Network Working Group                                       F. Ellermann
Internet-Draft                                                     xyzzy
Updates: 1738 (if approved)                                 May 18, 2005
Expires: November 19, 2005


                     The news and nntp URI Schemes
                    draft-ellermann-news-nntp-uri-00

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).

Abstract

   This memo 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 made obsolete
   while keeping the information about the schemes on standards track.







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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  The news URI Scheme  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     2.1   The news URL has a <message-id>  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     2.2   The news URL has a <newsgroup-name>  . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3.  The nntp URI Scheme  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     3.1   The <range> is a single <article-number> . . . . . . . . .  6
     3.2   The <range> encompasses more than one article  . . . . . .  6
   4.  Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   5.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   6.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   7.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     7.1   Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     7.2   Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . 12


































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.  Introduction

   URIs were previously defined in [RFC2396], which was updated by
   [RFC3986].  Those documents also specify how to define schemes for
   URIs.  The term "Uniform Resource Locator" (URL) is explained in
   [RFC3986].

   The first definition for many URI schemes appeared in [RFC1738].
   This memo extracts the news and nntp URI schemes from it to allow
   that material to remain on standards track if [RFC1738] is moved to
   "historic" status.  It belongs to a series of similar documents like
   [I-D.hoffman-telnet-uri] discussed on the <mailto:uri@w3.org> list.

   The definitions for the news and nntp URI schemes given here are
   updates from [RFC1738] based on modern usage of these schemes.

   The key word "MUST" in this memo is to be interpreted as described in
   [RFC2119].  The syntax uses the ABNF defined in [I-D.crocker-abnf-
   rfc2234bis].
































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.  The news URI Scheme

   The news URI scheme is used to refer to either an individual Netnews
   article or news groups, as defined in [RFC1036].

   The news URL takes the form:

     newsURL        = "news:" ( article / group )
     article        = [ news-server "/" ] message-id
     group          = [ news-server "/" ] ( newsgroup-name / "*" )

     news-server    = "//" authority                 ; see RFC 3986
     message-id     = unique "@" host                ; see RFC 1036
     unique         = 1*( %d33-61 / %d63-126 )       ; excludes ">"
     newsgroup-name = 1*( ALPHA / DIGIT / "-" / "+" / "_" / "." )

   <authority> is defined in [RFC3986], and provides for a <host>, a
   <port> (defaulting to 119 in this scheme), and possibly a <userinfo>.
   The <host> portion of a specified <news-server> cannot be empty.

   If no <news-server> is specified, the resources are to be retrieved
   from whatever server has been configured for local use.

   Observe the delimiter "@" which enables an <article> to be
   distinguished from a <newsgroup-name>.

   Within <unique> the characters "%", "/", "@", "?", and "#" are
   reserved and MUST be percent-encoded if they occur.  The <host>
   syntax in [RFC3986] guarantees this also for the right hand side of a
   <message-id>.

2.1  The news URL has a <message-id>

   A <message-id> corresponds to the Message-ID as defined in [RFC1036],
   but without the enclosing "<" and ">".

   While other documents like [RFC2822] propose different syntax
   variations for the left and right hand sides of a Message-ID the
   least common denominators are proper subsets of printable ASCII
   characters excluding ">".

   The resource retrieved by this URL is the Netnews article with the
   given <message-id>.  Message identifiers are required to be globally
   unique, so the same article should be obtained whatever server is
   accessed for that purpose (provided the server in question has that
   article available).





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2.2  The news URL has a <newsgroup-name>

   The <newsgroup-name> is a period-delimited hierarchical name, such as
   "comp.lang.perl.modules".

   The resource retrieved by this URL is some means to gain access to
   articles in the given <newsgroup-name> that are available on the
   given <server> (usually by invoking a suitable news reading agent
   initialized to access that group).

   Some clients support different forms of wildcard notations instead of
   a <newsgroup-name>.  These forms are not generally supported, see
   also [RFC2980].

   One wildcard notation specified in [RFC1738] is a single asterisk "*"
   matching "all available news groups".  Clients supporting this
   notation often allow to omit the "*" for a specified <news-server>,
   e.g. "news://server.example/".

































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.  The nntp URI Scheme

   The nntp URI scheme is used to retrieve individual articles via the
   NNTP protocol [RFC0977].  It is usually (but not necessarily) used in
   connection with Netnews articles as defined in [RFC1036].

   The nntp URL takes the form:

     nntpURL        = "nntp:" news-server "/" newsgroup-name "/" range
     range          = article-number ["-" [article-number]]
     article-number = 1*DIGIT

   Note that the <news-server> is not optional here, because the mapping
   from an <article-number> to the actual article is established
   independently by each server and for each news group.  This scheme is
   rarely used and not generally supported.

3.1  The <range> is a single <article-number>

   The resource retrieved by this URL is the Netnews article numbered by
   the given <article-number> in the given news group-from the specified
   news server.

3.2  The <range> encompasses more than one article

   The resource retrieved by this URL is some means to gain access to
   the articles numbered within the <range> in the given news group on a
   specific news server.

   A <range> without second <article-number> ending with "-" provides
   access to all articles from the first <article-number> and above in
   the given news group on a specific news server.



















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.  Acknowledgments

   An Internet Draft by Alfred S. Gilman published 1998 introduced
   additions to the original [RFC1738] news URI scheme.  Some of these
   ideas are now widely supported and reflected by the revised news URL
   here.

   Paul Hoffman started the series of Internet Drafts allowing to
   replace [RFC1738].  Charles Lindsey contributed all missing details
   about the nntp URI scheme.

   The online version of xml2rfc at <http://xml.resource.org> and Bill
   Fenner's xml2rfc validator were a great help to create this memo.






































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.  IANA Considerations

   The IANA registry of URI schemes could be updated to point to this
   memo instead of [RFC1738] for the news and nntp URI schemes.















































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.  Security Considerations

   There are many security considerations for URI schemes discussed in
   [RFC3986].  The NNTP protocol may use passwords in the clear for
   authentication, or offer no privacy, both of which are considered
   extremely unsafe in current practice.













































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.  References

7.1  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC3986]  Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
              Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66,
              RFC 3986, January 2005.

   [I-D.crocker-abnf-rfc2234bis]
              Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
              Specifications: ABNF", draft-crocker-abnf-rfc2234bis-00
              (work in progress), March 2005.

7.2  Informative References

   [RFC0977]  Kantor, B. and P. Lapsley, "Network News Transfer
              Protocol", RFC 977, February 1986.

   [RFC1036]  Horton, M. and R. Adams, "Standard for interchange of
              USENET messages", RFC 1036, December 1987.

   [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.

   [RFC2980]  Barber, S., "Common NNTP Extensions", RFC 2980,
              October 2000.

   [I-D.hoffman-telnet-uri]
              Hoffman, P., "The telnet URI Scheme",
              draft-hoffman-telnet-uri-05 (work in progress), May 2005.











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Author's Address

   Frank Ellermann
   xyzzy
   Hamburg, Germany

   Email: nobody@xyzzy.claranet.de
   URI:   http://purl.net/xyzzy/











































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