Xref: utzoo news.admin:14762 news.software.b:8037 Newsgroups: news.admin,news.software.b Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!lsuc!golem!david From: david@golem.uucp (David J. Fiander) Subject: Re: Really funny jokes being missed Date: Thu, 30 May 1991 01:51:11 GMT Message-ID: <1991May30.015111.375@golem.uucp> Keywords: error-correcting References: <3752@ksr.com> <10623@castle.ed.ac.uk> In article <10623@castle.ed.ac.uk> aipdc@castle.ed.ac.uk (Paul D. Crowley) writes: >I'm convinced you've all gone mad. > >When I send mail, that mail is bounced back to me if I get the address >wrong, and I get a chance to edit it and try again. > >If I send news with an incorrect date header, it is silently dumped. >No, I tell a lie, it is not silent at all. An error is written in the >log file of the dumping site. The first several examples you gave (of which I have only kept two) are all very good examples of what should happen when a user does something he may not want to. The most telling point is the mail example. Since mail is point-to-point, you will only get one bounce (unless your name is Eric Fair), but that is not feasible for news. As well, address problems cannot necessarily be determined on your machine, but you mail system probably does make sure that the headers that it transmits to other sites are syntactically correct. The problem is that the news software on _your_ system should notice that something is the matter with the article headers that you have provided and either correct or bounce the message. CNEWS MUST DIE has been complaining that his NUA (generalising from the mail world causes us to have a News User Agent), allows him to create bogus messages, and that he doesn't find out when somebody else drops it. As several other people have pointed out, the "correct" solution to Mr. DIE's problem is to fix his software so that it will not accept malformed messages. If you post a malformed article on a node running Cnews, then Cnews will fix the headers so that they are standard-conforming (Henry, will it bounce a message back to the originator if it's totally gone?). All the flames have been about the fact that Cnews won't be as polite about messages that are arriving from remote sites. -- David J. Fiander L'homme est bien insens\'e. Il ne saurait forge un ciron, et forge des Dieux \`a douzaines. - Montaigne (1533 -- 1592)