INTERNET-DRAFT Charles H. Lindsey
Usenet Format Working Group University of Manchester
July 2001
News Article Format
<draft-ietf-usefor-article-05.txt>
Status of this Memo
This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
all provisions of Section 10 of RFC 2026.
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Abstract
This Draft defines the format of Netnews articles and specifies
the requirements to be met by software which originates,
distributes, stores and displays them. It is intended as a
standards track document, superseding RFC 1036, which itself dates
from 1987.
Since the 1980s, Usenet has grown explosively, and many Internet and
non-Internet sites now participate. In addition, this technology is
now in widespread use for other purposes.
Backward compatibility has been a major goal of this endeavour, but
where this standard and earlier documents or practices conflict, this
standard should be followed. In most such cases, current practice is
already compatible with these changes.
[The use of the words "this standard" within this document when
referring to itself does not imply that this draft yet has pretensions
to be a standard, but rather indicates what will become the case if and
when it is accepted as an RFC with the status of a proposed or draft
standard.]
[Remarks enclosed in square brackets and aligned with the left margin,
such as this one, are not part of this draft, but are editorial notes to
explain matters amongst ourselves, or to point out alternatives, or to
indicate work yet to be done.]
[Please note that this Draft describes "Work in Progress". Much remains
to be done, though the material included so far is unlikely to change in
any major way.]
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1. Basic Concepts
1.2. Objectives
1.3. Historical Outline
1.4. Transport
2. Definitions, Notations and Conventions
2.1. Definitions
2.2. Textual Notations
2.3. Relation To Mail and MIME
2.4. Syntax Notation
2.5. Language
3. Changes to the existing protocols
3.1. Principal Changes
3.2. Transitional Arrangements
4. Basic Format
4.1. Syntax of News Articles
4.2. Headers
4.2.1. Names and Contents
4.2.2. Header Properties
4.2.2.1. Experimental Headers
4.2.2.2. Inheritable Headers
4.2.2.3. Variant Headers
4.2.3. White Space and Continuations
4.2.4. Comments
4.2.5. Undesirable Headers
4.3. Body
4.3.1. Body Format Issues
4.3.2. Body Conventions
4.4. Characters and Character Sets
4.4.1. Character Sets within Article Headers
4.4.2. Character Sets within Article Bodies
4.5. Size Limits
4.6. Example
5. Mandatory Headers
5.1. Date
5.1.1. Examples
5.2. From
5.2.1. Examples:
5.3. Message-ID
5.4. Subject
5.4.1. Examples
5.5. Newsgroups
5.5.1. Forbidden newsgroup names
5.6. Path
5.6.1. Format
5.6.2. Adding a path-identity to the Path header
5.6.3. The tail-entry
5.6.4. Delimiter Summary
5.6.5. Suggested Verification Methods
5.6.6. Example
6. Optional Headers
6.1. Reply-To
6.1.1. Examples
6.2. Sender
6.3. Organization
6.4. Keywords
6.5. Summary
6.6. Distribution
6.7. Followup-To
6.8. Mail-Copies-To
6.9. Posted-And-Mailed
6.10. References
6.10.1. Examples
6.11. Expires
6.12. Archive
6.13. Control
6.14. Approved
6.15. Replaces / Supersedes
6.15.1. Syntax and Semantics
6.15.2. Message-ID version procedure
6.15.2.1. Message version numbers
6.15.2.2. Implementation and Use Note
6.15.2.3. The Message-Version NNTP extension
6.15.2.4. Examples
6.16. Xref
6.17. Lines
6.18. User-Agent
6.18.1. Examples
6.19. Injector-Info
6.19.1. Usage of Injector-Info-header-parameters
6.19.1.1. The posting-host-parameter
6.19.1.2. The posting-account-parameter
6.19.1.3. The posting-sender-parameter
6.19.1.4. The posting-logging-parameter
6.19.1.5. The posting-date-parameter
6.19.2. Example
6.20. Complaints-To
6.21. MIME headers
6.21.1. Syntax
6.21.2. Content-Type
6.21.2.1. Message/partial
6.21.2.2. Message/rfc822
6.21.2.3. Message/external-body
6.21.2.4. Multipart types
6.21.3. Content-Transfer-Encoding
6.21.4. Character Sets
6.21.5. Content Disposition
6.21.6. Definition of some new Content-Types
6.21.6.1. Application/news-transmission
6.21.6.2. Message/news withdrawn
6.22. Obsolete Headers
7. Control Messages
7.1. The 'newgroup' Control Message
7.1.1. The Body of the 'newgroup' Control Message
7.1.2. Application/news-groupinfo
7.1.3. Initial Articles
7.1.4. Example
7.2. The 'rmgroup' Control Message
7.2.1. Example
7.3. The 'mvgroup' Control Message
7.3.1. Single group
7.3.2. Multiple Groups
7.3.3. Examples
7.4. The 'checkgroups' Control Message
7.4.1. Application/news-checkgroups
7.5. Cancel
7.6. Ihave, sendme
7.7. Obsolete control messages.
8. Duties of Various Agents
8.1. General principles to be followed
8.2. Duties of an Injecting Agent
8.2.1. Proto-articles
8.2.2. Procedure to be followed by Injecting Agents
8.3. Duties of a Relaying Agent
8.4. Duties of a Serving Agent
8.5. Duties of a Posting Agent
8.6. Duties of a Followup Agent
8.7. Duties of a Moderator
8.8. Duties of a Gateway
8.8.1. Duties of an Outgoing Gateway
8.8.2. Duties of an Incoming Gateway
8.8.3. Example
9. Security and Related Considerations
9.1. Leakage
9.2. Attacks
9.2.1. Denial of Service
9.2.2. Compromise of System Integrity
9.3. Liability
10. References
11. Acknowledgements
12. Contact Addresses
13. Intellectual Property Rights
Appendix A.1 - A-News Article Format
Appendix A.2 - Early B-News Article Format
Appendix A.3 - Obsolete Headers
Appendix A.4 - Obsolete Control Messages
Appendix B - Collected Syntax
Diffs to previous draft