Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B UNSW 1.0 3/14/84; site elecvax.OZ Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!decvax!mulga!munnari!basser!elecvax!michaelr From: michaelr@elecvax.OZ (Michael Rourke) Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Incorrect "References:" fields in news items Message-ID: <243@elecvax.OZ> Date: Fri, 15-Jun-84 14:16:33 EDT Article-I.D.: elecvax.243 Posted: Fri Jun 15 14:16:33 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 21-Jun-84 02:23:09 EDT Organization: EE and CS, Uni of NSW, Sydney, Australia Lines: 86 I have implemented my own news software, and thought it would be nice to be able to unsubscribe from particular followups using the "References:" fields. Mark Horton's article "Standard for Interchange of USENET Messages" defines how the "References:" field should be generated. Trouble is most news software around gets it wrong! This is most annoying. To illustrate I have collected some headers from a particular discussion: The first two seem OK (I don't have the original article): From: merlyn@sequent.UUCP Subject: Re: Ethernet addressing (and destroying dollar bills) Message-ID: <515@sequent.UUCP> References: <1329@uvacs.UUCP> <1429@cbosgd.UUCP> From: faunt@saturn.UUCP Subject: Re: Ethernet addressing Message-ID: <2138@saturn.UUCP> References: <1329@uvacs.UUCP> <1429@cbosgd.UUCP> This is wrong: From: dgary@ecsvax.UUCP Subject: Re: Ethernet addressing (and destroying dollar bills) Message-ID: <2678@ecsvax.UUCP> References: sequent.515 Not only is the reference field the wrong format, but the software didn't copy the previous references field from the message. This is interesting too: From: jaap@haring.UUCP Subject: Re: Ethernet addressing Message-ID: <260@haring.UUCP> References: <999@hao.UUCP> Wrong again (at least the field format is correct): From: ed@mtxinu.UUCP Subject: Re: Ethernet addressing (and destroying dollar bills) Message-ID: <128@mtxinu.UUCP> References: <515@sequent.UUCP> And now we have a comma in there: (again non-standard) From: karn@mouton.UUCP Subject: Re: Ethernet addressing (and destroying dollar bills) Message-ID: <76@mouton.UUCP> References: sequent.515, <2678@ecsvax.UUCP> <651@pyuxhh.UUCP> And so on.... From: kurt@pyuxhh.UUCP Subject: Re: Ethernet addressing (and destroying dollar bills) Message-ID: <651@pyuxhh.UUCP> References: sequent.515, <2678@ecsvax.UUCP> From: rpw3@fortune.UUCP Subject: Re: Ethernet addressing - (nf) Message-ID: <3564@fortune.UUCP> This one is correct - we generated it here: From: dave@elecvax.SUN (Dave Horsfall) Subject: Re: Ethernet addressing Message-ID: <232@elecvax.SUN> References: <1329@uvacs.UUCP> <1429@cbosgd.UUCP> <2138@saturn.UUCP> I don't expect everybody to rush out and fix their source(s), but it would be nice if further releases of the news software: 1. provided an "unsubscribe from followups" command 2. generated the References: field as per the standard Ways of filtering large volumes of news are useful. Michael Rourke Department of Computer Science University of New South Wales, Australia ..(decvax,vax135,sfjec)!mulga!michaelr:elecvax