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