s-o-1036 June 1994

6.18. Article-Updates

The  Article-Updates  header content indicates what previous
articles this one is deemed (by the poster) to update (i.e.,
replace):

     Article-Updates-content  = message-id *( space message-id )

Each  message ID identifies a previous article that this one
is deemed to update.  This MUST not cause the previous arti-
cle(s)  to be cancelled or otherwise altered, unless this is
implied by other headers (e.g. Supersedes);  Article-Updates
is  merely an advisory which MAY be noted for special atten-
tion by reading agents.

     NOTE: This header provides a way to mark  articles
     which  are  only  minor  updates of previous ones,
     containing no significant new information and  not
     worth reading if the previous ones have been read.

     NOTE: If suitable conventions using MIME multipart
     bodies  and  the "message/external-body" body-part
     type can be developed, a replacing  article  might
     contain  only differences between the old text and
     the new text, rather than  a  complete  new  copy.
     This  is  the  motivation  for not making Article-
     Updates also  function  as  Supersedes  does:  the
     replacing  article  might  depend on the continued
     presence of the replaced article.