Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!mintaka!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!ericom!eua.ericsson.se!erix.ericsson.se!per
From: per@erix.ericsson.se (Per Hedeland)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Wrong Path in articles under C News
Message-ID: <1991May16.213751.3902@eua.ericsson.se>
Date: 16 May 91 21:37:51 GMT
References: <MIKE.91May15171725@apex.yorku.ca> <1991May15.224905.985@zoo.toronto.edu>
Sender: news@eua.ericsson.se
Organization: Ellemtel Telecom Systems Labs, Stockholm, Sweden
Lines: 109
Nntp-Posting-Host: super.eua.ericsson.se

In article <1991May15.224905.985@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <MIKE.91May15171725@apex.yorku.ca> mike@apex.yorku.ca (Mike Marques) writes:
>>... Things work just fine except articles posted locally have
>>the local host twice in their Path: field:
>>
>>Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!mike
>
>This probably means that whatever software is being used to do the posting
>is supplying its own Path header, which is a stupid mistake but does happen.

The "stupidity", if any, is most likely not a mistake, but an attempt
(futile, I know), to make the Path: header usable for mail replies -
when posting over NNTP, the poster need not even have an account on the
server host, and so the posting program provides a 'Path: posting-host!user'
line. Perhaps the posting program should detect that posting-host is
equal to nntpserver, and skip the Path: in this case, but I don't know
of any that does.

>The fix is to fix the posting software.  This just might be NNTP's fault
>if you are posting through it, but whatever you're using as reader/poster
>is more likely to be at fault.

Nntpd just passes the bytes to inews; the mini-inews that comes with the
NNTP distribution does create a Path: header in certain circumstances, though.

>It's relatively harmless.

Agreed, but it's ugly and space-wasting - and easily fixable in C news,
of course - the fix (to relay/hdrmunge.c) that isn't one is appended
below, but somehow I don't expect it to show up in the official
patches:-).

--Per Hedeland
per@erix.ericsson.se  or
per%erix.ericsson.se@uunet.uu.net  or
...uunet!erix.ericsson.se!per

*** /tmp/,RCSt1a03848	Thu May 16 23:32:31 1991
--- hdrmunge.c	Sun Apr 28 12:04:49 1991
***************
*** 177,205 ****
  {
  	if (CISTREQN(hdr, pathhdr.hdrnm, (int)pathhdr.hdrlen)) {
  		register char *oldpath, *hostnm = hostname();
  
  		oldpath = skipsp(&hdr[pathhdr.hdrlen]);
- 		/*
- 		 * V7 f?printf return 0 or EOF, not a byte count, so it is
- 		 * not portable to use fprintf's return value as a byte count.
- 		 */
- 		if (fprintf(art->a_artf, "%s %s!", pathhdr.hdrnm, hostnm) ==
- 		    EOF || fputs(oldpath, art->a_artf) == EOF)
- 			fulldisk(art, spoolnm(art));
- 		else {
- 			static unsigned hostlen = 0;
  
! 			if (hostlen == 0)
! 				hostlen = strlen(hostnm);
! 			art->a_charswritten += pathhdr.hdrlen + STRLEN(" ") +
! 			    hostlen + STRLEN("!") + strlen(oldpath);
  		}
- 	} else {
- 		if (fwrite(hdr, hdrlen, 1, art->a_artf) != 1)
- 			fulldisk(art, spoolnm(art));
- 		else
- 			art->a_charswritten += hdrlen;
  	}
  }
  
  /*
--- 187,224 ----
  {
  	if (CISTREQN(hdr, pathhdr.hdrnm, (int)pathhdr.hdrlen)) {
  		register char *oldpath, *hostnm = hostname();
+ 		static unsigned hostlen = 0;
  
+ 		if (hostlen == 0)
+ 		    hostlen = strlen(hostnm);
  		oldpath = skipsp(&hdr[pathhdr.hdrlen]);
  
! 		/* Don't add our name to Path: if it's already there
! 		   (may happen e.g. with NNTP posters) - B news doesn't... */
! 		if (strncmp(hostnm, oldpath, hostlen) != 0 ||
! 		    strlen(oldpath) <= hostlen ||
! 		    oldpath[hostlen] != '!') {
! 			/*
! 			 * V7 f?printf return 0 or EOF, not a byte count,
! 			 * so it is not portable to use fprintf's return
! 			 * value as a byte count.
! 			 */
! 			if (fprintf(art->a_artf, "%s %s!",
! 				    pathhdr.hdrnm, hostnm) == EOF ||
! 			    fputs(oldpath, art->a_artf) == EOF)
! 			    fulldisk(art, spoolnm(art));
! 			else {
! 				art->a_charswritten +=
! 				    pathhdr.hdrlen + STRLEN(" ") +
! 				    hostlen + STRLEN("!") + strlen(oldpath);
! 			}
! 			return;
  		}
  	}
+ 	if (fwrite(hdr, hdrlen, 1, art->a_artf) != 1)
+ 	    fulldisk(art, spoolnm(art));
+ 	else
+ 	    art->a_charswritten += hdrlen;
  }
  
  /*