"Son of 1036": News Article Format and Transmission
RFC 1849
| Document | Type | RFC - Historic (March 2010; No errata) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Author | Henry Spencer | ||
| Last updated | 2018-12-20 | ||
| Stream | Independent Submission | ||
| Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized (tools) htmlized bibtex | ||
| Stream | ISE state | (None) | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 1849 (Historic) | |
| Action Holders |
(None)
|
||
| Telechat date | |||
| Responsible AD | Lisa Dusseault | ||
| Send notices to | rfc-ise@rfc-editor.org | ||
Independent Submission H. Spencer
Request for Comments: 1849 SP Systems
Obsoleted by: 5536, 5537 March 2010
Category: Historic
ISSN: 2070-1721
"Son of 1036": News Article Format and Transmission
Abstract
By the early 1990s, it had become clear that RFC 1036, then the
specification for the Interchange of USENET Messages, was badly in
need of repair. This "Internet-Draft-to-be", though never formally
published at that time, was widely circulated and became the de facto
standard for implementors of News Servers and User Agents, rapidly
acquiring the nickname "Son of 1036". Indeed, under that name, it
could fairly be described as the best-known Internet Draft (n)ever
published, and it formed the starting point for the recently adopted
Proposed Standards for Netnews.
It is being published now in order to provide the historical
background out of which those standards have grown. Present-day
implementors should be aware that it is NOT NOW APPROPRIATE for use
in current implementations.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for the historical record.
This document defines a Historic Document for the Internet community.
This is a contribution to the RFC Series, independently of any other
RFC stream. The RFC Editor has chosen to publish this document at
its discretion and makes no statement about its value for
implementation or deployment. Documents approved for publication by
the RFC Editor are not a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1849.
Spencer Historic [Page 1]
RFC 1849 Son of 1036 March 2010
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document.
This document may not be modified, and derivative works of it may not
be created, except to format it for publication as an RFC or to
translate it into languages other than English.
Spencer Historic [Page 2]
RFC 1849 Son of 1036 March 2010
Table of Contents
Preface ............................................................5
Original Abstract ..................................................6
1. Introduction ....................................................6
2. Definitions, Notations, and Conventions .........................8
2.1. Textual Notations ..........................................8
2.2. Syntax Notation ............................................9
2.3. Definitions ...............................................10
2.4. End-of-Line ...............................................13
2.5. Case-Sensitivity ..........................................13
2.6. Language ..................................................13
3. Relation to MAIL (RFC822, etc.) ................................14
4. Basic Format ...................................................15
4.1. Overall Syntax ............................................15
4.2. Headers ...................................................16
4.2.1. Names and Contents .................................16
4.2.2. Undesirable Headers ................................18
4.2.3. White Space and Continuations ......................18
4.3. Body ......................................................19
4.3.1. Body Format Issues .................................19
4.3.2. Body Conventions ...................................20
4.4. Characters and Character Sets .............................23
4.5. Non-ASCII Characters in Headers ...........................26
4.6. Size Limits ...............................................28
4.7. Example ...................................................30
5. Mandatory Headers ..............................................30
5.1. Date ......................................................31
5.2. From ......................................................33
5.3. Message-ID ................................................35
5.4. Subject ...................................................36
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