Re: Issue in ABNF syntax for the User-Agent: header

On Mon, Nov 02, 2009 at 11:52:28PM +0100, Julien ÉLIE wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I read in USEFOR:
> 
>   user-agent      =  "User-Agent:" SP 1*product [CFWS] CRLF
>   product         =  [CFWS] token [ [CFWS] "/" product-version ]
>   product-version =  [CFWS] token
> 
> and in RFC 2045:
> 
>     token := 1*<any (US-ASCII) CHAR except SPACE, CTLs,
>                 or tspecials>
> 
>     tspecials :=  "(" / ")" / "<" / ">" / "@" /
>                   "," / ";" / ":" / "\" / <"> /
>                   "/" / "[" / "]" / "?" / "="
>                   ; Must be in quoted-string,
>                   ; to use within parameter values
> 
> 
> However, a quick "HDR User-Agent -" on news.software.nntp gives at least:
> 
> 7710 Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1 (gnu/linux)
> 7704 slrn/pre1.0.0-15 (Linux)
> 7660 tin/1.9.5-20091003 ("Rieclachan") (UNIX) (Linux/2.6.24-24-generic (i686))
> 7659 Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (Windows/20090812)
> 7600 MacSOUP/2.8.2 (Mac OS X version 10.5.8 (x86))
> 7594 Turnpike/6.07-M (<wztiu2+cqs7vk6mlt6f268lB5p>)
> 7587 Pan/0.133 (House of Butterflies)
> 
> All of them are not USEFOR-compliant!

Do you mean "None of them are" or "At least one of them is"?

In any case, as far as I can seem they all comply.  Can you explain in more
detail why you think they don't?

> Incidentally, it is normal we have [CFWS] for a few headers and not others?

I believe it is intentional.

-- 
Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho, Jyväskylä, Finland
http://antti-juhani.kaijanaho.fi/newblog/
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