Network Working Group P. Hoffman
Internet-Draft VPN Consortium
Expires: July 2, 2005 January 2005
The news and nntp URI Schemes
draft-hoffman-news-nntp-uri-04.txt
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
Abstract
This document 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 scheme on standards track.
1. Introduction
URIs were previously defined in RFC 2396 [RFC2396], which was updated
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by draft-fielding-uri-rfc2396bis [2396bis]. Those documents also
specify how to define schemes for URIs.
The first definition for many URI schemes appeared in RFC 1738
[RFC1738]. Because that document has been made obsolete, this
document copies the news and nntp URI schemes from it to allow that
material to remain on standards track.
Note: the definitions for the news and nntp URI schemes given here
are significant updates from RFC 1738 based on modern usage of these
schemes.
Note: it is likely that the specification in this document will
change based on input from the Usenet protocol community before this
document is finalized.
2. Scheme Definition
The news and nntp URL schemes are used to refer to either news groups
or individual articles of USENET news, as specified in RFC 1036.
The news URL takes the form:
newsURL = "news" ":" [ news-server ]
( newsgroup-name | '*' | message-id )
news-server = "//" server "/"
message-id = id-left "@" id-right
<server> is defined in [2396bis]. Note that there is widespread use
of the username-password authentication in news servers, so news
clients should implement this part of the <server> syntax.
2.1 The newsURL has a <newsgroup-name>
The <newsgroup-name> is a period-delimited hierarchical name, such as
"comp.lang.perl.modules". <id-left> and <id-right> are defined in
Section 3.6.4 of RFC 2822 [RFC2822].
The resource retrieved by this URL is some means to gain access to
the 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). If no <server> is specified, the
groups are to be retrieved from whatever server has been configured
for local use.
2.2 The newsURL has a *
If the last part of the newsURL is "*" (as in <URL:news:*>), it is
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used to refer to "all available news groups". The resource retrieved
by this URL is some means to gain access to all the newsgroups that
are available on the given <server> (usually by invoking a suitable
news reading agent). If no <server> is specified, the access is to
be to whatever server has been configured for local use.
2.3 The newsURL has a <message-id>
The resource retrieved by this URL is the Netnews article with the
given <message-id>. In a properly working Netnews system, the same
article will be obtained whatever server is accessed for the purpose
(assuming the server in question carried that article in the first
place and that it has not expired). If no <server> is specified, the
article is to be retrieved from whatever server has been configured
for local use.
The <id-left> and the <id-right> MUST be in a canonical form in which
no <quoted-string> or <quoted-pair> is used in a context where the
same semantic meaning could have been rendered without such quoting;
moreover, no whitespace may be included, whether %-encoded or not
and/or quoted or not.
For example, neither
news:"abcd"@example.com
nor
"ab\cd"@example.com
is in canonical form, because the form
abcd@example.com
is available.
2.4 The nntp URL scheme
The nntp URL defined in RFC 1738 is deprectated. This section is
likely to be replaced in a future version of this draft.
3. Security Considerations
There are many security considerations for URI schemes discussed in
[2396bis]. The news protocol uses passwords in the clear for
authentication, and offers no privacy, both of which are considered
extremely unsafe in current practice.
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4 Informative References
[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.
[2396bis] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R. and L. Masinter, "Uniform
Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax", work in
progress, draft-fielding-uri-rfc2396bis-nn.txt.
Author's Address
Paul Hoffman
VPN Consortium
127 Segre Place
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
US
EMail: paul.hoffman@vpnc.org
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