Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!samsung!uunet!world!geoff
From: geoff@world.std.com (Geoff Collyer)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Order of Header Lines
Message-ID: <1991Apr28.233623.2603@world.std.com>
Date: 28 Apr 91 23:36:23 GMT
References: <1991Apr28.101210.18025@demon.co.uk>
Organization: Software Tool & Die Netnews Research Center
Lines: 18

Cliff Stanford:
>Using C-news, when postings come from this machine, the Path:
>line comes after the Newsgroups: line.  Every other posting seems to
>have its Path: line first (ie before the From: line).  Why is this
>and should I care?

(Hmm, another one for the FAQ list.)

RFC 822 (cited by RFC 1036) says that no particular header order is
required, so you aren't allowed to care :-).  (RFC 850 reiterated this.)

The reason for different orders is different implementations.  C inews
puts out a few headers at the start for the benefit of relaynews, then
puts out the rest in an apparently-random order.  relaynews doesn't
reorder headers; B rnews seems to reorder headers of articles passing
through into some canonical order.
-- 
Geoff Collyer		world.std.com!geoff, uunet.uu.net!geoff