Xref: utzoo news.admin:10336 news.software.b:5426
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.software.b
Path: utzoo!telly!druid!darcy
From: darcy@druid.uucp (D'Arcy J.M. Cain)
Subject: Re: An apology for the invalid control messages.
Message-ID: <1990Aug10.160122.18593@druid.uucp>
Organization: D'Arcy Cain Consulting, West Hill, Ontario
References: <25157.26b95615@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <3295@stl.stc.co.uk> <38053@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 90 16:01:22 GMT

In article <38053@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> jbuck@galileo.berkeley.edu (Joe Buck) writes:
>In article <3295@stl.stc.co.uk>, dww@stl.stc.co.uk (David Wright) writes:
>[ Someone mis-spelled cancel as Cancel in a control message, generating
>  tons of mail ]
>
>|> More seriously - its an easy mistake to make.   And why should control
>|> messages be case-sensitive anyway?    I suggest that the maintainers of B
> [...]
>The bug happened because the current software propogates bogus control
>messages.  If it threw them away instead with a message on stderr when
>you tried to post one, the original sender would have gotten an error
>message and no cruft would have been sent out to other systems.
>
>If an article is defective in some way, it should not be forwarded to other
>sites.
>
I think that sites should pass on control messages it doesn't understand.  If
in the future new control types are added we don't want old news software to
throw it away because it doesn't understand it.  We want it passed on in case
another site can understand it.  The bogusity (?) should be caught at the site
that posts the control message.  If their software doesn't recognize the
control type then it shouldn't allow it to be generated or at least give an
"Are you sure?" prompt.

-- 
D'Arcy J.M. Cain (darcy@druid)     |
D'Arcy Cain Consulting             |   MS-DOS:  The Andrew Dice Clay
West Hill, Ontario, Canada         |   of operating systems.
+ 416 281 6094                     |