[NNTP] LISTGROUP

[Matthias Andree]

"Clive D.W. Feather" <clive at demon.net> writes:

> Russ Allbery said:
>> First, the command is pretty widely implemented, and it's not obvious
>> anything useful is gained by making it optional.  If we're going to make
>> NEWNEWS mandatory,
>
> EXCUSE ME!
>
> NEWNEWS has always been mandatory. RFC 977 section 3 paragraph 3:
>
>     Every command described in this section must be implemented by all
>     NNTP servers.

There are servers that don't implement this command (leafnode 1.X
versions) or allow to disable it (INN), or implement it partially
(leafnode 2.X assumes the argument is a newsgroup name, not a pattern).

While such behavior is not allowed by the standard, it has never been
cause for complaints about leafnode in the years I maintain it, and no
pertinent bug is open in Debian Linux's bug tracker either.

It seems to me that NEWNEWS is not widely used by clients.

> But anyway:
>
>> LISTGROUP is a lot easier to implement and more widely
>> supported right now, and that would get rid of one of our capabilities
>> that we have to keep track of.
>
> I don't have a significant problem with doing this. Is it a significant
> load on servers?

If the server keeps OVER data cached (leafnode and INN do) or keeps a
"traditional spool" format, LISTGROUP is cheap. In the latter case, just
listing the file names does the job, in the former case, the cached OVER
data can be used.

-- 
Matthias Andree