Newsgroups: news.software.b
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: warning to all sinners in regard to current C News patches
Message-ID: <1991Mar24.035259.20738@zoo.toronto.edu>
Date: Sun, 24 Mar 1991 03:52:59 GMT
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

Okay, all you folks using improvised kludges to gateway mail into news,
and also all of you using bizarre and substandard news posting software:
the jig is up.

The current set of C News patches, the third of which will probably appear
tonight, drastically tightens up legality checking on headers.  A lot of
sloppiness that we once tolerated will now cause articles to be dropped on
the floor.  RFC1036's required headers must be present.  Non-header lines
may not be present in headers; note in particular that there *must* be
white space after the `:' in an RFC1036 header, even if the header is empty!
The message ID must contain `@'.  The contents of the Date header must be
a legal, unambiguous date and must not deviate too far from the format
recommended in RFC1036; in particular, obscenities like "11/12/91" are
outlawed.  The date can't be too far in the future; there is currently a
special one-day dispensation for the benefit of those whose software
gives local time but attaches "GMT" to it, but this is strictly temporary.
And in general, it's No More Mister Nice Guy when it comes to headers.

Time to get out a copy of RFC1036 and fix your software.
-- 
"[Some people] positively *wish* to     | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
believe ill of the modern world."-R.Peto|  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry