Standard for interchange of USENET messages
RFC 1036
Document | Type |
RFC - Unknown
(December 1987; Errata)
Obsoletes RFC 850
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Authors | |||
Last updated | 2020-01-21 | ||
Stream | Legacy stream | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized (tools) htmlized with errata bibtex | ||
Stream | Legacy state | (None) | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
RFC Editor Note | (None) | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 1036 (Unknown) | |
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | (None) | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group M. Horton Request for Comments: 1036 AT&T Bell Laboratories Obsoletes: RFC-850 R. Adams Center for Seismic Studies December 1987 Standard for Interchange of USENET Messages STATUS OF THIS MEMO This document defines the standard format for the interchange of network News messages among USENET hosts. It updates and replaces RFC-850, reflecting version B2.11 of the News program. This memo is disributed as an RFC to make this information easily accessible to the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. 1. Introduction This document defines the standard format for the interchange of network News messages among USENET hosts. It describes the format for messages themselves and gives partial standards for transmission of news. The news transmission is not entirely in order to give a good deal of flexibility to the hosts to choose transmission hardware and software, to batch news, and so on. There are five sections to this document. Section two defines the format. Section three defines the valid control messages. Section four specifies some valid transmission methods. Section five describes the overall news propagation algorithm. 2. Message Format The primary consideration in choosing a message format is that it fit in with existing tools as well as possible. Existing tools include implementations of both mail and news. (The notesfiles system from the University of Illinois is considered a news implementation.) A standard format for mail messages has existed for many years on the Internet, and this format meets most of the needs of USENET. Since the Internet format is extensible, extensions to meet the additional needs of USENET are easily made within the Internet standard. Therefore, the rule is adopted that all USENET news messages must be formatted as valid Internet mail messages, according to the Internet standard RFC-822. The USENET News standard is more restrictive than the Internet standard, Horton & Adams [Page 1] RFC 1036 Standard for USENET Messages December 1987 placing additional requirements on each message and forbidding use of certain Internet features. However, it should always be possible to use a tool expecting an Internet message to process a news message. In any situation where this standard conflicts with the Internet standard, RFC-822 should be considered correct and this standard in error. Here is an example USENET message to illustrate the fields. From: jerry@eagle.ATT.COM (Jerry Schwarz) Path: cbosgd!mhuxj!mhuxt!eagle!jerry Newsgroups: news.announce Subject: Usenet Etiquette -- Please Read Message-ID: <642@eagle.ATT.COM> Date: Fri, 19 Nov 82 16:14:55 GMT Followup-To: news.misc Expires: Sat, 1 Jan 83 00:00:00 -0500 Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill The body of the message comes here, after a blank line. Here is an example of a message in the old format (before the existence of this standard). It is recommended that implementations also accept messages in this format to ease upward conversion. From: cbosgd!mhuxj!mhuxt!eagle!jerry (Jerry Schwarz) Newsgroups: news.misc Title: Usenet Etiquette -- Please Read Article-I.D.: eagle.642 Posted: Fri Nov 19 16:14:55 1982 Received: Fri Nov 19 16:59:30 1982 Expires: Mon Jan 1 00:00:00 1990 The body of the message comes here, after a blank line. Some news systems transmit news in the A format, which looks like this: Aeagle.642 news.misc cbosgd!mhuxj!mhuxt!eagle!jerry Fri Nov 19 16:14:55 1982 Usenet Etiquette - Please Read The body of the message comes here, with no blank line. A standard USENET message consists of several header lines, followed by a blank line, followed by the body of the message. Each header Horton & Adams [Page 2] RFC 1036 Standard for USENET Messages December 1987 line consist of a keyword, a colon, a blank, and some additional information. This is a subset of the Internet standard, simplified to allow simpler software to handle it. The "From" line may optionally include a full name, in the format above, or use theShow full document text