Network Working Group P. Hoffman Internet-Draft VPN Consortium Expires: May 31, 2005 November 30, 2004 The news and nntp URI Schemes draft-hoffman-news-nntp-uri-03.txt Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft and is subject to all provisions of section 3 of RFC 3667. By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she become aware will be disclosed, in accordance with RFC 3668. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt. The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. This Internet-Draft will expire on May 31, 2005. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). Abstract This document specifies the news and nntp Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) schemes that were originally specified in RFC 1738. The purpose of this document is to allow RFC 1738 to be moved to historic while keeping the information about the scheme on standards track. 1. Introduction URIs were previously defined in RFC 2396 [RFC2396], which was updated Hoffman Expires May 31, 2005 [Page 1] Internet-Draft The news and nntp URI Schemes November 2004 by draft-fielding-uri-rfc2396bis [2396bis]. Those documents also specify how to define schemes for URIs. The first definition for many URI schemes appeared in RFC 1738 [RFC1738]. Because that document has been moved to Historic status, this document copies the news and nntp URI schemes from it to allow that material to remain on standards track. Note: the definitions for the news and nntp URI schemes given here are significant updates from RFC 1738 based on modern usage of these schemes. 2. Scheme Definition The news and nntp URL schemes are used to refer to either news groups or individual articles of USENET news, as specified in RFC 1036. The news URL takes the form: newsURL = "news" ":" [ news-server ] ( newsgroup-name | '*' | message-id ) news-server = "//" server "/" message-id = id-left "@" id-right is defined in [2396bis]. Note that there is widespread use of the username-password authentication in news servers, so news clients should implement this part of the syntax. 2.1 The newsURL has a The is a period-delimited hierarchical name, such as "comp.lang.perl.modules". and are defined in Section 3.6.4 of RFC 2822 [RFC2822]. The resource retrieved by this URL is some means to gain access to the articles in the given that are available on the given (usually by invoking a suitable news reading agent initialized to access that group). If no is specified, the groups are to be retrieved from whatever server has been configured for local use. 2.2 The newsURL has a * If the last part of the newsURL is "*" (as in ), it is used to refer to "all available news groups". The resource retrieved by this URL is some means to gain access to all the newsgroups that are available on the given (usually by invoking a suitable news reading agent). If no is specified, the access is to Hoffman Expires May 31, 2005 [Page 2] Internet-Draft The news and nntp URI Schemes November 2004 be to whatever server has been configured for local use. 2.3 The newsURL has a The resource retrieved by this URL is the Netnews article with the given . In a properly working Netnews system, the same article will be obtained whatever server is accessed for the purpose (assuming the server in question carried that article in the first place and that it has not expired). If no is specified, the article is to be retrieved from whatever server has been configured for local use. The and the MUST be in a canonical form in which no or is used in a context where the same semantic meaning could have been rendered without such quoting; moreover, no whitespace may be included, whether %-encoded or not and/or quoted or not. For example, neither news:"abcd"@example.com nor "ab\cd"@example.com is in canonical form, because the form abcd@example.com is available. 2.4 The nntp URL scheme The nntp URL defined in RFC 1738 is deprectated. This section is likely to be replaced in a future version of this draft. 3. Security Considerations There are many security considerations for URI schemes discussed in [2396bis]. The news protocol uses passwords in the clear for authentication, and offers no privacy, both of which are considered extremely unsafe in current practice. 4 Informative References [RFC1036] Horton, M. and R. Adams, "Standard for interchange of USENET messages", RFC 1036, December 1987. Hoffman Expires May 31, 2005 [Page 3] Internet-Draft The news and nntp URI Schemes November 2004 [RFC1738] Berners-Lee, T., Masinter, L. and M. McCahill, "Uniform Resource Locators (URL)", RFC 1738, December 1994. [RFC2396] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R. and L. Masinter, "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax", RFC 2396, August 1998. [RFC2822] Resnick, P., "Internet Message Format", RFC 2822, April 2001. [2396bis] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R. and L. Masinter, "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax", work in progress, draft-fielding-uri-rfc2396bis-nn.txt. Author's Address Paul Hoffman VPN Consortium 127 Segre Place Santa Cruz, CA 95060 US EMail: paul.hoffman@vpnc.org Hoffman Expires May 31, 2005 [Page 4] Internet-Draft The news and nntp URI Schemes November 2004 Intellectual Property Statement The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be found in BCP 78 and BCP 79. 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Disclaimer of Validity This document and the information contained herein are provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Copyright Statement Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights. Acknowledgment Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the Internet Society. Hoffman Expires May 31, 2005 [Page 5]