Re: ISSUE 1583 status

Julien ÉLIE <[email protected]> writes:

> Shouldn't we add that serials should be compared as a string and not as
> a number owing to their not being limited in size?  A note to future
> implementors would be useful.  I also wonder whether we should not
> change (or add?) the current example
>
> -    Control: checkgroups de !de.alt #248
> +    Control: checkgroups de !de.alt #2009021301
>
> to show a preferred way to use serial numbers.  It would be convenient
> for checkgroups senders not not worry much about the previous number
> used.

How does this patch look to everyone?

Index: usepro.xml
===================================================================
--- usepro.xml	(revision 5725)
+++ usepro.xml	(working copy)
@@ -1962,19 +1962,28 @@
           or sub-hierarchy with a smaller &lt;chksernr> value or with no
           &lt;chksernr> value.</t>
 
+          <t>There is no upper limit on the length of &lt;chksernr>
+          other than the limitation on the length of header fields.
+          Implementations may therefore want to do comparisons by
+          zero-padding the shorter of two &lt;chksernr> values on the
+          left and then doing a string comparison rather than assuming
+          &lt;chksernr> can be manipulated as a number.</t>
+
           <figure>
             <preamble>For example, the following Control header
             field</preamble>
 
             <artwork>
-      Control: checkgroups de !de.alt #248
+      Control: checkgroups de !de.alt #2009021301
             </artwork>
 
             <postamble>indicates the body of the message will list every
             newsgroup in the de.* hierarchy, excepting the de.alt.*
             sub-hierarchy, and should not be honored if a checkgroups
-            control message with a serial number greater than 248 was
-            previously honored.</postamble>
+            control message with a serial number greater than 2009021301
+            was previously honored.  The serial number in this example
+            was formed from the date in YYYYMMDD format followed by a
+            two-digit sequence number within that date.</postamble>
           </figure>
 
           <t>The body of the message is an entity of type

-- 
Russ Allbery ([email protected])             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>