Newsgroups: news.software.nntp
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: NNTPD hates Message-IDs with TWO '@'s in them.  (BIG log file attached to this posting)
Message-ID: <1991Jun17.192620.27934@zoo.toronto.edu>
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 1991 19:26:20 GMT
References: <1991Jun9.232828.17956@europa.asd.contel.com> <5930@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> <1991Jun13.043253.20660@zoo.toronto.edu> <6014@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

In article <6014@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> sob@tmc.edu (Stan Barber) writes:
>>What is a "bad" message ID?  RFC1036 does not outlaw multiple @s, although
>>it warns you that RFC822 does.
>
>Hmmm. As I read RFC1036, it follows RFC822/1123 for all headers defined in
>those documents and sets standards for those headers not defined in
>RFC822/1123. To me, that means that a Date field that does not conform to
>RFC823/1123, it is illegal. You and Geoff seem to agree with that. Now,
>we have Messages IDs that don't conform and you say that that is ok
>despite what RFC822/1123 say.

The problem here is that the relationship between 1036 and 822 is confused
and ambiguous.  1036 does *not* "follow 822/1123 for all headers defined
in those documents"; it often tightens up the rules in one way or another.
A superficial reading of 1036's comments on message IDs suggests a loosening
of rules, although this is arguably contradicted by the phrasing about news
articles conforming to 822.  I'm not saying that "this is ok"; I'm saying
that it is not entirely clear that it is *not* ok, because it's less than
crystal clear just whose rules apply.

This is not a final exam.  It is proper, indeed desirable, to admit that
there is insufficient information for a definitive answer.

>Does this mean we need a new RFC that sez which RFC822/1123 fields we will
>follow as defines and which we won't?

No, we need some clarifications in 1036 about its relationship to 822.  Plus
preferably a tightening-up of its spec for message IDs so that they are
clearly a subset of the 822 ones.  (We don't want full 822 message IDs,
including obscenities like quoted white space, to be legal in news... if
only because most news systems have never accepted them.)
-- 
"We're thinking about upgrading from    | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
SunOS 4.1.1 to SunOS 3.5."              |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry
