"Son of 1036": News Article Format and Transmission
RFC 1849

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Independent Submission                                        H. Spencer
Request for Comments: 1849                                    SP Systems
Obsoleted by: 5536, 5537                                      March 2010
Category: Historic
ISSN: 2070-1721

          "Son of 1036": News Article Format and Transmission

Abstract

   By the early 1990s, it had become clear that RFC 1036, then the
   specification for the Interchange of USENET Messages, was badly in
   need of repair.  This "Internet-Draft-to-be", though never formally
   published at that time, was widely circulated and became the de facto
   standard for implementors of News Servers and User Agents, rapidly
   acquiring the nickname "Son of 1036".  Indeed, under that name, it
   could fairly be described as the best-known Internet Draft (n)ever
   published, and it formed the starting point for the recently adopted
   Proposed Standards for Netnews.

   It is being published now in order to provide the historical
   background out of which those standards have grown.  Present-day
   implementors should be aware that it is NOT NOW APPROPRIATE for use
   in current implementations.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
    published for the historical record.

   This document defines a Historic Document for the Internet community.
   This is a contribution to the RFC Series, independently of any other
   RFC stream.  The RFC Editor has chosen to publish this document at
   its discretion and makes no statement about its value for
   implementation or deployment.  Documents approved for publication by
   the RFC Editor are not a candidate for any level of Internet
   Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1849.

Spencer                         Historic                        [Page 1]
RFC 1849                       Son of 1036                    March 2010

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.

   This document may not be modified, and derivative works of it may not
   be created, except to format it for publication as an RFC or to
   translate it into languages other than English.

Spencer                         Historic                        [Page 2]
RFC 1849                       Son of 1036                    March 2010

Table of Contents

   Preface ............................................................5
   Original Abstract ..................................................6
   1. Introduction ....................................................6
   2. Definitions, Notations, and Conventions .........................8
      2.1. Textual Notations ..........................................8
      2.2. Syntax Notation ............................................9
      2.3. Definitions ...............................................10
      2.4. End-of-Line ...............................................13
      2.5. Case-Sensitivity ..........................................13
      2.6. Language ..................................................13
   3. Relation to MAIL (RFC822, etc.) ................................14
   4. Basic Format ...................................................15
      4.1. Overall Syntax ............................................15
      4.2. Headers ...................................................16
           4.2.1. Names and Contents .................................16
           4.2.2. Undesirable Headers ................................18
           4.2.3. White Space and Continuations ......................18
      4.3. Body ......................................................19
           4.3.1. Body Format Issues .................................19
           4.3.2. Body Conventions ...................................20
      4.4. Characters and Character Sets .............................23
      4.5. Non-ASCII Characters in Headers ...........................26
      4.6. Size Limits ...............................................28
      4.7. Example ...................................................30
   5. Mandatory Headers ..............................................30
      5.1. Date ......................................................31
      5.2. From ......................................................33
      5.3. Message-ID ................................................35
      5.4. Subject ...................................................36