[NNTP] Article Reinstatement

[Julien ÉLIE]

Hi Sabahattin,

> I think we really need an effort to roll all these errata into
> 3977bis.

… and move the NNTP protocol to Draft Standard at the same time.



> But how do we
> distinguish, inside the server, an article that *might* be reinstated
> and one that just expired?

I think it is implementation-specific, and therefore not to be dealt 
with in an RFC.



>>> So what does a server do when the lowest-numbered article is
>>> pending reinstatement and the client requests it?
>>
>> The news server just answers the article does not exist:
>
> Is there any language which specifically allows the use of these
> codes for reporting an invalid article number because of a (possible)
> reinstatement?

The article does not exist.  The language is to respond 430/423/420.
(Please note that I wrote twice 423 in my previous mail; it was 423+420.)

Maybe you were asking for a new code telling that the article does not 
exist but may be reinstated?
It could be something to look at in RFC3977bis.  However, clients do not 
currently expect this possible new response code to existing commands 
like ARTICLE.



> This doesn't always
> work, but it does work 99% of the time.  Especially since many
> servers just don't do the reinstatement thing at all.

Though I do not have figures, I would tend to think that it is far more 
than 99%.  "Many servers don't do the reinstatement thing" might also be 
an euphemism :)

-- 
Julien ÉLIE

« Un voyage de mille lieues commence toujours par un premier pas. »
   (Lao Zi)