Xref: utzoo news.software.b:8434 news.software.nntp:1430
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!lll-winken!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!percy!m2xenix!quagga!undeed!barrett
From: barrett@Daisy.EE.UND.AC.ZA (Alan P Barrett)
Newsgroups: news.software.b,news.software.nntp
Subject: What should go in the Path for nntp postings
Message-ID: <1991Jun24.152258.6663@Daisy.EE.UND.AC.ZA>
Date: 24 Jun 91 15:22:58 GMT
References: <1991Jun20.145913.28280@mp.cs.niu.edu> <6106@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> <1991Jun21.162641.900@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Organization: Univ. Natal, Durban, S. Africa
Lines: 47

[This is very similar to an earlier (now cancelled) article, in which I
made the mistake of thinking that mini-inews ran on the remote site.]

In article <1991Jun21.162641.900@mp.cs.niu.edu>,
rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:
>  Suppose I run a site reading news via nntp, and use your mini-inews which
> generates a bad address on the 'Path:'.  Here are some of the implications.
> 
>   1.	A user as a site which replies to the 'Path:' cannot reply to a
> 	poster on my system.
> 
>   2.	The poster on my system will get less replies.
> 
>   3.	My news server host will have to bounce mail addressed to 'Path:'.
> 
>   4.	Some poor user on the news server host, whose login id happens to be
> 	the same as that of the post on my site, may finish up being the
> 	unintended victim of a flame fest intended for the poster at my site.
> 
>  Now I am quite willing to dismiss 1 and 2.  But I will not dismiss 3 and 4
> as unimportant.

Suppose I am a user at a site which gets an ordinary news feed, and
whose news system name is a FQDN.  Suppose that, in spite of the fact
that news is available locally, I choose to post news over an nntp
connection to a remote system (using the nntp POST command, possibly
with the assistance of my own private copy of a mini-inews program).
Suppose that the remote site's nntp server (possibly with the
collaboration of the remote site's inews or my own mini-inews) generates
a Path header that includes my local system name.  Now my article will
never get to my local site, nor to any other sites which are leaves
served by my local site.  I therefore claim that the Path header on
articles submitted via the nntp POST command must not include my local
system name in the Path line.  (Although we aren't talking about
gatewaying from mailing lists now, similar arguments apply to that
case.)

It seems to me that the correct thing is for the remote site to generate
an Path line that points to a {bit bucket, auto-replyer, human
administrator} on the remote site.  The Path line should not include the
originator's login id or site name.  This seems to satisfy Neil's point
4 (and if the Path points to a bit bicket then I think that also
satisfies point 3).

--apb
Alan Barrett, Dept. of Electronic Eng., Univ. of Natal, Durban, South Africa
RFC822: barrett@ee.und.ac.za             Bang: m2xenix!quagga!undeed!barrett