[NNTP] Consensus?

[Chris Caputo]

On Wed, 10 Aug 2005, Thomas Gschwind wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 09, 2005 at 06:15:56PM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote:
>> Steve Walker <nntp at nntpserver.com> writes:
>>> Personally I would like the wording changed to require (a MUST) 32 bit
>>> support and suggest (a SHOULD) 64 bit support.
>>
>> That's two people supporting that option.  What does everyone else think
>> about that?
>
> I am also very much in favor of this solution.

As am I.

The whole wrap-around/roll-over thing is less likely to be implemented 
correctly than just increasing the recommended width of the data type.

On normal servers (as opposed to Steve's) the groups most likely to exceed 
2^32 in our lifetime will tend to be groups that have followers using 
cutting edge clients anyways.  Some of those client authors are already 
using 64-bits and the rest certainly will be some of the first do so when 
the RFC says SHOULD or RECOMMENDED.

On my site two groups have now passed the 200 million mark.  The highest 
numbered group was created in late 2000, so it is averaging in excess of 
40 million posts per year.

But more revealing is this...  if I take the highest volume group for a 
given month the chart looks like this:

Month	Articles/day on average in busiest group
01/1998	10153
01/1999	19146
01/2000	91473
01/2001	124107
01/2002	102270
01/2003	84421
01/2004	218261
01/2005	360728
02/2005	360514
03/2005	380973
04/2005	387267
05/2005	420427
06/2005	371891
07/2005	385895
08/2005	489367 (so far)

If that 489,367 number holds or increases, and it is a safe bet that it 
will, the group that matches it will exceed 365 * 489,367 = 178,618,955 
messages in a year.

As for language, I think this suggestion by Ken Murchison is fine:

  -   Article numbers MUST lie between 1 and 4,294,967,295 inclusive.  The
  -   client and server MAY use leading zeroes in specifying article
  -   numbers, but MUST NOT use more than 16 digits.  In some situations,
  -   the value zero replaces an article number to show some special
  -   situation.
  +   Article numbers MUST be positive integers.  Clients and servers
  +   MUST support article numbers up to, and including 4,294,967,295
  +   (2^32 - 1).  However, due to the exponential growth of Netnews
  +   traffic, it is RECOMMENDED that clients and servers support article
  +   numbers up to, and including 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 (2^64 - 1).
  +   The client and server MAY use leading zeroes in specifying article
  +   numbers.  In some situations, the value zero replaces an article
  +   number to show some special situation.

Chris