 9 Nov 2004, Clive D.W. Feather wrote:

>> I still don't see how this helps, because the server throws away all
>> state on receipt of a (needed) MODE READER. This includes the
>> authentication ID (and encryption keys).

> If there is a different command for client vs. peer authentication, then
> there is no need for MODE READER.

I don't understand why this would be the case.  The need or lack thereof
of MODE READER has nothing to do with authentication.  You can make the
client authentication command do an implicit MODE READER, but that does
nothing for the (numerous) sites that don't use any authentication at all.

> Actually, if you take the position that RFC 977 is anything more than
> worthless, then MODE READER is not needed because it is not in RFC 977.

I would take the position that RFC 977 is largely worthless, not because
of that, but because of quite a few other omissions and inconsistencies
with what news servers actually do.  Most of them are, like MODE READER,
ones that only bite you in rare circumstances, although there are
certainly a fair number of core commands missing entirely.

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