usefor-article-12 November 2003

INTERNET-DRAFT                               Charles H. Lindsey
Usenet Format Working Group                  University of Manchester
                                   November 2003

        News Article Format and Transmission
         <draft-ietf-usefor-article-12.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.

   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 is intended as a standards track document, obsoleting
   RFC 1036, which itself dates from 1987.

   This Standard defines the format of Netnews articles and specifies
   the requirements to be met by software which originates, distributes,
   stores and displays them.

   Since the 1980s, Usenet has grown explosively, and many Internet and
   non-Internet sites now participate. In addition, the Netnews
   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.

[Draft-10 removed all the Internationalization features (i.e. those
involving the use of the UTF-8 charset in headers). This is being done
so as to facilitate publishing those features, or similar ones, as an
experimental protocol at a later stage.

A companion Current Best Practice document [USEAGE], addressing
requirements which are present for Social rather than Normative reasons
is in preparation.

There may well be a further split of the present draft into a
syntax/semantics part and a protocol part. Thus this present draft is
but an intermediate stage in an ongoing development process.]

[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
assist the RFC Editor.]

[In this draft, references to [NNTP] are to be replaced by [RFC 977], or
else by references to the RFC arising from the series of drafts draft-
ietf-nntpext-base-*.txt, in the event that such RFC has been accepted at
the time this document is published.]


                 Table of Contents

1.  Introduction ..................................................    0
  1.1.  Basic Concepts ............................................    0
  1.2.  Objectives ................................................    0
  1.3.  Historical Outline ........................................    0
  1.4.  Transport .................................................    0
2.  Definitions, Notations and Conventions ........................    0
  2.1.  Definitions ...............................................    0
  2.2.  Textual Notations .........................................    0
  2.3.  Relation To Email and MIME ................................    0
  2.4.  Syntax ....................................................    0
    2.4.1.  Syntax Notation .......................................    0
    2.4.2.  Syntax copied from other standards ....................    0
    2.4.3.  Syntax adapted from Email and MIME ....................    0
  2.5.  Language ..................................................    0
3.  Changes to the existing protocols .............................    0
  3.1.  Principal Changes .........................................    0
  3.2.  Transitional Arrangements .................................    0
4.  Basic Format ..................................................    0
  4.1.  Syntax of News Articles ...................................    0
  4.2.  Headers ...................................................    0
    4.2.1.  Naming of Headers .....................................    0
    4.2.2.  MIME-style Parameters .................................    0
    4.2.3.  White Space and Continuations .........................    0
    4.2.4.  Comments ..............................................    0
    4.2.5.  Header Properties .....................................    0
      4.2.5.1.  Experimental Headers ..............................    0
      4.2.5.2.  Inheritable Headers ...............................    0
      4.2.5.3.  Variant Headers ...................................    0
  4.3.  Body ......................................................    0
  4.4.  Octets, Characters and Character Sets .....................    0
    4.4.1.  Character Sets within Article Headers .................    0
    4.4.2.  Character Sets within Article Bodies ..................    0
  4.5.  Size Limits ...............................................    0
  4.6.  Example ...................................................    0
5.  Mandatory Headers .............................................    0
  5.1.  Date ......................................................    0
    5.1.1.  Examples ..............................................    0
  5.2.  From ......................................................    0
    5.2.1.  Examples:  ............................................    0
  5.3.  Message-ID ................................................    0
  5.4.  Subject ...................................................    0
  5.5.  Newsgroups ................................................    0
    5.5.1.  Forbidden newsgroup-names .............................    0
  5.6.  Path ......................................................    0
    5.6.1.  Format ................................................    0
    5.6.2.  Adding a path-identity to the Path-header .............    0
    5.6.3.  The tail-entry ........................................    0
    5.6.4.  Path-Delimiter Summary ................................    0
    5.6.5.  Example ...............................................    0
6.  Optional Headers ..............................................    0
  6.1.  Reply-To ..................................................    0
    6.1.1.  Examples ..............................................    0
  6.2.  Sender ....................................................    0
  6.3.  Organization ..............................................    0
  6.4.  Keywords ..................................................    0
  6.5.  Summary ...................................................    0
  6.6.  Distribution ..............................................    0
  6.7.  Followup-To ...............................................    0
  6.8.  Mail-Copies-To ............................................    0
  6.9.  Posted-And-Mailed .........................................    0
  6.10.  References ...............................................    0
    6.10.1.  Examples .............................................    0
  6.11.  Expires ..................................................    0
  6.12.  Archive ..................................................    0
  6.13.  Control ..................................................    0
  6.14.  Approved .................................................    0
  6.15.  Supersedes ...............................................    0
  6.16.  Xref .....................................................    0
  6.17.  Lines ....................................................    0
  6.18.  User-Agent ...............................................    0
    6.18.1.  Examples .............................................    0
  6.19.  Injector-Info ............................................    0
    6.19.1.  Usage of Injector-Info-parameters ....................    0
      6.19.1.1.  The posting-host-parameter .......................    0
      6.19.1.2.  The posting-account-parameter ....................    0
      6.19.1.3.  The posting-sender-parameter .....................    0
      6.19.1.4.  The posting-logging-parameter ....................    0
      6.19.1.5.  The posting-date-parameter .......................    0
    6.19.2.  Example ..............................................    0
  6.20.  Complaints-To ............................................    0
  6.21.  MIME headers .............................................    0
    6.21.1.  Syntax ...............................................    0
    6.21.2.  Content-Type .........................................    0
    6.21.3.  Content-Transfer-Encoding ............................    0
    6.21.4.  Definition of some new Content-Types .................    0
      6.21.4.1.  Application/news-transmission ....................    0
      6.21.4.2.  Message/news obsoleted ...........................    0
  6.22.  Obsolete Headers .........................................    0
7.  Control Messages ..............................................    0
  7.1.  Digital Signature of Headers ..............................    0
  7.2.  Group Control Messages ....................................    0
    7.2.1.  The 'newgroup' Control Message ........................    0
      7.2.1.1.  The Body of the 'newgroup' Control Message ........    0
      7.2.1.2.  Application/news-groupinfo ........................    0
      7.2.1.3.  Initial Articles ..................................    0
      7.2.1.4.  Example ...........................................    0
    7.2.2.  The 'rmgroup' Control Message .........................    0
      7.2.2.1.  Example ...........................................    0
    7.2.3.  The 'mvgroup' Control Message .........................    0
      7.2.3.1.  Example ...........................................    0
    7.2.4.  The 'checkgroups' Control Message .....................    0
      7.2.4.1.  Application/news-checkgroups ......................    0
  7.3.  Cancel ....................................................    0
  7.4.  Ihave, sendme .............................................    0
  7.5.  Obsolete control messages.  ...............................    0
8.  Duties of Various Agents ......................................    0
  8.1.  General principles to be followed .........................    0
  8.2.  Duties of an Injecting Agent ..............................    0
    8.2.1.  Proto-articles ........................................    0
    8.2.2.  Procedure to be followed by Injecting Agents ..........    0
  8.3.  Duties of a Relaying Agent ................................    0
  8.4.  Duties of a Serving Agent .................................    0
  8.5.  Duties of a Posting Agent .................................    0
  8.6.  Duties of a Followup Agent ................................    0
  8.7.  Duties of a Moderator .....................................    0
  8.8.  Duties of a Gateway .......................................    0
    8.8.1.  Duties of an Outgoing Gateway .........................    0
    8.8.2.  Duties of an Incoming Gateway .........................    0
    8.8.3.  Example ...............................................    0
9.  Security and Related Considerations ...........................    0
  9.1.  Leakage ...................................................    0
  9.2.  Attacks ...................................................    0
    9.2.1.  Denial of Service .....................................    0
    9.2.2.  Compromise of System Integrity ........................    0
  9.3.  Liability .................................................    0
10.  IANA Considerations ..........................................    0
11.  References ...................................................    0
12.  Acknowledgements .............................................    0
13.  Contact Address ..............................................    0
Appendix A.1 - A-News Article Format ..............................    0
Appendix A.2 - Early B-News Article Format ........................    0
Appendix A.3 - Obsolete Headers ...................................    0
Appendix A.4 - Obsolete Control Messages ..........................    0
Appendix B - Collected Syntax .....................................    0
Appendix B.1 - Characters, Atoms and Folding ......................    0
Appendix B.2 - Basic Forms ........................................    0
Appendix B.3 - Headers ............................................    0
Appendix B.3.1 - Header outlines ..................................    0
Appendix B.3.2 - Control-message outlines .........................    0
Appendix B.3.3 - Other header rules ...............................    0
Appendix C - Notices ..............................................    0

--- ../usefor-article-11/TOC.out          June 2003
+++ ../usefor-article-12/TOC.out          November 2003
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 INTERNET-DRAFT                               Charles H. Lindsey
 Usenet Format Working Group                  University of Manchester
-                                   June 2003
+                                   November 2003
 
-                News Article Format
-         <draft-ietf-usefor-article-11.txt>
+        News Article Format and Transmission
+         <draft-ietf-usefor-article-12.txt>
 
 Status of this Memo
 
@@ -50,15 +50,14 @@
 so as to facilitate publishing those features, or similar ones, as an
 experimental protocol at a later stage.
 
-This present draft is derived from draft-10 by removing many
-requirements which were present for Social rather than Normative reasons
-(and in particular the word "Ought" with its specially defined meaning
-is no longer used). These former requirements will now appear in a
-companion Informational document/*(us.
+A companion Current Best Practice document [USEAGE], addressing
+requirements which are present for Social rather than Normative reasons
+is in preparation.
 
 There may well be a further split of the present draft into a
 syntax/semantics part and a protocol part. Thus this present draft is
 but an intermediate stage in an ongoing development process.]
+
 [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
@@ -73,8 +72,7 @@
 [In this draft, references to [NNTP] are to be replaced by [RFC 977], or
 else by references to the RFC arising from the series of drafts draft-
 ietf-nntpext-base-*.txt, in the event that such RFC has been accepted at
-the time this document is published. Likewise, if may be possible to
-replace references to [RFC 2279] by references to [RFC 2279bis].]
+the time this document is published.]
 
 
                  Table of Contents
@@ -90,8 +88,8 @@
   2.3.  Relation To Email and MIME ................................    0
   2.4.  Syntax ....................................................    0
     2.4.1.  Syntax Notation .......................................    0
-    2.4.2.  Syntax adapted from Email and MIME ....................    0
-    2.4.3.  Syntax copied from other standards ....................    0
+    2.4.2.  Syntax copied from other standards ....................    0
+    2.4.3.  Syntax adapted from Email and MIME ....................    0
   2.5.  Language ..................................................    0
 3.  Changes to the existing protocols .............................    0
   3.1.  Principal Changes .........................................    0
@@ -107,11 +105,8 @@
       4.2.5.1.  Experimental Headers ..............................    0
       4.2.5.2.  Inheritable Headers ...............................    0
       4.2.5.3.  Variant Headers ...................................    0
-    4.2.6.  Undesirable Headers ...................................    0
   4.3.  Body ......................................................    0
-    4.3.1.  Body Format Issues ....................................    0
-    4.3.2.  Body Conventions ......................................    0
-  4.4.  Characters and Character Sets .............................    0
+  4.4.  Octets, Characters and Character Sets .....................    0
     4.4.1.  Character Sets within Article Headers .................    0
     4.4.2.  Character Sets within Article Bodies ..................    0
   4.5.  Size Limits ...............................................    0
@@ -130,8 +125,7 @@
     5.6.2.  Adding a path-identity to the Path-header .............    0
     5.6.3.  The tail-entry ........................................    0
     5.6.4.  Path-Delimiter Summary ................................    0
-    5.6.5.  Suggested Verification Methods ........................    0
-    5.6.6.  Example ...............................................    0
+    5.6.5.  Example ...............................................    0
 6.  Optional Headers ..............................................    0
   6.1.  Reply-To ..................................................    0
     6.1.1.  Examples ..............................................    0
@@ -167,11 +161,9 @@
     6.21.1.  Syntax ...............................................    0
     6.21.2.  Content-Type .........................................    0
     6.21.3.  Content-Transfer-Encoding ............................    0
-    6.21.4.  Character Sets .......................................    0
-    6.21.5.  Content Disposition ..................................    0
-    6.21.6.  Definition of some new Content-Types .................    0
-      6.21.6.1.  Application/news-transmission ....................    0
-      6.21.6.2.  Message/news obsoleted ...........................    0
+    6.21.4.  Definition of some new Content-Types .................    0
+      6.21.4.1.  Application/news-transmission ....................    0
+      6.21.4.2.  Message/news obsoleted ...........................    0
   6.22.  Obsolete Headers .........................................    0
 7.  Control Messages ..............................................    0
   7.1.  Digital Signature of Headers ..............................    0