s-o-1036 June 1994

8.1. Batches

For efficient bulk transmission and processing of news arti-
cles,  it is often desirable to transmit a number of them as
a single block of data, a "batch".  The format  of  a  batch

INTERNET DRAFT to be        NEWS                    sec. 8.1


is:

     batch         = 1*( batch-header article )
     batch-header  = "#! rnews " article-size eol
     article-size  = 1*digit

A batch is a sequence of articles, each prefixed by a header
line that includes its size.  The article size is a  decimal
count of the octets in the article, counting each EOL as one
octet regardless of how it is actually represented.

     NOTE: A relayer might wish to accept either a sin-
     gle article or a batch as input.  Since "#" cannot
     appear in a header name, examination of the  first
     octet of the input will reveal its nature.

     NOTE:  In  the  header  line, there is exactly one
     blank before "rnews", there is exactly  one  blank
     after "rnews", and the EOL immediately follows the
     article size.  Beware that some  software  inserts
     non-standard trash after the size.

     NOTE: Despite the similarity of this format to the
     executable-script format used  by  some  operating
     systems,  it  is  EXTREMELY  unwise  to  just feed
     incoming batches to a command interpreter  in  the
     anticipation  that  it  will  run  a command named
     "rnews" to process the batch.  Unless arrangements
     are  made  to  very  tightly restrict the range of
     commands that can be executed by this  means,  the
     security implications are disastrous.