From: Charles Lindsey (chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk)
Date: Tue Aug 29 2000 - 12:05:08 CDT
We last discussed this many many months ago. I hope I have captured the
spirit of what we discussed then. I have tried to follow the existing
semantics of NNTP-Posting-Host, NNTP-Posting-Date and X-Trace, insofar
as these could be determined :-( .
6. Optional Headers
6.1. Injector-Info
The Injector-Info header is added to an article by an injecting agent
in order to provide information as to how that article entered the
Netnews system and to assist in tracing its true origin. It is
intended to replace various currently-used but nowhere-documented
headers such as "NNTP-Posting-Host", "NNTP-Posting-Date" amd "X-
Trace".
Injector-Info-content
= path-identity
Injector-Info-header-parameter
= posting-host-parameter /
posting-date-parameter /
posting-serial-parameter /
posting-sender-parameter /
complaints-to-parameter
; for USENET-header-parameters see 4.1
posting-host-parameter
= [CFWS] "posting-host" [CFWS] "=" [CFWS]
( posting-host-value /
DQUOTE posting-host-value DQUOTE )
posting-host-value = dot-atom /
[ dot-atom ":" ]
( dotted-quad / ; see [RFC 820]
ipv6-numeric ) ; see [RFC 2373]
posting-date-parameter
= [CFWS] "posting-date" [CFWS] "=" [CFWS]
( posting-date-value /
DQUOTE posting-date-value DQUOTE )
posting-date-value = 1*DIGIT [ ":" date-time ]
posting-serial-parameter
= [CFWS] "serial" [CFWS] "=" value
posting-sender-parameter
= [CFWS] "sender" "=" ( mailbox / "verified" )
complaints-to-parameter
= [CFWS] "complaints-to" [CFWS] "=" [CFWS]
DQUOTE complaints-to-value DQUOTE
complaints-to-value = mailbox
An Injector-Info header MUST NOT be added to an article by any agent
other than an injecting agent. Any Injector-Info header present when
an article arrives at an injecting agent MUST be removed (though it
might be useful to copy it to an X-header). In particular if, for
some exceptional reason (8.2.2), an article gets injected twice, the
Injector-Info header will always relate to the second injection.
The path-identity MUST be the same as the path-identity prepended to
the Path header by that same injecting agent which, following section
5.6.2, MUST therefore be an FQDN mailable address.
The various optional header-parameters which may follow the path-
identity are intended to allow the injecting agent to make assertions
about the origin of the article, in fulfilment of its
responsibilities towards the rest of the network as set out in
section 8.2. An injecting agent MUST NOT include any such header
unless it has positive evidence of its correctness. These parameters
may appear in any order. An injecting agent MAY include other-
header-parameters with x-token attributes which will assist in
identifying the origin of the article (for example, information
concerning the posting-host, sender, etc. in encrypted form, in cases
where it prefers not to make such information public).
NOTE: To comply with the overall "attribute = value" syntax of
USENET-header-parameters, any value containing an ipv6-numeric,
a date-time, a mailbox or any CFWS MUST be quoted using
<DQUOTE>s (the quoting is optional in other cases). However, the
use of folding or comments inside such a value is deprecated,
even where the syntax permits CFWS.
6.1.1. The posting-host-parameter
If a dot-atom is present, it MUST be a fully qualified domain name
(FQDN) identifying the specific host from which the injecting agent
received the article. Alternatively, an IP address (dotted-quad or
ipv6-numeric) identifies that host. If both forms are present, then
they MUST identify the same host, or at least have done so at the
time the article was injected.
NOTE: It is commonly the case that this header identifies a
dial-up point-of-presence, in which case logging information may
need to be consulted to find the true origin of the article.
6.1.2. The posting-date-parameter
This parameter identifies the time at which the article was injected
(as distinct from the Date header, which indicates when it was
written). It is in the form of the number of seconds elapsed since
January 1st 1970, optionally followed by a date-time which MUST
indicate the same time.
6.1.3. The posting-serial-parameter
This parameter contains information (typically a serial number or a
session number, and possibly the identity of the injecting agent if
different from the given path-identity) which will enable the true
origin of the article to be determined by reference to logging
information kept by the injecting agent.
6.1.4. The posting-sender-parameter
This parameter identifies the mailbox of the verified sender of the
article (alternatively, it uses the token "verified" to indicate that
at least any addr-spec in the Sender header of the article is
correct).
NOTE: An injecting agent is unlikely to be able to make use of
this parameter except in cases where it is running on a machine
which is aware of the user-space in which the posting agent is
operating.
6.1.5. The complaints-to-parameter
This is the mailbox to which complaints concerning the poster of the
article may be sent. In the absence of this parameter, such
complaints should be sent to "usenet@" or "news@" the path-identity.
The complaints mailbox SHOULD NOT, however, be used for matters
concerning propagation, protocol problems, etc.
6.1.6. Example
Injector-Info: isp.net; posting-host=modem-15.pop.isp.net;
posting-date="965243133: Wed 2 Aug 2000 20:05:33 -0100 (BST)";
serial="news2.isp.net:2427"; complaints-to="abuse@isp.net"
[RFC 2373] R. Hinden and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing
Architecture", RFC 2373, July 1998.
[RFC 820] J. Postel and J. Vernon, "Assigned Numbers", RFC 820,
January 1983.
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
Email: chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl
Voice/Fax: +44 161 437 4506 Snail: 5 Clerewood Ave, CHEADLE, SK8 3JU, U.K.
PGP: 2C15F1A9 Fingerprint: 73 6D C2 51 93 A0 01 E7 65 E8 64 7E 14 A4 AB A5