#1415 (was ISSUE #1414: Call for consensus)

["Charles Lindsey" <chl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In <> Harald Tveit Alvestrand <harald@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

>--On 21. mai 2007 16:33 +0000 Charles Lindsey <chl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>> There remains the related ISSUE of whether agents may OMIT some entries
>> from the Path (e.g. when they merely record some inner communications
>> within the one site). But the proposed alteration to allow that affects a
>> different (earlier) piece of wording.

>If I were being pedantic, I'd claim that a system of entities that adds one 
>and only one entry to the path must be regarded as one agent, no matter how 
>many computers or intermediate communication hops it consists of.

I think the administrator of the agent(s) concerned is best placed to
decide whether his complicated server farm is best regarded as a single
agent, when viewed from the outside, or not.

One observes many cases where a Path contains three, or even four, entries
evidently placed there by the one site. Often, there may be good reasons
why those entries all need to be visible from the outside - no problem
with that. But one suspects that often it just arises from blind adherence
to the idea that each host a message passes through needs to add its own
Path entry. I just want to make it clear that sites have some discretion
in this matter.


>Actually, I don't see a reason to depart from pedantry at this point. Seen 
>in that light, the "remaining issue" can't be stated in a meaningful way, 
>so it must be regarded as resolved.

It is easily stated. My suggested wording was

Except possibly when relaying to other hosts on the same site, every
injecting, relaying, or serving agent that accepts an article MUST
update the Path header field ....

And it turns out that this is part of Issue #1415, not #1414
(though those two issues have now got well mixed).

-- 
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
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