Re: #1047 Path-identity: A proposal (perhaps)

[Harald Tveit Alvestrand <harald@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

--On torsdag, juni 30, 2005 19:47:58 +0000 Charles Lindsey 
<chl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>    path-identity   =  ( ALPHA / DIGIT )
> >                      *( ALPHA / DIGIT / "-" / "." / "_" )
>
> >   path-keyword    = "POSTED" / "MISMATCH"
>
>
> >   path-address    =  IPv4address / no-fold-literal ; see [RFC2373]
>
> A good idea, but the term <path-identity> needs to include everything that
> may occur in the list, except the two keywords, because it is used with
> that meaning in many places.

8 times in usefor, 10 times in usepro....

If a path-address is really diagnostic information, this separation is in 
fact useful, since you do NOT want those diagnostics where a real 
path-identity is desired; I'd argue that the Xref header and the 
Injection-info header should not need to contain a path-address.

USEPRO uses the term in the IHAVE/SENDME messages and in the description of 
handling of the Path header; in both cases, it seems to me useful to draw a 
distinction between diagnostic information and a real server name - indeed, 
the only place where I can see the need to use a path-address is in the 
part about verification of address:

  1. It MUST establish the trusted identity of the source of the
     article and compare it with the leftmost <path-identity> of the
     Path header's content. If it matches it MUST then prepend its own
     <path-identity> and a '/' <path-delimiter> to that content; this
     SHOULD then be followed by CRLF and WSP if it would otherwise
     result in a line longer than 79 characters.  If it does not match
     then it prepends instead two entries to that content; firstly the
     true established <path-identity> of the source followed by a '?'
     <path-delimiter>, and then, to the left of that, its own <path-
     identity> followed by a '/' <path-delimiter> as usual. This
     prepending of two entries SHOULD NOT be done if the provided and
     established identities match.  See a-5.6.4 for the significance of
     the various <path-delimiter>s.

I think you've just strengthened the argument for separating the two....