[NNTP] [2503] Allow mode-switching servers?

[Ken Murchison]

Clive D.W. Feather wrote:

> Issue: whither MODE READER and mode-switching servers?
> 
> We need to decide once and for all what we are going to do with MODE READER
> and the idea of completely switching modes in the middle of a session.
> 
> Option A: we retain the idea of mode-switching servers. The MODE READER
> command is significant on such servers; before it is issued, reader
> commands aren't available, while afterwards transit commands might not be
> available.
> 
> Option B: we forbid mode-switching in NNTPv2, requiring each connection to
> decide at the beginning whether it is transit, reader, or general-use; once
> the decision is made, it's stuck with it. MODE READER becomes a deprecated
> command that does nothing that CAPABILITIES doesn't.
> 
> Whichever we pick will require a fair amount of wording to be sorted out,
> so I'd like to start ASAP.
> 
> In an earlier thread Russ seemed unhappy to make this decision, so who is
> going to?

I'm in favor of B to clean up the protocol, but from an implementation 
standpoint does it really matter?  Isn't the cat already out of the bag 
on this one?

I think its already been determined that given its current architecture, 
making INN a full-time general purpose server is a non-starter, at least 
for the short term.  So, even if INN removes MODE READER (leaving no way 
to switch modes on a single port server), how realistic is it that 
existing mode-switching sites will reconfigure their server(s) to use 
port 433 for transit?  My (uneducated) guess is that people would just 
patch INN to add MODE READER support back in.

It seems to me that this is something that we can try to change in the 
protocol, but it will be ignored.  Clients will *have* to support MODE 
READER for the foreseeable future and servers will probably have to 
support it as a no-op.

In a nutshell, I'd like to see MODE READER go away, but I won't be 
crushed if it remains in the protocol.

-- 
Kenneth Murchison     Oceana Matrix Ltd.
Software Engineer     21 Princeton Place
716-662-8973 x26      Orchard Park, NY 14127
--PGP Public Key--    http://www.oceana.com/~ken/ksm.pgp