INTERNET-DRAFT P. Grau <draft-dfncis-netnews-admin-sys-02.txt> V. Heinau Expires May 26, 2001 H. Schlichting DFN-CIS November 2000 Netnews Administration System (NAS) <draft-dfncis-netnews-admin-sys-02.txt> Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all provisions of section 10 of [RFC2026]. 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 The Netnews Administration System (NAS) is a framework to simplify the administration and usage of network news on the Internet. Data for the administration of newsgroups and hierarchies are kept in a distributed hierarchical database, and are available through a client-server-protocol. The database is accessible by news servers and news administrators as well as by news readers. News servers can update their configuration automatically; administrators are able to get the data manually. News reader programs are able to get certain information from an NAS server, automatically or at a user's discretion, to provide detailed information about groups and hierarchies to the user. NAS is usable in coexistence with the current, established process of Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 1]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 control messages; an unwanted interference is impossible. Furthermore, NAS is able to reflect the somewhat chaotic structure of Usenet in a hierarchical database. NAS can be used without modification of existing news relay, news server or news reader software, however, some tasks will be better accomplished with NAS compliant software. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 2]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 Table of Contents Status of this Memo ............................................... 1 Abstract .......................................................... 1 1. Introduction .................................................. 4 2. Overview ...................................................... 5 3. Protocol Level ................................................ 6 4. Description of Functions ...................................... 7 5. Definitions ................................................... 8 6. Specification of the NAS Protocol (TCP) ....................... 9 6.1. Responses ............................................... 9 6.1.1. Overview .......................................... 9 6.1.2. Response Code Values, Structure and Meaning ....... 9 6.2. Connection Setup ........................................ 10 6.3. Commands ................................................ 11 6.3.1. Structure ......................................... 11 6.3.2. Overview .......................................... 11 6.3.3. Detailed Description .............................. 11 6.3.3.1. HELP ........................................ 12 6.3.3.2. INFO ........................................ 13 6.3.3.3. DATE ........................................ 14 6.3.3.4. VERS ........................................ 15 6.3.3.5. QUIT ........................................ 16 6.3.3.6. LIST ........................................ 17 6.3.3.7. LSTR ........................................ 19 6.3.3.8. HIER ........................................ 20 6.3.3.9. DATA ........................................ 22 6.3.3.10. GETL ....................................... 23 6.3.3.11. GETP ....................................... 24 6.3.3.12. GETA ....................................... 27 6.3.3.13. Unknown Commands and Syntax Errors ......... 29 6.3.4. Data Headers ...................................... 29 6.4. Status Indicators ....................................... 42 6.5. Newsgroup Types ......................................... 42 6.6. Hierarchy Types ......................................... 43 6.7. PGP Keys ................................................ 43 7. Specification of the NAS Protocol (UDP) ....................... 44 8. Security Considerations ....................................... 45 9. Response Codes (Overview) ..................................... 45 10. Data Headers for DATA and HIER Commands (Overview) ........... 46 11. References ................................................... 47 12. Author's Address ............................................. 48 Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 3]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 1. Introduction The increasing number of newsgroups, hierarchies and articles has made the administration of news servers a complex and time consuming task. The tools for the administration have remained unchanged for nearly ten years and are no longer appropriate. Many hierarchies are inconsistent, many new newsgroups are not created or only with a huge delay, removed groups keep lurking in the configuration files for a long period of time. There is no administration tool that utilizes the power of the Internet, and it is not possible to check the consistency of the news server at a given point of time. Users find it difficult to get an overview of the newsgroups, the charter of a particular one, which language is preferred, or whether a group is moderated or not. Renaming, the status change from moderated to unmoderated or vice versa, and the splitting of a group into several others are dynamic processes. These processes are common use, but it takes a long time until every news server is aware of these changes. An increasing number of faked control messages has appeared in the last few years. Purposely or accidentally control messages were sent to foreign news servers to create or remove a certain group, although this task was not approved by the rules of the hierarchy in question. Due to this fact, on many news servers the automatic creation is disabled and several dead groups have not been deleted. It is very difficult for users to determine the status of a group, and therefore the propagation of articles is affected by this fact. It is the design goal of NAS to provide an out-of-band system that helps to maintain, propagate, and deliver the required information. There will not be any interference with current protocols and standards. It is not intended to make use of control messages or some special NNTP commands. The advantage of NAS is that it provides more information in a more structured format than control messages. Not only news server administrators but also Usenet users can get more detailed information about newsgroups and hierarchies. Due to the fact that a client connects to a server, and the server asks for authentication, this is a more reasonable procedure of transmitting information than control messages. Furthermore, it is possible to check for changes on a regular basis at customized intervals to keep local data up-to-date. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 4]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 2. Overview NAS is based on a database, which contains information belonging to certain groups and hierarchies. This database is structured in a hierarchical manner, distributed to various servers and is able to receive queries at any time. The service is comparable to directory services like DNS, LDAP or NIS. The NAS protocol is inspired by protocols like NNTP and SMTP. The port 991 is reserved for NAS and registered by the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) [IANA- PN]. The organizational structure of NAS is hierarchical, that means a NAS root server collects data from the subservers that are authoritative for certain hierarchies. The root server signs the data and distributes it authoritatively. Replication of database entries is possible. The hierarchical structure can consist of multiple levels. Usage of the database is possible for news servers, news readers and special client programs. The communication is based on TCP and UDP. Taking the real world into account, there might be some policy problems with a single root server. But it is possible to establish a structure like the current Usenet system, where some hierarchies have a good administration with a well-defined system of rules and some are not well maintained. The goal is to get as much information as possible under one hat, but there can be no "official" force to achieve this. During the startup phase it is quite likely that there will be a root server, handling just hierarchies with strict rules and accepted authorities (like BIG8, de.*, us.*, bln.*, fr.*, it.*, etc.). However, it is also imaginable to have some NAS servers providing data on - for example - alt.!binaries, some providing data on alt.*, and even some providing alt.* following special policies or sets of rules. An administrator using NAS will have the choice to use just one root server (and all its data) and/or to use another NAS server for special hierarchies. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 5]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 .............. .............. ................... . NAS server . . NAS server . . NAS server . . . . . . alt.*, . . alt.* . . Big8 . . !alt.binaries.* . .............. .............. ................... . database . . database . . database . .............. .............. ................... ^ ^ ^ ^ `--+ +--' `------+ +----' | | | | .------------. .------------. | NAS client | | NAS client | +------------+ +------------+ | netnews | | netnews | | server | | server | .------------. .------------. Configuration A Configuration B Figure 1 NAS contains information about newsgroups as well as complete hierarchies. Furthermore, it contains information about the hierarchies' inheritable entries and default values for a single newsgroup. 3. Protocol Level It is expected that the real life use of NAS will change the requirements for the Netnews Administration System. On one hand the protocol has to be extensible and flexible in order to implement improvements. On the other hand it must ensure compatibility between different versions. A simultaneous migration of all sites using NAS to a new protocol version is not likely to happen. To solve this problem, NAS has a protocol level. This protocol level describes the current functionality. The protocol level, being a number between 1 and 32767, is negotiated at connection setup. Enhancements and modifications must use a different protocol level than their predecessors. (Usually the protocol level is incremented by 1 with every new version of the protocol specification.) Every current or future implementation MUST be compatible with the protocol level 1, in order to fall back to this level if communication on a higher level fails. An implementation of higher protocol levels should be able to emulate Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 6]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 the behavior of lower levels, even if this implies a loss of features. The negotiation of the protocol level between client and server is described in the specification of the command VERS. If there is no agreement on the protocol level, only commands of the protocol level 1 MUST be used. Documents enhancing or modifying the NAS standard MUST specify from which level these changes take place and how the behavior should be in other protocol levels. This document describes protocol level 1. 4. Description of Functions In order to use an NAS server, a connection must be opened by the client. The NAS server can be located in the same domain or somewhere else on the Internet. The NAS system is hierarchical. The idea is to have an NAS root server like the DNS root servers. The root server distributes the data collected from client NAS servers that are authoritative servers for their hierarchy. The maintenance of the authoritative data is possible on any system. The root server collects the data and makes them available to other servers, which also can distribute these data to other servers. The administrator has the opportunity to make use of either all data or only parts of the database. NAS servers can ask multiple NAS servers for data. An attached time stamp provides the possibility to distinguish between new and old data and to avoid loops in the propagation. To describe the NAS in greater detail, it is necessary to emphasize the hierarchical design of the NAS system. The following picture shows the propagation of data along the server hierarchy. There are two kinds of data collection: In first place the authoritative data for a newsgroup or a hierarchy are collected, and written into a database. This database is made available to a local NAS server. The data will then be collected by the upstream NAS server. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 7]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 ............ collects from > . root NAS .-------------------------+ . server .----------------+ | ............ | | . database . | | ............ | | ^ v | .............. | | | . de.* . | |distributes | . NAS server . queries| | | .............. | | | . database . ^ v | .............. ............ | . database . `--------+ . with NAS . | . client . .............. ............ . bln.* . ^ ^ ^ . NAS server . | | | .---------. .............. q | | `--| netnews | . database . u | | | server | .............. e | | .---------. r | | i | | .---------. e | `--| admin | s | | program | | .---------. | | .---------. `--| news | | reader | .---------. Figure 2 Requests to an NAS server originating at a client as well as another server are accomplished in several steps, as there are: Establishing a connection, authentication (optional), negotiating a protocol level (optional), queries on the database, and termination. 5. Definitions The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119]. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 8]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 6. Specification of the NAS Protocol (TCP) 6.1. Responses 6.1.1. Overview An answer starts with a response code (a three digit number), optionally followed by white space and a textual message. Then the actual Text/Data follows. Text is sent as a series of successive lines of textual matter, each terminated with CRLF. A single line containing only a single period ('.') is sent to indicate the end of the text (i.e. the server will send a CRLF at the end of the last line of text, a period, and another CRLF). Answer = Status [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF If the original text contains a period as the first character of the text line, that first period is doubled. Therefore, the client must examine the first character of each line received, and for those beginning with a period, determine either that this is the end of the text or whether to collapse the doubled period to a single one. Example: <-- INFO --> 101 Information follows Server: nas.fu-berlin.de (160.45.11.141) Uptime: 2 weeks, 3 days, 5 hours, 9 minutes Software: NAS 1.0 Client: waran.cis.fu-berlin.de (160.45.11.136) Connection: 9 minutes Highest protocol level supported: 1 Requested protocol level: 1 Protocol level used: 1 . 6.1.2. Response Code Values, Structure and Meaning The first digit of the response code indicates the message type, i.e., information, success, warning, error, or data: 1xx Information 2xx Request successful 3xx Request successful, data follow Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 9]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 4xx Request accepted, but no operation possible 5xx Request is wrong (syntax error), not implemented, or leads to an internal error 6xx Request successful, data follow until end mark The second digit specifies the message category: x0x connection related stuff x1x queries, answers, or data x2x server-server communication x3x authentication, authorization x8x non-standard extensions x9x debugging output The actual response code for a specific command is listed in the description of the commands. Answers of the type 1xx, 2xx, 4xx, and 5xx can have a text after the numerical code. 3xx answers contain one or more parameters with data; the exact format is explained in the description of the commands. An answer to an incorrect request may be longer than one line. 6.2. Connection Setup NAS typically uses port 991, which is reserved by IANA [IANA-PN]. If a connection is set up by the client, the server answers immediately (without a request) with the greeting message, which will start with code 200: --> 200 Welcome! nas.fu-berlin.de ready . If a connection is refused because the client has no permission to access the server, the answer code is 434. When the server is currently out of service, the answer code is 404. Examples: 434 You have no permission to retrieve data. Good bye. 404 Maintenance time After sending a 404 or 434 message the connection will be closed. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 10]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 6.3. Commands 6.3.1. Structure A command consists of a command word, sometimes followed by a parameter. Parameters are separated from the command word by white space. Commands used in the NAS protocol are not case sensitive. A command word or parameter may be upper case, lower case, or any mixture of upper and lower case. The length of a command line is not limited. The protocol level described in this document uses command words with a length of exactly four characters each. In examples, octets sent to the NAS server are preceded by "<-- " and those sent by the NAS server by "--> ". The indicator is omitted if the direction of the dialog does not change. 6.3.2. Overview The commands described below are defined using the Augmented Backus- Naur Form (ABNF) defined in [RFC2234]. The definitions for `ALPHA', `CRLF', `DIGIT', `WSP' and `VCHAR' are taken from appendix A of [RFC2234] and not repeated here. The following ABNF definitions comprise the set of NAS commands which can be sent from the client to an NAS server. 6.3.3. Detailed Description Some overall definitions: text = %d1-9 / ; all octets except %d11-12 / ; US-ASCII NUL, CR and LF %d14-255 answertext = WSP *(ALPHA / DIGIT / "+" / "-" / "/" / "_" / "=" / "?" / "!" / SP) Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 11]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 utc-time = 14DIGIT ; The date and time of the server in UTC ; YYYYMMDDhhmmss Newsgroup names and hierarchy names are defined according to the following ABNF definitions. Since a hierarchy name can be the same as a newsgroup name (e.g., hierarchy bln.announce.fub.* and newsgroup name bln.announce.fub) there is no difference between the two. hierarchy-name = newsgroup-name ; these two are identical newsgroup-name = plain-component *("." component) component = plain-component / encoded-word encoded-word = lowercase / DIGIT =/ "+" / "-" / "/" / "_" / "=" / "?" plain-component = first-component-start component-rest first-component-start = lowercase component-start = lowercase / digit lowercase = %x61-7a ; letter a-z lowercase component-rest = component-start / "+" / "-" / "_" NOTE: This definition of a newsgroup name is according to son-of-1036-draft [SON1036]. When the current draft "News Article Format" [USRFOR] is established as an RFC, its definitions should be integrated into a higher protocol level of NAS. 6.3.3.1. HELP Description This command prints a short help text on a given command. If called without parameters, it will display a complete list of commands. help-cmd = "HELP" [WSP commandname] CRLF commandname = "DATA" / "DATE" / "GETL" / "GETP" / "GETA" =/ "HELP" / "HIER" / "INFO" / "LIST" / "LSTR" =/ "QUIT" / "VERS" Possible answers 100: Command overview, command description 410: Indicates that the server is not giving any information help-answer = "410" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF =/ "100" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 12]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 "." CRLF Examples <-- HELP --> 100 NAS server nas.fu-berlin.de, Version 1.0 Supported commands: DATA - data for a newsgroup DATE - show time of server in UTC GETL - get list of hierarchy packages GETP - get package GETA - get data from an authoritative server HELP - show this help HIER - data for a hierarchy INFO - show info on current connection LIST - list newsgroups or hierarchies LSTR - recursive list newsgroups or hierarchies QUIT - close the connection VERS - show or set current protocol level Contact address nas@cis.fu-berlin.de . <-- HELP LIST --> 100 LIST LIST - list newsgroups or hierarchies Syntax: LIST hierarchy ... Get a list of newsgroups and subhierarchies directly under the parameter hierarchy . <-- HELP NOOP --> 410 unknown command "NOOP" . 6.3.3.2. INFO Description Prints information about the current connection, the server, and the client. info-cmd = "INFO" CRLF Possible answers Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 13]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 101: Normal answer, prints some information about client and server 400: Indicates that the server is not giving any information info-answer = "400" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF =/ "101" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF Examples <-- INFO --> 101 Information follows Server: nas.fu-berlin.de (160.45.11.141) Uptime: 2 weeks, 3 days, 5 hours, 9 minutes Software: NAS 1.0 Client: waran.cis.fu-berlin.de (160.45.11.136) Connection: 9 minutes Highest protocol level supported: 1 Requested protocol level: 1 Protocol level used: 1 End . <-- INFO --> 400 No information available. . 6.3.3.3. DATE Description Prints the current time of the server in UTC (Universal Coordinated Time) in the format YYYYMMDDhhmmss, followed by an optional comment. The DATE command is only for informational use and to check the server time. For regular transmission of time over the network, the NTP protocol [RFC1305] should be used. date-cmd = "DATE" CRLF Possible answers Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 14]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 300: Print the UTC time in specified format, see below 511: Error, print an error message date-answer = "511" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF =/ "300" [answertext] CRLF utc-time [answertext] CRLF "." CRLF Examples <-- DATE --> 300 19990427135230 UTC . <-- DATE --> 511 Time is unknown . 6.3.3.4. VERS Description The VERS command is used to determine the protocol level used between client and server. The parameter is a protocol level that the client supports and wants to use. The server will respond with the highest level accepted. This version number MUST not be higher than requested by the client. Client and server MUST only use commands from the level that the server has confirmed. It is possible, but seldom necessary, to change the protocol level during a session by client request (VERS [protocol level]). When no option is given, the current protocol level will be printed. When no protocol level is negotiated, the protocol level 1 will be used. Commands of a higher level are not allowed without successful negotiation. The protocol level can be followed by an optional comment. vers-cmd = "VERS" [WSP level] CRLF level = 1*5DIGIT ; the valid range is 1 - 32767 Possible answers Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 15]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 202: Returns current protocol level 302: Requested level accepted 402: Requested level too high, falling back to lower level 510: Syntax error vers-answer = "202" [answertext] CRLF level [answertext] CRLF "." CRLF =/ "302" [answertext] CRLF level [answertext] WSP level CRLF "." CRLF =/ "402" [answertext] CRLF level [answertext] WSP level CRLF "." CRLF =/ "510" [answertext] CRLF level [answertext] CRLF "." CRLF Examples <-- VERS --> 202 2 Current protocol level is 2 . <-- VERS 2 --> 302 2 My max protocol level is 10 . <-- VERS 11 --> 402 10 Falling back to level 10 . <-- VERS BAL --> 510 1 Syntax error . 6.3.3.5. QUIT Description Terminates the connection. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 16]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 quit-cmd = "QUIT" CRLF Possible answers 201: Termination of the connection quit-answer = "201" [answertext] CRLF Examples <-- QUIT --> 201 Closing connection. Bye. 6.3.3.6. LIST Description To obtain a list of newsgroups and subhierarchies in the requested hierarchies the command LIST is used. The status of the hierarchies is also given. The highest level consists of all top-level hierarchies and is labeled "*". It can be obtained this way, too. The response code 610 is followed by white space and the end mark. The last line of the data stream must begin with the end mark. The end mark will be checked case insensitive. Comments after the separating white space are allowed. The data consist of a newsgroup- or hierarchy-name/status indicator pair per line. Name and status indicator must be separated by at least one white space. The status indicator is one letter (see section 6.3.5). The interpretation is not case sensitive. list-cmd = "LIST" ( WSP "*" / 1*(WSP hierarchy-name)) CRLF Possible answers 401: Permission denied 530: The parameter "hierarchy" is missing 610: Normal response with all requested data list-answer = "610" [answertext] CRLF *(listdata CRLF) "." CRLF =/ "401" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 17]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 "." CRLF =/ "530" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF listdata = newsgroup-name WSP list-status CRLF The list-status is the status of a newsgroup or hierarchy according to section 6.4. list-status = "Complete" =/ "Incomplete" =/ "Obsolete" =/ "Unknown" =/ "Post-Yes" =/ "Post-No" =/ "Moderated" =/ "Removed" =/ "Unknown" ; list-status is case-insensitive Examples <-- LIST * --> 610 data follow alt Incomplete bln Complete comp Complete de Complete rec Complete sub Obsolete . <-- LIST de --> 610 data follow de.admin Complete de.alt Incomplete de.comm Complete de.comp Complete de.etc Complete de.markt Complete de.newusers Complete de.org Complete de.rec Complete de.sci Complete de.soc Complete de.talk Complete de.answers Moderated Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 18]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 de.test Post-Yes . <-- LIST foo --> 610 data follow foo Unknown . <-- LIST --> 530 missing parameter hierarchy . <-- LIST de --> 401 Something is wrong Permission denied . 6.3.3.7. LSTR Description To obtain a recursive list of newsgroups and subhierarchies in the named hierarchy, the command LSTR is used. The status of the hierarchies is also given. The highest level consists of all top- level hierarchies and is labeled "*". It can be obtained this way, too. The use of wildmat patterns is also possible; so a "LSTR de.a*" would return a list of all newsgroup starting with de.a*. Note: This is according to wildmat(3) from libinn; it SHOULD be possible to issue requests in the style of the newsfeeds(5) pattern for newsgroup syntax. lstr-cmd = "LSTR" ( WSP "*" / 1*(WSP hierarchy-name)) CRLF Possible answers 401: Permission denied 530: The parameter "hierarchy" is missing 610: Normal answer with all requested data lstr-answer = "610" [answertext] CRLF *(listdata CRLF) "." CRLF =/ "401" [answertext] CRLF Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 19]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 text CRLF "." CRLF =/ "530" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF listdata = newsgroup-name WSP list-status CRLF Examples <-- LSTR de.admin --> 610 recursive mode de.admin Complete de.admin.archiv Post-Yes de.admin.infos Moderated de.admin.lists Moderated de.admin.misc Post-Yes de.admin.net-abuse Complete de.admin.net-abuse.announce Moderated de.admin.net-abuse.mail Post-Yes de.admin.net-abuse.misc Post-Yes de.admin.net-abuse.news Post-Yes de.admin.news Complete de.admin.news.announce Moderated de.admin.news.groups Post-Yes de.admin.news.misc Post-Yes de.admin.news.nocem Post-Yes de.admin.news.regeln Post-Yes de.admin.submaps Moderated . 6.3.3.8. HIER Description The command HIER lists all information available about the hierarchy. With data header "Name" a new data block for each hierarchy is started. The header "Name" gives the name of the hierarchy. The data headers are described in section 6.3.4. The default is to transmit all available information. It can be limited to a list of desired headers ("Name" and "Status" are always given). A set of comma separated headers, as an option to the HIER command will return the requested header fields. hier-cmd = "HIER" [WSP range] 1*(WSP hierarchy-name) CRLF range = header *( "," header ) ; Describes the data fields Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 20]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 ; that are requested header = ALPHA *( ALPHA / "-" ) ; According to section 6.3.4 Examples for range: Followup,Description : for all entries list Name, Status, Followup and Description Possible answers 401: Permission denied 530: Missing parameter 611: Regular answer with all requested data hier-answer = "611" [answertext] CRLF *(hierdata CRLF) "." CRLF =/ "530" [answertext] CRLF *(text CRLF) "." CRLF =/ "401" [answertext] CRLF *(text CRLF) "." CRLF hierdata = "Name:" WSP test CRLF "Status:" WSP text CRLF *(header ":" WSP text CRLF) ["Ctl-PGP-Key:" CRLF PGP-answer] ["Mod-PGP-Key:" CRLF PGP-answer] PGP-answer: The exact format is described in section 6.7 Examples <-- HIER de --> 611 Data coming Name: de Status: Complete Description: Internationale deutschsprachige Newsgruppen Netiquette: http://www.dana.de/de/netiquette.html Faq: http://www.dana.de/de/neue-de-gruppe.html Ctl-Send-Adr: moderator@dana.de Ctl-Newsgroup: de.admin.news.announce Mod-Wildcard: %s@moderators.dana.de Language: DE Charset: ISO-8859-1 Encoding: text/plain Newsgroup-Type: Discussion Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 21]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 Hier-Type: Global Name-Length: 14 Date-Create: 199201060000 . <-- HIER bln --> 401 Permission denied . <-- HIER --> 530 There is an error missing parameter hierarchy . 6.3.3.9. DATA Description The DATA command corresponds to the HIER command, but it is used for information about a newsgroup. A summary of codes can be found in section 6.3.4. data-cmd = "DATA" [WSP range] 1*(WSP newsgroup-name) CRLF Possible answers 401: Permission denied 530: Missing parameter 612: Regular answer with all requested data data-answer = "612" [answertext] CRLF *(datadata CRLF) "." CRLF =/ "530" [answertext] CRLF) text CRLF "." CRLF =/ "401" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF datadata = "Name:" WSP test CRLF "Status:" WSP text CRLF *(header ":" WSP text CRLF) ["Ctl-PGP-Key:" CRLF PGP-answer] ["Mod-PGP-Key:" CRLF PGP-answer] Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 22]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 Examples <-- DATA de.comp.os.unix.linux.moderated --> 612 data follow Name de.comp.os.unix.linux.moderated Status: Moderated Description: Linux und -Distributionen. <dcoulm-moderators@linux-config.de> Charter: http://www.dana.de/mod/chartas/de.comp.html#de.comp. os.unix.linux.moderated Netiquette: http://www.dana.de/de/netiquette.html Netiquette: ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/doc/usenet/german /netiquette.gz Mod-Sub-Adr: dcoulm-moderators@linux-config.de Mod-Group-Info: http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~dcoulmod/ Newsgroup-Type: Discussion . <-- DATA de.foo --> 612 data follow Name: de.foo Status: Incomplete . <-- DATA de --> 401 Permission denied . <-- DATA --> 530 missing parameter newsgroup . 6.3.3.10. GETL Description The GETL command is intended for server-server communication; it will request the list of hierarchy names that a server is offering. A package is the complete information available for a hierarchy or newsgroup, i.e. all entries that have a value including PGP keys. The format of the data is the same as for the commands "HIER" and "LIST". The server will send a list of ditributable hierarchy packages available. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 23]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 getl-cmd = "GETL" CRLF Possible answers 401: Permission denied 614: Lists all hierarchy a server is authoritative for getl-answer = "614" [answertext] CRLF *(getldata) "." CRLF =/ "401" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF getldata = *(newsgroup-name CRLF) Examples <-- GETL --> 614 data follow de . <-- GETL --> 614 data follow de hk comp rec [...] bln . 6.3.3.11. GETP Description GETP requests the data for the hierarchy specified by the parameter "hierarchy-name". If "*" is given as hierarchy name, all data the server is offering will be transmitted. The "timestamp" is the date and time the package was last obtained by the client, so the server can check if the data on the client side is still valid or if it is too old. If the data on the client side is still valid a 213 answer is sent, so the client knows that his data is ok. If the serial is "0", the server is forced to transmit the data. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 24]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 The data for a successful request are sent in ASCII armor according to [RFC2440], so a client has the possibility to check the signature or to ignore it. The actual data will be surrounded by an indicator that specifies the signing method, the beginning mark, and the end mark. These specifications will be included in the signed text block. getp-cmd = "GETP" WSP password WSP timestamp ( WSP "0" / *( WSP hierarchy-name )) CRLF password = *1( VCHAR ) / "0" ; Length of VCHAR >= 1 timestamp = utc-time ; date and time of the last retrieval =/ "0" ; force the transmission of data Possible answers 213: Current data at the client side 411: No hierarchy with that name 430: Permission denied 530: Missing parameter 613: Hierarchy data getp-answer = "613" [answertext] CRLF pgp-start-mark ; this is according to [RFC2440] "GETP" WSP "SIGN" WSP method CRLF "GETP" WSP "BEGIN" CRLF *(getpdata CRLF) "GETP" WSP "END" CRLF pgp-end-mark ; this is according to [RFC2440] "." CRLF =/ "213" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF =/ "430" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF =/ "411" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF =/ "530" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF Currently the following methods are allowed: method = "PGP2" / "PGP5" / "GPG" ; PGP version 2, PGP version 5 and GnuPG Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 25]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 pgp-start-mark and the pgp-end-mark are built according to [RFC2440], Section 6.2., "Forming ASCII Armor". getpdata = "Name:" WSP test CRLF "Status:" WSP text CRLF *(header ":" WSP text CRLF) ["Ctl-PGP-Key:" CRLF PGP-answer] ["Mod-PGP-Key:" CRLF PGP-answer] Examples <-- GETP 0 0 humanities --> 613 data follow -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- GETP SIGN PGP2 GETP BEGIN Name: humanities Status: Complete Description: branches of learning that investigate human constructs and concerns as opposed to natural processes Netiquette: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers/ A_Primer_on_How_to_Work_With_the_Usenet_Community Rules: http://www.uvv.org/formus/big8creation.htm Ctl-Send-Adr: group-admin@isc.org Ctl-Newsgroup: news.announce.newgroup Language: EN Charset: US-ASCII Encoding: text/plain Newsgroup-Type: Discussion Hier-Type: Global Comp-Length: 14 Date-Create: 19950417143009 Name: humanities.answers Status: Moderated Description: Repository for periodic USENET articles. (Moderated) Mod-Sub-Adr: news-answers@mit.edu Mod-Adm-Adr: news-answers-request@mit.edu Newsgroup-Type: Announce Date-Create: 19950725182040 Name: humanities.classics [...] GETP END -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3in Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 26]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBOBhmWTiii3auEmclAQEM9wP9FVem1VXYrywFa2FLEh1apsay9yJC9jKT V80U1M1LAKkR+xkXZdczd/PIGEAQapauKjINpxFOgynMWd8A2Ta0y4s4ZXHgEiZP A/tKaMGi/7roZwUp8ERQRBsvc54kckgnX57HiVUgsbVd41FHPTvsVLv/QIHmqaGd fR5aQJfwKhE= =Sg4p -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- . <-- GETP 0 199909091010 de --> 213 You are uptodate . <-- GETP foo --> 530 Missing parameters . <-- GETP test 0 de --> 430 You have no permission to retrieve the data Cause: Wrong IP number . 6.3.3.12. GETA Description The GETA command is used for server-server communication; it will request packages that the server is authoritative for. A package is the authoritative data either for a newsgroup or a hierarchy. Each package has a serial number attached to control the age of the package. The "timestamp" is the date of the last known modification of the package data in UTC format. A serial of "0" indicates that the package MUST be retrieved. If the retrieving client has a recent package (i.e. no modification on the authoritative server), the server sends only a 215 response. The format of the data is the same as for the commands "HIER" and "LIST". geta-cmd = "GETA" WSP password WSP serial WSP hierarchy-name CRLF Possible answers 215: The client already has the current data Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 27]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 430: Permission denied 411: No hierarchy with that name 530: Missing parameter 615: Regular answer with all requested data geta-answer = "615" [answertext] CRLF pgp-start-mark ; this is according to [RFC2440] "GETA" WSP "SIGN" WSP method CRLF "GETA" WSP "BEGIN" CRLF *(getadata CRLF) "GETA" WSP "END" CRLF pgp-end-mark ; this is according to [RFC2440] "." CRLF =/ "215" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF =/ "430" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF =/ "411" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF =/ "530" [answertext] CRLF text CRLF "." CRLF getadata = "Name:" WSP test CRLF "Status:" WSP text CRLF *(header ":" WSP text CRLF) ["Ctl-PGP-Key:" CRLF PGP-answer] ["Mod-PGP-Key:" CRLF PGP-answer] Examples <-- GETA 0 0 humanities --> 613 data follow -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- GETA SIGN PGP2 GETA BEGIN Name: humanities Status: Complete Description: the branches of learning that investigate human constructs and concerns as opposed to natural processes Netiquette: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers/ A_Primer_on_How_to_Work_With_the_Usenet_Community Rules: http://www.uvv.org/formus/big8creation.htm Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 28]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 Ctl-Send-Adr: group-admin@isc.org Ctl-Newsgroup: news.announce.newgroup Language: EN Charset: US-ASCII Encoding: text/plain Newsgroup-Type: Discussion Hier-Type: Global Comp-Length: 14 Date-Create: 19950417143009 Name: humanities.answers Status: Moderated Description: Repository for periodic USENET articles. (Moderated) Mod-Sub-Adr: news-answers@mit.edu Mod-Adm-Adr: news-answers-request@mit.edu Newsgroup-Type: Announce Date-Create: 19950725182040 Name: humanities.classics [...] GETA END -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3in Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBOBhmWTiii3auEmclAQEM9wP9FVem1VXYrywFa2FLEh1apsay9yJC9jKT V80U1M1LAKkR+xkXZdczd/PIGEAQapauKjINpxFOgynMWd8A2Ta0y4s4ZXHgEiZP A/tKaMGi/7roZwUp8ERQRBsvc54kckgnX57HiVUgsbVd41FHPTvsVLv/QIHmqaGd fR5aQJfwKhE= =Sg4p -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- . 6.3.3.13. Unknown Commands and Syntax Errors If a command is recognized as unknown, it MUST be ignored. If an error occurs after the command string (e.g. a missing parameter) a 530 return code is given. 6.3.4. Data Headers The following paragraphs describe keywords and key terms which support retrieval and storing of information. Every header has a unique English name. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 29]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 The content of a header is inheritable within a hierarchy, as long as the header is marked as inheritable. The content is the default value for all downstream newsgroups and subhierarchies. For example in the hierarchy "de", the language header has the value "DE" (German), therefore this value is "DE" for all newsgroups in this hierarchy, except those for which explicitly define a language code of their own. Hierarchies and newsgroups must have at least values for the headers "Name" and "Status". Unknown hierarchies get the status "Incomplete" and unknown groups get the status "Unknown". The header used in the NAS protocol are not case sensitive. A header may be upper case, lower case, or any mixture of upper and lower case. It is recommended that the first letter of the header and the first letter after a dash are uppercase while all other characters are lowercase. Name Header: Name Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: yes Inheritable: no Repeatable: no Description: Name of a hierarchy Comment: Start of a new data block Example: Name: comp Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: yes Repeatable: no Description: Name of a newsgroup Comment: Start of a new data block Example: Name: de.admin.news.announce Status Header: Status Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: yes Inheritable: no Repeatable: no Description: Status of a hierarchy Comment: For a detailed description see section 6.4. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 30]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 Example: Status: Hierarchy-Complete Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: yes Repeatable: no Description: Status of a newsgroup Comment: For a detailed description see section 6.4. Example: Status: Group-Moderated Group for followup Header: Followup Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: no Repeatable: no Description: Name of the newsgroup that will take the followup postings of a moderated group. Comment: The value can be used as default value for the "Followup-To:" header on postings to a moderated group. This value is only useful on groups that which are moderated (Status Group-Moderated) and have a dedicated discussion group. Example: Followup: bln.announce.fub.zedat.d (for the moderated group bln.announce.fub.zedat) Short description Header: Description Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: no Repeatable: no Description: Short description of a hierarchy Example: Description: Angelegenheiten, die den Grossraum Berlin betreffen (for the hierarchy bln) Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: no Repeatable: no Description: Short description of a newsgroup Comment: This information is often presented to the news reader upon selection of the newsgroup, and it should be a brief but meaningful description of the topic Example: Description: Technisches zur Newssoftware Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 31]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 (for de.admin.news.software) Charter-URL Header: Charter Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: no Repeatable: yes Description: URL that points to the charter of a hierarchy Example: Charter: ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/doc/news/bln/bln (for the hierarchy bln) Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: no Repeatable: yes Description: URL that points to the charter of a newsgroup Comment: This information should be presented to the news reader upon selection of the newsgroup. Example: Charter: http://www.dana.de/mod/charta/admin.html Netiquette-URL Header: Netiquette Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: URL that points to the netiquette of a hierarchy. Comment: Since the netiquettes are often valid for a complete hierarchy this is inheritable. Example: Netiquette: http://www.dana.de/mod/netiquette.html Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: no Repeatable: yes Description: URL for Netiquette Comment: If a group has some special rules, this is the pointer to these rules. Example: Netiquette: http://research.de.uu.net:8080/ de.sci.announce/faq (for de.sci.announce) Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 32]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Header: FAQ Used for: Newsgroup Mandatory: no Repeatable: yes Description: URL for the FAQ of a newsgroup Example: FAQ: http://www2.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de/dclc-faq/ (for de.comp.lang.c) Administration rules Header: Rules Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: URL pointing to a document that describes the rules for creating, deleting or renaming newsgroups in this hierarchy. Comment: Normally inherited from the toplevel hierarchy Example: Rules: http://www.dana.de/mod/einrichtung.html (for the hierarchy de) Control Email Header: Ctl-Send-Adr Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: Email address of the sender of control messages Comment: Multiple addresses are valid Example: Ctl-Send-Adr: group-admin@isc.org (for the hierarchy sci) Control newsgroup Header: Ctl-Newsgroup Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 33]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: Name of the newsgroup that will get the postings for checkgroups, rmgroup and newsgroup control messages. Example: Ctl-Newsgroup: de.admin.news.groups Moderators Header: Mod-Wildcard Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Repeatable: no Description: Moderator wildcard for this hierarchy. Comment: This information can be used for the configuration of the news software, for example, to configure the moderators file in INN. Example: Mod-Wildcard: %s@moderators.dana.de (for the hierarchy de) Submission address Header: Mod-Sub-Adr Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: no Repeatable: yes Description: Email address for submissions to the newsgroup. Comment: If there is no "Mod-Sub-Adr" for a moderated newsgroup, "Mod-Wildcard" of the hierarchy is used. This is usefull only for moderated groups (Status Group-Moderated). Example: Mod-Sub-Adr: news-answers@mit.edu (for the newsgroup news.answers) Moderator's address (email) Header: Mod-Adm-Adr Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: no Repeatable: yes Description: Email address of the moderator of the newsgroup. Comment: If there is no code "Mod-Adm-Adr" for a moderated newsgroup, "Mod-Wildcard" of the hierarchy is used. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 34]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 This is useful only for moderated groups (Status Group-Moderated). Example: Mod-Adm-Adr: news-answers-request@mit.edu (for the newsgroup news.answers) Info-URL Header: Mod-Group-Info Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: no Repeatable: yes Description: URL that points to a document where the moderator presents information about the newsgroup and the submission of articles. Example: Mod-Group-Info: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/mjrauhal/ linux/cola-submit.html (for comp.os.linux.announce) Language Header: Language Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: The language that will normally be used in postings Comment: The notation is according to the "Content-Language" field of [RFC1766]. The languages not preferred are enclosed in parenthesis. Example: Language: DE (for the hierarchy de) Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: no Repeatable: yes Description: The language that will normally be used in postings. Comment: The notation is according to the "Content-Language" field of [RFC1766]. The languages not preferred are enclosed in parenthesis. Example: Language: TR Language: DE Language: (EN) (for the newsgroup bln.kultur.tuerkisch) Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 35]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 Charset Header: Charset Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: Charset that will normally be used in postings in this hierarchy Comment: The complete set of charset names is defined by [RFC2277] and the IANA Character Set registry [IANA-CS]. The charsets that are not the preferred charsets are enclosed in parenthesis. Example: Charset: ISO-8859-1 (for the hierarchy de) Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: no Repeatable: yes Description: Charset that will normally be used in postings in this group Comment: The complete set of charset names is defined by [RFC2277] and the IANA Character Set registry [IANA-CS]. The charsets that are not the preferred charsets are enclosed in parenthesis. Example: Charset: ISO-8859-9 Charset: ISO-8859-1 (for the newsgroup bln.kultur.tuerkisch) Encoding Header: Encoding Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: Encoding for this hierarchy according to MIME [RFC2045] Comment: This is the media type used in this hierarchy, a list of registered media types can be found at [IANA-MT]. The encodings not preferred are enclosed in parenthesis. Example: Encoding text/plain Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: no Repeatable: yes Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 36]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 Description: Encoding for this newsgroup according to MIME [RFC2045] Comment This is the media type used in this newsgroup, a list of registered media types can be found at [IANA-MT]. The encodings not preferred are enclosed in parenthesis. Example: Encoding: text/plain Type of newsgroup Header: Newsgroup-Type Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: Default newsgroup type in this hierarchy Comment: This header has no concrete meaning for a hierarchy but is used for the inheritance to newsgroups in the hierarchy. Specification of the types can be found in section 6.5 Example: Newsgroup-Type: Discussion (for the hierarchy de) Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: no Repeatable: yes Description: Type of newsgroup Comment: Specification of the types can be found in section 6.5 Example: Newsgroup-Type: Announce (for de.admin.news.announce) Type of hierarchy Header: Hier-Type Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: Type of hierarchy Comment: Specification of the types can be found in section 6.6 Example: Hier-Type: Regional (for hierarchy bln) Regional or Organizational Area Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 37]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 Header: Area Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: Description of the geographical region or organization of this hierarchy Comment: This code is useful when the hierarchy type (Hier-type) is "Regional" or "Organization". Example: Area: Grossraum Berlin (for the hierarchy bln) Name length of group names Header: Name-Length Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Repeatable: no Description: Maximum length of a newsgroup name Example: Name-Length: 72 (for the hierarchy bln) Component length of group names Header: Comp-Length Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Repeatable: no Description: Maximum length of a single component in the newsgroup name Example: Comp-Length: 14 (for the hierarchy de) Article length Header: Article-Length Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 38]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 Repeatable: no Description: Maximum length of an article in bytes Comment: This header has no concrete meaning for a hierarchy, but is used for the inheritance to newsgroups in the hierarchy. Example: Article-Length: 50000 Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: no Repeatable: no Description: Maximum length of an article in bytes Example: Article-Length: 50000 Date of creation Header: Date-Create Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Repeatable: no Description: Creation date of a hierarchy, can even be in the future. Comment: The format is the same as in the DATE command. Example: Date-Create: 19970330101514 Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: no Repeatable: no Description: Creation date of a newsgroup, can even be in the future. Comment: The format is the same as in the DATE command. Example: Date-Create: 19970330101514 Date of removal Header: Date-Delete Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Repeatable: no Description: Date of removal of a hierarchy, can even be in the future. Comment: The format is the same as in the DATE command. Example: Date-Delete: 19970330101514 Used for: newsgroup Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 39]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 Mandatory: no Repeatable: no Description: Date of removal of a newsgroup, can even be in the future. Comment: The format is the same as in the DATE command. Example: Date-Delete: 19970330101514 Successor Header: Replacement Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: no Repeatable: yes Description: Name of the hierarchy that replaced a removed hierarchy if status is "Hierarchy-Obsolete" or will replace a hierarchy if the date of removal is in the future. Example: Replacement: de (for the hierarchy sub) Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: no Repeatable: yes Description: Name of the newsgroup or newsgroups that will replace a removed newsgroup if status is "Group-Removed" or will replace the newsgroup if the date of removal is in the future. Example: Replacement: bln.markt.arbeit (for bln.jobs) Source Header: Source Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Repeatable: no Description: Pointer to an organization or person responsible for this hierarchy. SHOULD be a URL or an email address. Example: Source: http://www.dana.de/mod/ (for the hierarchy de) NOTE: This is for tracking the maintainer of a hierarchy Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 40]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 Control PGP key Header: Ctl-PGP-Key Used for: hierarchy Mandatory: no Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: PGP key (with additional information: key owner, key-id, etc.) of the sender of control messages in this hierarchy. Comment: The exact format is described in section 6.7. Example: Ctl-PGP-Key: U de.admin.news.announce B 1024 I D3033C99 L http://www.dana.de/mod/pgp/dana.asc L ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/PGPKEYS.gz F 5B B0 52 88 BF 55 19 4F 66 7D C2 AE 16 26 28 25 V 2.6.3ia K------BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- K-Version: 2.6.3ia K- K-mQCNEALZ+Xfm/WDCEMXM48gK1PlKG6TkV3SLbXt4CnzpGM0tOMa K-HjlHqM1wEGUHD5hw/BL/heR5Tq+C5IEyXQQmYwkrgeVFMOz/rAQ [...] K-SDw+iQgAAtN6zrYOhHFBp+ K-VpvRovMz+lSOy9Zcsbs+5t8Pj9ZVAQyfxBkqD5A= K-=Xwgc K -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Moderator's PGP key Header: Mod-PGP-Key Used for: newsgroup Mandatory: no Repeatable: yes Description: Public PGP key (with additional information: key owner, key-id, etc) of this newsgroup's moderator. Comment: The exact format is described in section 6.7 Example: see section 6.7 Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 41]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 6.4. Status Indicators The status indicator uniquely determines the status of a hierarchy or newsgroup. The indicator is case-insensitive. Indicator Type Description ----------- --------- ------------------------------------------- Complete hierarchy authorized, complete known hierarchy Incomplete hierarchy not completely known hierarchy Obsolete hierarchy obsolete hierarchy, should contain only newsgroups with status "Removed" Unknown hierarchy no information available, unknown hierarchy Unmoderated newsgroup posting allowed, unmoderated Readonly newsgroup posting not allowed Moderated newsgroup moderated group, articles must be sent to the moderator Deleted newsgroup deleted or renamed newsgroup, no posting or transport Unknown newsgroup unknown group, no information available ----------- --------- ------------------------------------------- 6.5. Newsgroup Types A Newsgroup Type is a comprehensive overview about some characteristics of a newsgroup, being a test group, a binary group and so on. The Newsgroup Type is case-insensitive. Type Meaning ---------- --------------------------------------------------- Discussion discussion (text postings) Binary (encoded) binary postings Sources source postings (e.g., comp.unix.sources) Announce announcements, press releases, RfD/CfV Test test postings, sometimes reflectors (e.g., de.test) Robots automatic postings (e.g., comp.mail.maps) Experiment experimental, other ---------- --------------------------------------------------- Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 42]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 6.6. Hierarchy Types To describe a hierarchy the following Hierarchy Types are used. These Types used to mark some properties of a news hierarchy. It is case- insensitive. Type Meaning -------------- --------------------------------------------------- Global international, global hierarchy (e.g., the hierarchies comp, de, rec) Regional regional hierarchy (e.g., the hierarchies ba, bln, tor) Alt alternative hierarchy, simpler rules for creating a group, no formal structure (e.g., the hierarchy alt) Non-Commercial only for personal use, commercial use is prohibited (e.g., the hierarchy de) Commercial commercial use permitted (e.g., the hierarchy biz) Organization hierarchy bound to an organization (e.g., the hierarchy gnu) -------------- --------------------------------------------------- 6.7. PGP Keys PGP keys for Ctrl-PGP-Key and Mod-PGP-Key are transmitted in the following structure: PGP-answer = "V" SP Version CRLF "U" SP User-ID CRLF "B" SP Bits CRLF "I" SP Key-ID CRLF "F" SP Finger CRLF *("L" SP Location CRLF) *("K-" Keyblock CRLF) "K" SP Keyblock CRLF Key Name Mandatory Description --- --------- --------- -------------------------------------- K Keyblock yes public key block in ASCII armor format [RFC2440] V Version yes PGP-Version U User-ID no key user id B Bits no number of bits Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 43]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 I Key-ID no key id, without leading "0x" F Finger no fingerprint L Location no URL that points to the public key --- --------- --------- -------------------------------------- A hyphen following the code indicates that the block is continued on the next line. In the last message row, there MUST be white space after the code; this is also true for a single line code. Example <-- HIER de --> 611 Data coming Name: de Status: Hierarchy [...] Ctl-PGP-Key: U de.admin.news.announce B 1024 I D3033C99 L http://www.dana.de/mod/pgp/dana.asc L ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/unix/news/pgpcontrol/PGPKEYS.gz F 5B B0 52 88 BF 55 19 4F 66 7D C2 AE 16 26 28 25 V 2.6.3ia K------BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- K-Version: 2.6.3ia K- K-mQCNAzGeB/YAAAEEALZ+Xfm/WDCEMXM48gK1PlKG6TkV3SLbXt4CnzpGMtOM K-HjlHaU6Xco5ijAuqM1wEGUHD5hw/BL/heR5Tq+C5IEyXQQmYwkrgeVFMO/rA [...] K-SDw+Id0JPFO9AWOiQgAAtN6zrYOhHFBp+68h9k674Yg9IHqj3BWdRjJF6PKo K-VpvRovMz+lSOy9Zcsbs+5t8Pj9ZVAQyfxBkqD5A= K-=Xwgc K -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- [...] . 7. Specification of the NAS Protocol (UDP) UDP is intended for reading programs (news readers), it is not in the scope of this document, and the use of UDP for NAS will be described in a separate paper. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 44]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 8. Security Considerations Security issues are only vital for the server-server communication, since we want a strict hierarchical model of the netnews administration system. So we want to be sure that only authorized clients connect to an authoritative server. Every server has the possibility to deny some commands or the whole connection based on the client's IP number. Note: A stronger authentication scheme will be provided in a higher protocol level. 9. Response Codes (Overview) Code Description ---- -------------------------------------------------------------- 100 Command overview, Information, command description (HELP) 101 Information about connection, client and server (INFO) 200 Greeting message (Connection Setup) 201 Termination of the connection (QUIT) 202 Returns current protocol level (VERS) 213 Valid data at the client side (GETP) 215 The client already has the current data (GETA) 300 Time in UTC (DATE) 302 Answer to a successful request (VERS) 400 Indicates that the server is not giving any information (INFO) 401 Permission denied (LIST, LSTR, HIER, DATA, GETL) 402 Requested level too high, falling back to lower level (VERS) 404 Server currently out of service (Connection Setup) 410 Indicates that the server is not giving any information (HELP) 411 No hierarchy with that name (GETP, GETA) 430 Permission denied (GETP, GETA) 434 Client has no permission to talk to server (Connection Setup) 510 Syntax error (VERS) 511 Internal error (TIME) 530 Missing parameter (LIST, LSTR, HIER, DATA, GETP, GETA) 610 Regular answer with all requested data (LIST, LSTR) 611 Regular answer with all requested data (HIER) 612 Regular answer with all requested data (DATA) 613 hierarchy data (GETP) 614 Lists all hierarchies a server is authoritative for (GETL) 615 Regular answer with all requested data (GETA) ---- -------------------------------------------------------------- Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 45]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 10. Data Headers for DATA and HIER Commands (Overview) Header Mandatory Use Multiple Description ------------- --------- --- -------- --------------------- Name yes H/N no Name of a hierarchy or newsgroup (Start of a new data block) Status yes H/N no Status of hierarchy or newsgroup Followup no N no Group for followup Description no H/N no Short description of a hierarchy/newsgroup Charter no H/N yes Charter-URL Netiquette no H/N yes Netiquette-URL FAQ no N yes FAQ-URL Rules no H yes Administration rules URL Ctl-Send-Adr no H yes Control email Ctl-Newsgroup no H yes Control newsgroup Mod-Wildcard no H no Moderator wildcard Mod-Sub-Adr no N no Submission address Mod-Adm-Adr no N yes Moderator's address (email) Mod-Group-Info no N yes Info-URL Language no H/N yes Language Charset no H/N yes Charset Encoding no H/N yes Encoding Newsgroup-Type no H/N yes Type of newsgroup Hier-Type no H yes Type of hierarchy Area no H yes Regional or organizational area T}Name- Length@no@H@no@T{ Total length of group names Comp-Length no H no Component length of group names Article-Length no H no Article length Date-Create no H/N no Date of creation Date-Delete no H/N no Date of removal Replacement no H/N yes Successor Source no H yes Source of data Ctl-PGP-Key no H yes Control PGP key Mod-PGP-Key no N yes Moderator's PGP key ------------- --------- --- -------- --------------------- Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 46]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 N: Newsgroup, H: Hierarchy 11. References [IANA-CS] IANA: Character Sets, ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/assignments/character-sets [IANA-MT] IANA: Media Types, ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/ assignments/media-types/media-types [IANA-PN] IANA: Assigned Port Numbers, ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/assignments/port-numbers [RFC1036] Horton, M.R., and Adams, R., "Standard for Interchange of USENET Messages", RFC 1036, AT&T Bell Laboratories/ Center for Seismic Studies, December 1987. [RFC1305] Mills, D.L., "Network Time Protocol", RFC 1305, University of Delaware, March 1992. [RFC1700] Reynolds, J., and J. Postel, "Assigned Numbers", STD 2, RFC 1700, USC/ISI, October 1994. [RFC1766] Alvestrand, H., "Tags for the Identification of Languages", RFC 1766, March 1995. [RFC2026] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process - Revision 3", RFC 2026, Harvard University, October 1996. [RFC2045] Freed, N. and Borenstein, N., "Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies.", RFC 2045, Innosoft/First Virtual, November 1996. [RFC2119] Bradner, "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", RFC 2119, Harvard University, March 1997. [RFC2234] D. Crocker, Ed., P. Overell., "Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997. [RFC2277] Alvestrand, H., "IETF Policy on Character Sets and Languages", RFC 2277, January 1998. [RFC2440] Callas, J., Donnerhacke, L., Finney, H. and R. Thayer, "OpenPGP Message Format", RFC 2240, November 1998. [SON1036] Henry Spencer, "News Article Format and Transmission", Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 47]
Internet Draft Netnews Administration System November 2000 A Draft for an RFC 1036 Successor, ftp://zoo.toronto.edu/pub/news.txt.Z. [USEFOR] USEFOR Working Group, "News Article Format", draft-ietf-usefor-article-02. 12. Author's Address Philipp Grau, Vera Heinau, Heiko Schlichting Freie Universitaet Berlin ZEDAT, DFN-CIS Fabeckstr. 32 14195 Berlin Germany Phone: +49 30 838-56583 Fax: +49 30 838-56721 Email: nas@cis.fu-berlin.de WWW: http://nas.cis.fu-berlin.de/ Expires May 26, 2001 Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 48]