[NNTP] [dispatch] Internet Draft for NNTP additions submitted

[Julien ÉLIE]

Hi,

> Lets be honest, every newsreader that is going to support 64 bit article 
> numbers already has its been more than 10 years. We should do it in a 
> way that allows for new conforming newsreaders while not breaking old ones.

Pretty easy to test.
Just done with a dummy news server, and Thunderbird Version 68.7.0 (64 
bit) released on April 8th, 2020.

By hand:

% telnet localhost 50300
200 Testing server
CAPABILITIES
101 Capability list:
VERSION 2 3
LIST ACTIVE
READER
.
LIST
215 Newsgroups in form "group high low status"
trigofacile.test 9000000000000000000 9000000000000000000 y
.
QUIT




I configure Thunderbird to access this dummy news server.

200 Testing server
MODE READER
200 Reader mode
LIST
215 Newsgroups in form "group high low status"
trigofacile.test 9000000000000000000 9000000000000000000 y
.
GROUP trigofacile.test
211 1 9000000000000000000 9000000000000000000 trigofacile.test

[Thunderbird then just hangs.]


I change article numbers, and retest:

200 Testing server
MODE READER
200 Reader mode
GROUP trigofacile.test
211 1 900 900 trigofacile.test
XOVER 900-900
500 What?
HEAD 900
500 What?

(I have not implemented responses to XOVER and HEAD.  Thunderbird looks 
fine, though, with article number 900.)



Another test:

200 Testing server
MODE READER
200 Reader mode
GROUP trigofacile.test
211 1 2147483648 2147483648 trigofacile.test

[Thunderbird then just hangs.]



And last test:

200 Testing server
MODE READER
200 Reader mode
GROUP trigofacile.test
211 1 2147483647 2147483647 trigofacile.test
XOVER 2147483647-2147483647
500 What?
HEAD 2147483647
500 What?


So, 2^31-1 works fine, but above not.

There is really interoperability problem with current news readers (in 
2020), so defining VERSION 3 of NNTP like this is very dangerous.

-- 
Julien ÉLIE

« C'est la goutte qui fait déborder l'amphore ! »
   (Assurancetourix)