INTERNET-DRAFT Charles H. Lindsey
Usenet Format Working Group University of Manchester
July 2001
2.1. Definitions
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2.1. Definitions
An "article" is the unit of news, analogous to an [RFC 2822]
"message". A "proto-article" is one that has not yet been injected
into the news system.
A "message identifier" (5.3) is a unique identifier for an article,
usually supplied by the "posting agent" which posted it or, failing
that, by the "injecting agent". It distinguishes the article from
every other article ever posted anywhere. Articles with the same
message identifier are treated as if they are the same article
regardless of any differences in the body or headers.
A "newsgroup" is a single news forum, a logical bulletin board,
having a name and nominally intended for articles on a specific
topic. An article is "posted to" a single newsgroup or several
newsgroups. When an article is posted to more than one newsgroup, it
is said to be "crossposted"; note that this differs from posting the
same text as part of each of several articles, one per newsgroup.
A newsgroup may be "moderated", in which case submissions are not
posted directly, but mailed to a "moderator" for consideration and
possible posting. Moderators are typically human but may be
implemented partially or entirely in software.
A "hierarchy" is the set of all newsgroups whose names share a first
component (as defined in 5.5). The term "sub-hierarchy" is also used
where several initial components are shared.
A "poster" is the person or software that composes and submits a
possibly compliant article to a "posting agent". The poster is
analogous to [RFC 2822]'s author(s).
A "posting agent" is the software that assists posters to prepare
proto-articles, in compliance with this standard. The proto-article
is then passed on to an "injecting agent" for final checking and
injection into the news stream. If the article is not compliant, or
is rejected by the injecting agent, then the posting agent informs
the poster with an explanation of the error.
A "reader" is the person or software reading news articles.
A "reading agent" is software which presents articles to a reader.
A "followup" is an article containing a response to the contents of
an earlier article (the followup's "precursor").
A "followup agent" is a combination of reading agent and posting
agent that aids in the preparation and posting of a followup.
An article's "reply address" is the address to which mailed replies
should be sent. This is the address specified in the article's From
header (5.2), unless it also has a Reply-To header (6.1).
A "reply agent" is a combination of reading agent and mailer that
aids in the preparation and posting of an email response to an
article.
A "sender" is the person or software (usually, but not always, the
same as the poster) responsible for the operation of the posting
agent or, which amounts to the same thing, for passing the article to
the injecting agent. The sender is analogous to [RFC 2822]'s sender.
An "injecting agent" takes the finished article from the posting
agent (often via the NNTP "post" command) performs some final checks
and passes it on to a relaying agent for general distribution.
A "relaying agent" is software which receives allegedly compliant
articles from injecting agents and/or other relaying agents, and
possibly passes copies on to other relaying agents and serving
agents.
A "news database" is the set of articles and related structural
information stored by a serving agent and made available for access
by reading agents.
A "serving agent" receives an article from a relaying agent and files
it in a news database. It also provides an interface for reading
agents to access the news database.
A "control message" is an article which is marked as containing
control information; a relaying or serving agent receiving such an
article may (subject to the policies observed at that site) take
actions beyond just filing and passing on the article.
A "gateway" is software which receives news articles and converts
them to messages of some other kind (e.g. mail to a mailing list), or
vice versa; in essence it is a translating relaying agent that
straddles boundaries between different methods of message exchange.
The most common type of gateway connects newsgroup(s) to mailing
list(s), either unidirectionally or bidirectionally, but there are
also gateways between news networks using this standard's news format
and those using other formats.
Previous Up Next
Previous draft (04): 2.1. Definitions.
Diffs to previous draft
--- {draft-04} Wed Jul 11 21:54:52 2001
+++ {draft-05} Wed Jul 11 21:54:53 2001
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
-2.1. Definitions.
- An "article" is the unit of news, analogous to a [MESSFOR] "message".
- A "proto-article" is one that has not yet been injected into the news
- system.
+2.1. Definitions
+ An "article" is the unit of news, analogous to an [RFC 2822]
+ "message". A "proto-article" is one that has not yet been injected
+ into the news system.
A "message identifier" (5.3) is a unique identifier for an article,
usually supplied by the "posting agent" which posted it or, failing
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
A "poster" is the person or software that composes and submits a
possibly compliant article to a "posting agent". The poster is
- analogous to [MESSFOR]'s author(s).
+ analogous to [RFC 2822]'s author(s).
A "posting agent" is the software that assists posters to prepare
proto-articles, in compliance with this standard. The proto-article
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@
A "sender" is the person or software (usually, but not always, the
same as the poster) responsible for the operation of the posting
agent or, which amounts to the same thing, for passing the article to
- the injecting agent. The sender is analogous to [MESSFOR]'s sender.
+ the injecting agent. The sender is analogous to [RFC 2822]'s sender.
An "injecting agent" takes the finished article from the posting
agent (often via the NNTP "post" command) performs some final checks