[NNTP] LIST EXTENSIONS (again)

[Russ Allbery]

Mark Crispin <MRC at CAC.Washington.EDU> writes:

> If the site does not use authentication, then the mode switch can be
> made on the first IHAVE command (to set peer mode) or the first command
> other than HEAD, STAT, LIST ACTIVE, or LIST EXTENSIONS (to set client
> mode).

That's not a bad idea and wouldn't break existing software that I'm aware
of.  I think it's even uglier than MODE READER from a protocol standpoint,
since it means that LIST EXTENSIONS may change as the result of issuing
quite a few different commands, but if you really think that's cleaner, we
can at least discuss it.

> Or we can simply define a no-credentials authentication method (ala SASL
> anonymous) that sets peer mode and declare client mode to otherwise be
> the default.

This doesn't help since it's not backward compatible with existing
clients.  Whatever we come up with has to be backward compatible with
existing clients (see the working group charter).

I'll expand on that thought in a little bit as soon as I get out of some
meetings.

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