Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ll-xn!husc6!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu!karl
From: karl@triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: `Distribution:' being ignored?
Message-ID: <14466@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 27 May 88 16:35:53 GMT
Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Lines: 66

A week or so ago, I sent out a `sendsys' request with the following
headers:

Path: tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cheops.cis.ohio-state.edu!karl
From: karl@cheops.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste)
Newsgroups: gnu.test.ctl
Subject: sendsys
Message-ID: <13514@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 17 May 88 13:09:28 GMT
Control: sendsys
Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Distribution: gnu
Lines: 4
Approved: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu

The purpose was to find out how far the relatively new gnu.*
distribution was getting.  I got back a lot of valid responses, but I
also got back a small mountain of responses for sites which do not
accept the `gnu' distribution.  For example,

   From news@polya.stanford.edu Tue May 17 10:03:55 1988
   From: USENET News System <news@polya.stanford.edu>
   Date: 17 May 88 14:01:51 GMT
   To: karl@cheops.cis.ohio-state.edu
   Subject: response to your sendsys request
   Responding-System: polya.STANFORD.EDU

   ME:all::
   labrea:csd,su,!su.roger-or-andy,ba,ca,usa,na,net,world,alt,soc,misc,sci,rec,talk,news,comp,to.labrea:L:/usr/lib/news/sendnews -a rnews@labrea
   maps:comp.mail.maps:F:/usr/local/lib/news/maps/comp.mail.maps/Batch

   From mcvax!datlog.co.uk!news@uunet.UU.NET Mon May 23 14:33:21 1988
   From: Usenet Administrator <mcvax!datlog.co.uk!news@uunet.UU.NET>
   Date: 20 May 88 22:28:45 GMT
   To: karl@cheops.cis.ohio-state.edu
   Subject: response to your sendsys request
   Responding-System: dlvax2.datlog.co.uk

   dlvax2:all::true
   dlvax1/dlvax1:all,!local,to.dlvax1:F
   stc/tcom:all,!local,!general,!announce,!system,!vsw,!dl,to.stc:F
   maps:world,uk.news.map,to.maps::/usr/lib/maps/UNSHAR
   sol:world,dl,\
	comp.sys.ibm.pc,\
	comp.sources.unix,\
	comp.sources.misc,\
	mod.sources,\
	mod.protocols.kermit,\
	!local,general,announce,to.sol:F
   torch/torch:all,\
	!rec.music,!sci.physics,!mod.politics,\
	!rec.arts.sf-lovers,!comp.sys.atari.8bit,!comp.sys.atari.st,\
	!comp.sys.ibm.pc,!mod.computers.vax,\
	!local,!general,!announce,!system,!vsw,!dl,to.torch:F
   # slxsys/slxsys:all,!local,!general,!announce,!system,!vsw,!dl,to.slxsys:F

As you can plainly see, neither of these two sites contained any
mention of `gnu,' and both have extensive lists of what they do and
don't accept, hence I wasn't caught by matching against the `all'
wildcard.

Is the news propagation that badly broken that Distribution: headers
become rather irrelevant in many cases?  Is this just a case of
intermediate sites with old software inadvertently passing on the
message when they should not have?

--Karl