usefor-usefor-02 November 2004

3.1.6  Path

   The Path header indicates the route taken by an article since its
   injection into the Netnews system.  Each agent that processes an
   article is required to prepend one (or more) identities to this
   header.  This is primarily to enable relaying agents to avoid sending
   articles to sites already known to have them, in particular the site
   they came from, and additionally to permit tracing the route articles
   take in moving over the network, and for gathering Usenet statistics.

   path            =  "Path:" SP path-list CRLF

   path-list       =  [FWS]
            *( path-identity [FWS] path-delimiter [FWS] )
            tail-entry [FWS]

   path-identity   =  ( ALPHA / DIGIT )
            *( ALPHA / DIGIT / "-" / "." / ":" / "_" )

   tail-entry      =  path-identity

   path-delimiter  =  "!" ; possible other delimiters TBD

   The specific format and use of <path-identity> and <tail-entry> are
   discussed in [USEPRO].

--- ../usefor-usefor-01/Path.out          September 2004
+++ ../usefor-usefor-02/Path.out          November 2004
@@ -1,16 +1,26 @@
 3.1.6  Path
 
    The Path header indicates the route taken by an article since its
-   entry into the Netnews system, so that unnecessary redundant
-   transmission can be avoided.
+   injection into the Netnews system.  Each agent that processes an
+   article is required to prepend one (or more) identities to this
+   header.  This is primarily to enable relaying agents to avoid sending
+   articles to sites already known to have them, in particular the site
+   they came from, and additionally to permit tracing the route articles
+   take in moving over the network, and for gathering Usenet statistics.
 
    path            =  "Path:" SP path-list CRLF
 
-   path-list       =  [FWS] path-identity
-            *( path-delimiter [FWS] path-identity ) [FWS]
+   path-list       =  [FWS]
+            *( path-identity [FWS] path-delimiter [FWS] )
+            tail-entry [FWS]
 
    path-identity   =  ( ALPHA / DIGIT )
             *( ALPHA / DIGIT / "-" / "." / ":" / "_" )
 
-   path-delimiter  =  "!"
+   tail-entry      =  path-identity
+
+   path-delimiter  =  "!" ; possible other delimiters TBD
+
+   The specific format and use of <path-identity> and <tail-entry> are
+   discussed in [USEPRO].