Project: Webinterface II - Msgbase Structures: Zvon - RFC 2980 [Common NNTP Extensions] - Introduction

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1. Introduction

   RFC 977prop [1] defines the NNTP protocol and  was released over a decade
   ago.  Since then, NNTP has become one of the most popular protocols
   in use on the Internet.  Many implementations of the protocol have
   been created on many different platforms and operating systems.  With
   the growth in use of the protocol, work began on a revision to NNTP
   in 1991, but that work did not result in a new standard protocol
   specification.  However, many ideas from that working group did find
   their way into many implementations of NNTP.  Additionally, many
   other extensions, often created by newsreader authors, are also in
   use.  This document will capture and define all known extensions to
   NNTP available in official NNTP server releases of some type as of
   this writing.  Where possible, the server software first implementing
   a particular extension will be noted.  It is the hope of the author
   that using this document in tandem with RFC 977prop will limit the
   addition of new extensions that essentially do the same thing.
   Software developers may wish to use this document and others [2] as a
   resource for the  development of new software.

   This document does not specify an Internet Standard of any kind.  It
   only attempts to document current practices.  While this document may
   clarify some ambiguity in RFC 977prop, RFC 977prop should be regarded as
   authoritative in all cases.  There are some implementations that are
   not strictly RFC 977prop compliant and where necessary, these deviations
   from the standard will be noted.  This document does reflect the work
   of the IETF NNTP-EXT working group chaired by Ned Freed and Stan
   Barber.

   This document is provided to help implementers have a uniform source
   of information about extensions, however, it is important for any
   prospective implementer to understand that the extensions listed here
   are NOT part of any current standard for NNTP.  In fact, some of the
   ones listed in this document should not be included in new NNTP
   implementations as they should no longer be used modern NNTP
   environments.  Such commands should be considered historic and are
   documented as such in this document.

   Extensions fall into three categories: transport, newsreader and
   other.  Transport extensions are additions to the NNTP specification
   that were made specifically to move news articles from one server to
   another server.  Newsreader extensions are additions to the NNTP
   specification that were made to assist NNTP clients in selecting and
   retrieving news articles from servers.  Other extensions to the NNTP
   specification are those which did not specifically fall into either
   of the other two categories.  Examples of other extensions include
   authentication and time-of-day extensions.  For each command, the
   format of section 3 of RFC 977prop will be used.


ZVON > RFC Repository > RFC 2980
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