Re: Lines count in USEFOR

Julien ÉLIE <[email protected]> Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:15:25 +0100

Newsgroups	gmane.ietf.usenet.format
Organization	TrigoFACILE -- http://www.trigofacile.com/
Message-ID	<A29AB3FAE59F41B78ED49F7CD96BE7BE@Iulius>

Hi Charles,

>>> If I read RFC 5322:
>
>>>    body   =   (*(*998text CRLF) *998text) / obs-body
>
>>> Isn't the final *998text counting for a line?
>>> I believe the line count is the number of CRLF separators in the <body>
>>> PLUS ONE.
>>> (Unless I'm mistaken by the definition of the body?)
>
>>NNTP as presently written cannot transfer an article that does not end in
>>a CRLF.  In practice, clients will just add a CRLF to any article that
>>doesn't already end in one, since otherwise they can't POST.
>
> Then I suspect USEFOR ought to have said that the CRLF at the end was
> REQUIRED.

It is REQUIRED if you use NNTP commands defined in RFC 3977 and 4644
(for streaming).  One cannot post or transmit an article without a final
CRLF; one sees a final CRLF when it retrieves the body.

But if NNTP extensions defines others commands (like the possibility to
send a gzipped article, and to also retrieve it gzipped, it may not be
necessary to have a final CRLF -- though if transmitted or retrieved
with usual NNTP commands, a final CRLF will need to be added...).



> And what if you send it by UUCP?

I have just tested a batch processed by rnews (indicating the size in bytes
of the article to process):

a) #! rnews 2129
b) #! rnews 2127

The result is that a final CRLF is always *added by the posting agent*.

a) ARTICLE <mid>
end of article
.

b) ARTICLE <mid2>
end of artic
.

-- 
Julien ÉLIE

« Nemo auditur turpitudinem allegans. »