Network Working Group F. Ellermann Internet-Draft xyzzy Updates: 1738 (if approved) May 18, 2005 Expires: November 19, 2005 The news and nntp URI Schemes draft-ellermann-news-nntp-uri-00 Status of this Memo By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of BCP 79. 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. This Internet-Draft will expire on November 19, 2005. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005). Abstract This memo specifies the news and nntp Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) schemes that were originally specified in RFC 1738. The purpose of this document is to allow RFC 1738 to be made obsolete while keeping the information about the schemes on standards track. Ellermann Expires November 19, 2005 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft The news and nntp URI Schemes May 2005 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. The news URI Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.1 The news URL has a <message-id> . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.2 The news URL has a <newsgroup-name> . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3. The nntp URI Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.1 The <range> is a single <article-number> . . . . . . . . . 6 3.2 The <range> encompasses more than one article . . . . . . 6 4. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 7.1 Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 7.2 Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . 12 Ellermann Expires November 19, 2005 [Page 2]
Internet-Draft The news and nntp URI Schemes May 2005 1. Introduction URIs were previously defined in [RFC2396], which was updated by [RFC3986]. Those documents also specify how to define schemes for URIs. The term "Uniform Resource Locator" (URL) is explained in [RFC3986]. The first definition for many URI schemes appeared in [RFC1738]. This memo extracts the news and nntp URI schemes from it to allow that material to remain on standards track if [RFC1738] is moved to "historic" status. It belongs to a series of similar documents like [I-D.hoffman-telnet-uri] discussed on the <mailto:uri@w3.org> list. The definitions for the news and nntp URI schemes given here are updates from [RFC1738] based on modern usage of these schemes. The key word "MUST" in this memo is to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119]. The syntax uses the ABNF defined in [I-D.crocker-abnf- rfc2234bis]. Ellermann Expires November 19, 2005 [Page 3]
Internet-Draft The news and nntp URI Schemes May 2005 2. The news URI Scheme The news URI scheme is used to refer to either an individual Netnews article or news groups, as defined in [RFC1036]. The news URL takes the form: newsURL = "news:" ( article / group ) article = [ news-server "/" ] message-id group = [ news-server "/" ] ( newsgroup-name / "*" ) news-server = "//" authority ; see RFC 3986 message-id = unique "@" host ; see RFC 1036 unique = 1*( %d33-61 / %d63-126 ) ; excludes ">" newsgroup-name = 1*( ALPHA / DIGIT / "-" / "+" / "_" / "." ) <authority> is defined in [RFC3986], and provides for a <host>, a <port> (defaulting to 119 in this scheme), and possibly a <userinfo>. The <host> portion of a specified <news-server> cannot be empty. If no <news-server> is specified, the resources are to be retrieved from whatever server has been configured for local use. Observe the delimiter "@" which enables an <article> to be distinguished from a <newsgroup-name>. Within <unique> the characters "%", "/", "@", "?", and "#" are reserved and MUST be percent-encoded if they occur. The <host> syntax in [RFC3986] guarantees this also for the right hand side of a <message-id>. 2.1 The news URL has a <message-id> A <message-id> corresponds to the Message-ID as defined in [RFC1036], but without the enclosing "<" and ">". While other documents like [RFC2822] propose different syntax variations for the left and right hand sides of a Message-ID the least common denominators are proper subsets of printable ASCII characters excluding ">". The resource retrieved by this URL is the Netnews article with the given <message-id>. Message identifiers are required to be globally unique, so the same article should be obtained whatever server is accessed for that purpose (provided the server in question has that article available). Ellermann Expires November 19, 2005 [Page 4]
Internet-Draft The news and nntp URI Schemes May 2005 2.2 The news URL has a <newsgroup-name> The <newsgroup-name> is a period-delimited hierarchical name, such as "comp.lang.perl.modules". The resource retrieved by this URL is some means to gain access to articles in the given <newsgroup-name> that are available on the given <server> (usually by invoking a suitable news reading agent initialized to access that group). Some clients support different forms of wildcard notations instead of a <newsgroup-name>. These forms are not generally supported, see also [RFC2980]. One wildcard notation specified in [RFC1738] is a single asterisk "*" matching "all available news groups". Clients supporting this notation often allow to omit the "*" for a specified <news-server>, e.g. "news://server.example/". Ellermann Expires November 19, 2005 [Page 5]
Internet-Draft The news and nntp URI Schemes May 2005 3. The nntp URI Scheme The nntp URI scheme is used to retrieve individual articles via the NNTP protocol [RFC0977]. It is usually (but not necessarily) used in connection with Netnews articles as defined in [RFC1036]. The nntp URL takes the form: nntpURL = "nntp:" news-server "/" newsgroup-name "/" range range = article-number ["-" [article-number]] article-number = 1*DIGIT Note that the <news-server> is not optional here, because the mapping from an <article-number> to the actual article is established independently by each server and for each news group. This scheme is rarely used and not generally supported. 3.1 The <range> is a single <article-number> The resource retrieved by this URL is the Netnews article numbered by the given <article-number> in the given news group-from the specified news server. 3.2 The <range> encompasses more than one article The resource retrieved by this URL is some means to gain access to the articles numbered within the <range> in the given news group on a specific news server. A <range> without second <article-number> ending with "-" provides access to all articles from the first <article-number> and above in the given news group on a specific news server. Ellermann Expires November 19, 2005 [Page 6]
Internet-Draft The news and nntp URI Schemes May 2005 4. Acknowledgments An Internet Draft by Alfred S. Gilman published 1998 introduced additions to the original [RFC1738] news URI scheme. Some of these ideas are now widely supported and reflected by the revised news URL here. Paul Hoffman started the series of Internet Drafts allowing to replace [RFC1738]. Charles Lindsey contributed all missing details about the nntp URI scheme. The online version of xml2rfc at <http://xml.resource.org> and Bill Fenner's xml2rfc validator were a great help to create this memo. Ellermann Expires November 19, 2005 [Page 7]
Internet-Draft The news and nntp URI Schemes May 2005 5. IANA Considerations The IANA registry of URI schemes could be updated to point to this memo instead of [RFC1738] for the news and nntp URI schemes. Ellermann Expires November 19, 2005 [Page 8]
Internet-Draft The news and nntp URI Schemes May 2005 6. Security Considerations There are many security considerations for URI schemes discussed in [RFC3986]. The NNTP protocol may use passwords in the clear for authentication, or offer no privacy, both of which are considered extremely unsafe in current practice. Ellermann Expires November 19, 2005 [Page 9]
Internet-Draft The news and nntp URI Schemes May 2005 7. References 7.1 Normative References [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. [RFC3986] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66, RFC 3986, January 2005. [I-D.crocker-abnf-rfc2234bis] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF", draft-crocker-abnf-rfc2234bis-00 (work in progress), March 2005. 7.2 Informative References [RFC0977] Kantor, B. and P. Lapsley, "Network News Transfer Protocol", RFC 977, February 1986. [RFC1036] Horton, M. and R. Adams, "Standard for interchange of USENET messages", RFC 1036, December 1987. [RFC1738] Berners-Lee, T., Masinter, L., and M. McCahill, "Uniform Resource Locators (URL)", RFC 1738, December 1994. [RFC2396] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax", RFC 2396, August 1998. [RFC2822] Resnick, P., "Internet Message Format", RFC 2822, April 2001. [RFC2980] Barber, S., "Common NNTP Extensions", RFC 2980, October 2000. [I-D.hoffman-telnet-uri] Hoffman, P., "The telnet URI Scheme", draft-hoffman-telnet-uri-05 (work in progress), May 2005. Ellermann Expires November 19, 2005 [Page 10]
Internet-Draft The news and nntp URI Schemes May 2005 Author's Address Frank Ellermann xyzzy Hamburg, Germany Email: nobody@xyzzy.claranet.de URI: http://purl.net/xyzzy/ Ellermann Expires November 19, 2005 [Page 11]
Internet-Draft The news and nntp URI Schemes May 2005 Intellectual Property Statement The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be found in BCP 78 and BCP 79. Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at http://www.ietf.org/ipr. The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-ipr@ietf.org. Disclaimer of Validity This document and the information contained herein are provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Copyright Statement Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005). This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights. Acknowledgment Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the Internet Society. Ellermann Expires November 19, 2005 [Page 12]
