usefor-article-03 February 2000

INTERNET-DRAFT                               Charles H. Lindsey
Usenet Format Working Group                  University of Manchester
                                   February 2000

                News Article Format
         <draft-ietf-usefor-article-03.txt>

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
   Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six
   months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other
   documents at any time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-
   Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work
   in progress."

   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.

   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

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 do 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 ..................................................    5
  1.1.  Basic Concepts ............................................    5
  1.2.  Objectives ................................................    6
  1.3.  Historical Outline ........................................    6
  1.4.  Transport .................................................    6
2.  Definitions, Notations and Conventions ........................    7
  2.1.  Definitions.  .............................................    7
  2.2.  Textual Notations .........................................    8
  2.3.  Relation To Mail and MIME .................................    9
  2.4.  Syntax Notation ...........................................   10
  2.5.  Language ..................................................   12
3.  Changes to the existing protocols .............................   13
  3.1.  Principal Changes .........................................   13
  3.2.  Transitional Arrangements .................................   13
4.  Basic Format ..................................................   15
  4.1.  Syntax of News Articles ...................................   15
  4.2.  Headers ...................................................   16
    4.2.1.  Names and Contents ....................................   16
    4.2.2.  Header Properties .....................................   17
      4.2.2.1.  Experimental Headers ..............................   17
      4.2.2.2.  Inheritable Headers ...............................   18
      4.2.2.3.  Local Headers .....................................   18
      4.2.2.4.  Variant Headers ...................................   18
    4.2.3.  White Space and Continuations .........................   18
    4.2.4.  Comments ..............................................   19
    4.2.5.  Undesirable Headers ...................................   20
  4.3.  Body ......................................................   20
    4.3.1.  Body Format Issues ....................................   20
    4.3.2.  Body Conventions ......................................   21
  4.4.  Characters and Character Sets .............................   23
    4.4.1.  Character Sets within Article Headers .................   23
    4.4.2.  Character Sets within Article Bodies ..................   24
  4.5.  Size Limits ...............................................   24
  4.6.  Example ...................................................   25
5.  Mandatory Headers .............................................   26
  5.1.  Date ......................................................   26
    5.1.1.  Examples ..............................................   27
  5.2.  From ......................................................   27
    5.2.1.  Examples:  ............................................   27
  5.3.  Message-ID ................................................   27
  5.4.  Subject ...................................................   28
    5.4.1.  Examples ..............................................   29
  5.5.  Newsgroups ................................................   29
    5.5.1.  Forbidden newsgroup names .............................   31
  5.6.  Path ......................................................   32
    5.6.1.  Format ................................................   32
    5.6.2.  Adding a path-identity to the Path header .............   32
    5.6.3.  The tail-entry ........................................   34
    5.6.4.  Delimiter Summary .....................................   34
    5.6.5.  Suggested Verification Methods ........................   35
    5.6.6.  Example ...............................................   36
6.  Optional Headers ..............................................   37
  6.1.  Reply-To ..................................................   37
    6.1.1.  Examples ..............................................   37
  6.2.  Sender ....................................................   38
  6.3.  Organization ..............................................   38
  6.4.  Keywords ..................................................   38
  6.5.  Summary ...................................................   38
  6.6.  Distribution ..............................................   38
  6.7.  Followup-To ...............................................   40
  6.8.  References ................................................   40
    6.8.1.  Examples ..............................................   41
  6.9.  Expires ...................................................   41
  6.10.  Archive ..................................................   41
  6.11.  Control ..................................................   41
  6.12.  Approved .................................................   42
  6.13.  Replaces / Supersedes ....................................   42
    6.13.1.  Syntax and Semantics .................................   43
    6.13.2.  Message-ID version procedure .........................   44
      6.13.2.1.  Message version numbers ..........................   44
      6.13.2.2.  Implementation and Use Note ......................   46
      6.13.2.3.  The Message-Version NNTP extension ...............   47
      6.13.2.4.  Examples .........................................   48
  6.14.  Xref .....................................................   49
  6.15.  Lines ....................................................   50
  6.16.  User-Agent ...............................................   50
    6.16.1.  Examples .............................................   51
  6.17.  MIME headers .............................................   51
    6.17.1.  Syntax ...............................................   51
    6.17.2.  Content-Transfer-Encoding ............................   52
    6.17.3.  Content-Type .........................................   52
      6.17.3.1.  Message/partial ..................................   53
      6.17.3.2.  Message/rfc822 ...................................   53
      6.17.3.3.  Message/external-body ............................   54
      6.17.3.4.  Multipart types ..................................   54
    6.17.4.  Character Sets .......................................   54
    6.17.5.  Content Disposition ..................................   55
    6.17.6.  Definition of some new Content-Types .................   55
      6.17.6.1.  Application/news-transmission ....................   55
      6.17.6.2.  Message/news withdrawn ...........................   56
  6.18.  Obsolete Headers .........................................   56
7.  Control Messages ..............................................   57
  7.1.  The 'newgroup' Control Message ............................   57
    7.1.1.  The Body of the 'newgroup' Control Message ............   58
    7.1.2.  Application/news-groupinfo ............................   58
    7.1.3.  Initial Articles ......................................   60
    7.1.4.  Example ...............................................   61
  7.2.  The 'rmgroup' Control Message .............................   62
    7.2.1.  Example ...............................................   62
  7.3.  The 'mvgroup' Control Message .............................   62
    7.3.1.  Single group ..........................................   62
    7.3.2.  Multiple Groups .......................................   63
    7.3.3.  Examples ..............................................   64
  7.4.  The 'checkgroups' Control Message .........................   65
    7.4.1.  Application/news-checkgroups ..........................   66
  7.5.  Cancel ....................................................   66
  7.6.  Ihave, sendme .............................................   68
  7.7.  Obsolete control messages.  ...............................   69
8.  Duties of Various Agents ......................................   69
  8.1.  General principles to be followed .........................   69
  8.2.  Duties of an Injecting Agent ..............................   70
    8.2.1.  Proto-articles ........................................   70
    8.2.2.  Procedure to be followed by Injecting Agents ..........   70
  8.3.  Duties of a Relaying Agent ................................   72
  8.4.  Duties of a Serving Agent .................................   73
  8.5.  Duties of a Posting Agent .................................   73
  8.6.  Duties of a Followup Agent ................................   74
  8.7.  Duties of a Gateway .......................................   74
9.  Security Considerations .......................................   74
  9.1.  Attacks ...................................................   75
10.  References ...................................................   75
11.  Acknowledgements .............................................   77
12.  Contact Addresses ............................................   77
13.  Intellectual Property Rights .................................   78
Appendix A.1 - A-News Article Format ..............................   79
Appendix A.2 - Early B-News Article Format ........................   79
Appendix B - Collected Syntax .....................................   79

--- ../rfc2822/TOC.out          April 2001
+++ ../usefor-article-03/TOC.out          February 2000
@@ -1,103 +1,194 @@
-Network Working Group                                 P. Resnick, Editor
-Request for Comments: 2822                         QUALCOMM Incorporated
-Obsoletes: 822                                                April 2001
-Category: Standards Track
+INTERNET-DRAFT                               Charles H. Lindsey
+Usenet Format Working Group                  University of Manchester
+                                   February 2000
 
-
-              Internet Message Format
+                News Article Format
+         <draft-ietf-usefor-article-03.txt>
 
 Status of this Memo
 
-   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
-   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
-   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
-   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
-   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
+   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
+   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.
+
+   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
+   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
+   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
+   Drafts.
+
+   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six
+   months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other
+   documents at any time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-
+   Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work
+   in progress."
 
-Copyright Notice
+   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
+   http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.
 
-   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001).  All Rights Reserved.
+   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
+   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.
 
 Abstract
 
-   This standard specifies a syntax for text messages that are sent
-   between computer users, within the framework of "electronic mail"
-   messages.  This standard supersedes the one specified in Request For
-   Comments (RFC) 822, "Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text
-   Messages", updating it to reflect current practice and incorporating
-   incremental changes that were specified in other RFCs.
+   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 do 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 ............................................... 3
-   1.1. Scope .................................................... 3
-   1.2. Notational conventions ................................... 4
-   1.2.1. Requirements notation .................................. 4
-   1.2.2. Syntactic notation ..................................... 4
-   1.3. Structure of this document ............................... 4
-   2. Lexical Analysis of Messages ............................... 5
-   2.1. General Description ...................................... 5
-   2.1.1. Line Length Limits ..................................... 6
-   2.2. Header Fields ............................................ 7
-   2.2.1. Unstructured Header Field Bodies ....................... 7
-   2.2.2. Structured Header Field Bodies ......................... 7
-   2.2.3. Long Header Fields ..................................... 7
-   2.3. Body ..................................................... 8
-   3. Syntax ..................................................... 9
-   3.1. Introduction ............................................. 9
-   3.2. Lexical Tokens ........................................... 9
-   3.2.1. Primitive Tokens ....................................... 9
-   3.2.2. Quoted characters ......................................10
-   3.2.3. Folding white space and comments .......................11
-   3.2.4. Atom ...................................................12
-   3.2.5. Quoted strings .........................................13
-   3.2.6. Miscellaneous tokens ...................................13
-   3.3. Date and Time Specification ..............................14
-   3.4. Address Specification ....................................15
-   3.4.1. Addr-spec specification ................................16
-   3.5 Overall message syntax ....................................17
-   3.6. Field definitions ........................................18
-   3.6.1. The origination date field .............................20
-   3.6.2. Originator fields ......................................21
-   3.6.3. Destination address fields .............................22
-   3.6.4. Identification fields ..................................23
-   3.6.5. Informational fields ...................................26
-   3.6.6. Resent fields ..........................................26
-   3.6.7. Trace fields ...........................................28
-   3.6.8. Optional fields ........................................29
-   4. Obsolete Syntax ............................................29
-   4.1. Miscellaneous obsolete tokens ............................30
-   4.2. Obsolete folding white space .............................31
-   4.3. Obsolete Date and Time ...................................31
-   4.4. Obsolete Addressing ......................................33
-   4.5. Obsolete header fields ...................................33
-   4.5.1. Obsolete origination date field ........................34
-   4.5.2. Obsolete originator fields .............................34
-   4.5.3. Obsolete destination address fields ....................34
-   4.5.4. Obsolete identification fields .........................35
-   4.5.5. Obsolete informational fields ..........................35
-   4.5.6. Obsolete resent fields .................................35
-   4.5.7. Obsolete trace fields ..................................36
-   4.5.8. Obsolete optional fields ...............................36
-   5. Security Considerations ....................................36
-   6. Bibliography ...............................................37
-   7. Editor's Address ...........................................38
-   8. Acknowledgements ...........................................39
-   Appendix A. Example messages ..................................41
-   A.1. Addressing examples ......................................41
-   A.1.1. A message from one person to another with simple
-addressing .............................................41
-   A.1.2. Different types of mailboxes ...........................42
-   A.1.3. Group addresses ........................................43
-   A.2. Reply messages ...........................................43
-   A.3. Resent messages ..........................................44
-   A.4. Messages with trace fields ...............................46
-   A.5. White space, comments, and other oddities ................47
-   A.6. Obsoleted forms ..........................................47
-   A.6.1. Obsolete addressing ....................................48
-   A.6.2. Obsolete dates .........................................48
-   A.6.3. Obsolete white space and comments ......................48
-   Appendix B. Differences from earlier standards ................49
-   Appendix C. Notices ...........................................50
-   Full Copyright Statement ......................................51
+
+
+1.  Introduction ..................................................    5
+  1.1.  Basic Concepts ............................................    5
+  1.2.  Objectives ................................................    6
+  1.3.  Historical Outline ........................................    6
+  1.4.  Transport .................................................    6
+2.  Definitions, Notations and Conventions ........................    7
+  2.1.  Definitions.  .............................................    7
+  2.2.  Textual Notations .........................................    8
+  2.3.  Relation To Mail and MIME .................................    9
+  2.4.  Syntax Notation ...........................................   10
+  2.5.  Language ..................................................   12
+3.  Changes to the existing protocols .............................   13
+  3.1.  Principal Changes .........................................   13
+  3.2.  Transitional Arrangements .................................   13
+4.  Basic Format ..................................................   15
+  4.1.  Syntax of News Articles ...................................   15
+  4.2.  Headers ...................................................   16
+    4.2.1.  Names and Contents ....................................   16
+    4.2.2.  Header Properties .....................................   17
+      4.2.2.1.  Experimental Headers ..............................   17
+      4.2.2.2.  Inheritable Headers ...............................   18
+      4.2.2.3.  Local Headers .....................................   18
+      4.2.2.4.  Variant Headers ...................................   18
+    4.2.3.  White Space and Continuations .........................   18
+    4.2.4.  Comments ..............................................   19
+    4.2.5.  Undesirable Headers ...................................   20
+  4.3.  Body ......................................................   20
+    4.3.1.  Body Format Issues ....................................   20
+    4.3.2.  Body Conventions ......................................   21
+  4.4.  Characters and Character Sets .............................   23
+    4.4.1.  Character Sets within Article Headers .................   23
+    4.4.2.  Character Sets within Article Bodies ..................   24
+  4.5.  Size Limits ...............................................   24
+  4.6.  Example ...................................................   25
+5.  Mandatory Headers .............................................   26
+  5.1.  Date ......................................................   26
+    5.1.1.  Examples ..............................................   27
+  5.2.  From ......................................................   27
+    5.2.1.  Examples:  ............................................   27
+  5.3.  Message-ID ................................................   27
+  5.4.  Subject ...................................................   28
+    5.4.1.  Examples ..............................................   29
+  5.5.  Newsgroups ................................................   29
+    5.5.1.  Forbidden newsgroup names .............................   31
+  5.6.  Path ......................................................   32
+    5.6.1.  Format ................................................   32
+    5.6.2.  Adding a path-identity to the Path header .............   32
+    5.6.3.  The tail-entry ........................................   34
+    5.6.4.  Delimiter Summary .....................................   34
+    5.6.5.  Suggested Verification Methods ........................   35
+    5.6.6.  Example ...............................................   36
+6.  Optional Headers ..............................................   37
+  6.1.  Reply-To ..................................................   37
+    6.1.1.  Examples ..............................................   37
+  6.2.  Sender ....................................................   38
+  6.3.  Organization ..............................................   38
+  6.4.  Keywords ..................................................   38
+  6.5.  Summary ...................................................   38
+  6.6.  Distribution ..............................................   38
+  6.7.  Followup-To ...............................................   40
+  6.8.  References ................................................   40
+    6.8.1.  Examples ..............................................   41
+  6.9.  Expires ...................................................   41
+  6.10.  Archive ..................................................   41
+  6.11.  Control ..................................................   41
+  6.12.  Approved .................................................   42
+  6.13.  Replaces / Supersedes ....................................   42
+    6.13.1.  Syntax and Semantics .................................   43
+    6.13.2.  Message-ID version procedure .........................   44
+      6.13.2.1.  Message version numbers ..........................   44
+      6.13.2.2.  Implementation and Use Note ......................   46
+      6.13.2.3.  The Message-Version NNTP extension ...............   47
+      6.13.2.4.  Examples .........................................   48
+  6.14.  Xref .....................................................   49
+  6.15.  Lines ....................................................   50
+  6.16.  User-Agent ...............................................   50
+    6.16.1.  Examples .............................................   51
+  6.17.  MIME headers .............................................   51
+    6.17.1.  Syntax ...............................................   51
+    6.17.2.  Content-Transfer-Encoding ............................   52
+    6.17.3.  Content-Type .........................................   52
+      6.17.3.1.  Message/partial ..................................   53
+      6.17.3.2.  Message/rfc822 ...................................   53
+      6.17.3.3.  Message/external-body ............................   54
+      6.17.3.4.  Multipart types ..................................   54
+    6.17.4.  Character Sets .......................................   54
+    6.17.5.  Content Disposition ..................................   55
+    6.17.6.  Definition of some new Content-Types .................   55
+      6.17.6.1.  Application/news-transmission ....................   55
+      6.17.6.2.  Message/news withdrawn ...........................   56
+  6.18.  Obsolete Headers .........................................   56
+7.  Control Messages ..............................................   57
+  7.1.  The 'newgroup' Control Message ............................   57
+    7.1.1.  The Body of the 'newgroup' Control Message ............   58
+    7.1.2.  Application/news-groupinfo ............................   58
+    7.1.3.  Initial Articles ......................................   60
+    7.1.4.  Example ...............................................   61
+  7.2.  The 'rmgroup' Control Message .............................   62
+    7.2.1.  Example ...............................................   62
+  7.3.  The 'mvgroup' Control Message .............................   62
+    7.3.1.  Single group ..........................................   62
+    7.3.2.  Multiple Groups .......................................   63
+    7.3.3.  Examples ..............................................   64
+  7.4.  The 'checkgroups' Control Message .........................   65
+    7.4.1.  Application/news-checkgroups ..........................   66
+  7.5.  Cancel ....................................................   66
+  7.6.  Ihave, sendme .............................................   68
+  7.7.  Obsolete control messages.  ...............................   69
+8.  Duties of Various Agents ......................................   69
+  8.1.  General principles to be followed .........................   69
+  8.2.  Duties of an Injecting Agent ..............................   70
+    8.2.1.  Proto-articles ........................................   70
+    8.2.2.  Procedure to be followed by Injecting Agents ..........   70
+  8.3.  Duties of a Relaying Agent ................................   72
+  8.4.  Duties of a Serving Agent .................................   73
+  8.5.  Duties of a Posting Agent .................................   73
+  8.6.  Duties of a Followup Agent ................................   74
+  8.7.  Duties of a Gateway .......................................   74
+9.  Security Considerations .......................................   74
+  9.1.  Attacks ...................................................   75
+10.  References ...................................................   75
+11.  Acknowledgements .............................................   77
+12.  Contact Addresses ............................................   77
+13.  Intellectual Property Rights .................................   78
+Appendix A.1 - A-News Article Format ..............................   79
+Appendix A.2 - Early B-News Article Format ........................   79
+Appendix B - Collected Syntax .....................................   79