INTERNET-DRAFT P. Grau V. Heinau Expires August 2, 2000 H. Schlichting DFN-CIS January 2000 Netnews Administration System (NAS) Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all provisions of section 10 of [RFC2026]. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress". The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. Abstract The Netnews Administration System (NAS) is a framework to simplify the administration and usage of network news on the Internet. Data for the administration of newsgroups and hierarchies are kept in a distributed hierarchical database, and are available through a client-server-protocol. The database is accessible by news servers and news administrators as well as by news readers. News servers can update their configuration automatically, administrators are able to get the data manually. News reader programs are able to get certain information from an NAS server, automatically or at a user's discretion, to provide detailed information about groups and hierarchies to the user. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 1] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 NAS is usable in coexistence with the current, established process of control messages, an unwanted interference is impossible. Furthermore, NAS is able to reflect the somewhat chaotic structure of the Usenet in a hierarchical database. NAS can be used without modification of existing news relay, news server or news reader software, however some tasks will be better accomplished with NAS compliant software. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 2] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 Table of Contents Status of this Memo ............................................... 1 Abstract .......................................................... 1 1. Introduction .................................................. 4 2. Overview ...................................................... 4 3. Protocol Level ................................................ 5 4. Description of Functions ...................................... 5 5. Definitions ................................................... 7 6. Specification of the NAS Protocol (TCP) ....................... 7 6.1. Responses ............................................... 7 6.1.1. Overview .......................................... 7 6.1.2. Response Code Values, Structure and Meaning ....... 8 6.2. Connection setup ........................................ 9 6.3. Commands ................................................ 9 6.3.1. Structure ......................................... 9 6.3.2. Overview .......................................... 9 6.3.3. Detailed Description .............................. 10 6.3.3.1. HELP ........................................ 10 6.3.3.2. INFO ........................................ 11 6.3.3.3. DATE ........................................ 12 6.3.3.4. VERS ........................................ 13 6.3.3.5. QUIT ........................................ 14 6.3.3.6. LIST ........................................ 14 6.3.3.7. LSTR ........................................ 16 6.3.3.8. HIER ........................................ 17 6.3.3.9. DATA ........................................ 19 6.3.3.10. GETL ....................................... 20 6.3.3.11. GETP ....................................... 21 6.3.3.12. GETA ....................................... 23 6.3.3.13. Unknown Commands and Syntax Errors ......... 25 6.3.4. Data codes for the commands DATA and HIER ......... 25 6.3.4.1. Description ................................. 25 6.3.5. Status Indicators ................................. 36 6.3.6. Newsgroup Types ................................... 37 6.3.7. Hierarchy Types ................................... 37 6.3.8. PGP Keys .......................................... 38 7. Specification of the NAS Protocol (UDP) ....................... 39 8. Security Considerations ....................................... 39 9. References .................................................... 39 10. Author's Address ............................................. 40 Appendix A - Response Codes (Overview) ............................ 40 Appendix B - Data Codes for DATA and HIER Commands (Overview) ..... 41 Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 3] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 1. Introduction The increasing number of newsgroups, hierarchies and articles has made the administration of news servers a complex and time consuming task. The tools for the administration are unchanged for nearly ten years now and no longer appropriate. Many hierarchies are inconsistent, many new newsgroups are not created or only with a huge delay, removed groups keep lurking in the configuration files for a long period of time. There is no administration tool that utilizes the power of the Internet, nor is there a possibility to check the consistency of the news server at a given point of time. Users have difficulties to get an overview of the newsgroups, the charter of a particular one, which language is preferred, or whether a group is moderated or not. Renaming, the status change from moderated to unmoderated or vice versa, the splitting of a group into several others are dynamic processes. These processes are common use, but it takes a long time until every news server is aware of these changes. An increasing number of faked control messages appeared in the last few years. Purposely or accidentally control messages were sent to foreign news servers to create or remove a certain group, although this task was not approved by the rules of the hierarchy in question. Due to this fact, on many news servers the automatic creation is disabled and several dead groups have been created. It is very difficult for users to determine the status of a group, and therefore the propagation of articles is affected by this fact. It is the design goal of NAS to provide a system that helps to maintain, propagate and deliver the required information. 2. Overview NAS is based on a database which contains information belonging to certain groups and hierarchies. This database is structured in a hierarchical manner, distributed to various servers and is able to receive queries at any time. The service is comparable to directory services like DNS, LDAP or NIS. The NAS protocol is inspired by protocols like NNTP and SMTP. There already is a reserved port number for NAS, 991. It is registered by the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) [IANA-PN]. The organizational structure of NAS is hierarchical, that means an NAS root server collects data from the subservers which are authoritative for certain hierarchies. The root server signs the data and distributes it authoritatively. Replication of database entries Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 4] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 is possible. The hierarchical structure can consist of multiple levels. Usage of the database is possible for news servers, news readers and special client programs. The communication is based on TCP and UDP. NAS contains information about newsgroups as well as complete hierarchies. Furthermore it contains the information about the hierarchies' inheritable entries and default values for a single newsgroup. 3. Protocol Level It is expected that the real life use of NAS will change the requirements for the netnews administration system. On one hand the protocol has to be extensible and flexible in order to implement improvements. On the other hand it must ensure compatibility between different versions. A simultaneous migration of all sites using NAS to a new protocol version is not likely to happen. To solve this problem, NAS has got a protocol level defined. This protocol level describes the current functionality. The protocol level, being a number between 1 and 32767, is negotiated at connection setup. Enhancements and modifications must use a different protocol level than their predecessors. (Usually the protocol level is incremented by 1 with every new version of the protocol specification.) Every current or future implementation must be compatible with the protocol level 1, in order to fall back to this level when communication on a higher level fails. An implementation of higher protocol levels should be able to emulate the behavior of lower levels, even if this implies a loss of features. The negotiation of the protocol level between client and server is described in the specification of the command VERS. If there is no agreement on the protocol level, only commands of the protocol level 1 must be used. Documents enhancing or modifying the NAS standard must specify from upon which level these changes take place and how the behavior should be in other protocol levels. This document describes protocol level 1. 4. Description of Functions In order to use an NAS server, a connection must be opened by the client. The NAS server can be located in the same domain or somewhere else on the Internet. The NAS system is hierarchical. The idea is to have an NAS root Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 5] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 server like the DNS root servers. The root server distributes the data collected from client NAS servers, which are authoritative servers for their hierarchy. The maintenance of the authoritative data is possible on any system. The root server collects the data and makes them available to other servers, which also can distribute these data to other servers. The administrator has the opportunity to make use of either all data or only parts of the database. NAS servers can ask multiple NAS servers for data. An attached time stamp provides the possibility to distinguish between new and old data, and to avoid loops in the propagation. To describe the NAS in greater detail it is necessary to emphasize the hierarchical design of the NAS system. The following picture shows the propagation of data along the server hierarchy. There are two kinds of data collection: in first place the authoritative data for a newsgroup or a hierarchy are collected, and written into a database. This database is made available to a local NAS server. The data will then be collected by the upstream NAS server. ............ collects from > . root NAS .-------------------------+ . server .----------------+ | ............ | | . database . | | ............ | | ^ v | .............. | | | . de.* . | |distributes | . NAS server . queries| | | .............. | | | . database . ^ v | .............. ............ | . database . `--------+ . with NAS . | . client . .............. ............ . bln.* . ^ ^ ^ . NAS server . | | | .----------. .............. q | | `--| netnews | . database . u | | | server | .............. e | | .----------. r | | i | | .----------. e | `--| admin | s | | program | | .----------. | | .----------. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 6] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 `--| news | | reader | .----------. Requests to an NAS server originating at a client as well as another server are accomplished in several steps, as there are: Establishing a connection, authentication (optional), negotiating a protocol level (optional), queries on the database, and termination. 5. Definitions The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119]. 6. Specification of the NAS Protocol (TCP) 6.1. Responses 6.1.1. Overview There are several types of answers to a request: 1) Single line answers A one line answer of the NAS protocol must start with a response code (a three digit number), optionally followed by white space and a textual message. 2) Multi line answers Every line but the last of a multi line answer must start with a response code (a three digit number), followed by a hyphen "-" and an optional textual message. The last line must begin with the response code, followed optionally by some text with leading white space. That is, the optional text must be separated from the response code by white space. 3) Single line plus additional data lines (6xx answers) The first line of an answer including data blocks must start with a response code (a three digit number), followed by white space and the Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 7] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 end mark. The end mark must be a string not including any white space with a total length of up to 32 characters. The end mark has to be chosen so that the following data lines do not begin with this string. For most cases, two consecutive periods ".." should be an appropriate end mark. The end mark may be followed by white space and an optional textual message. After this preamble line, an unlimited number of data lines may follow. The format of the data lines depends on the particular request and is described in later sections. The transmission of data lines is completed by a line that starts with the end mark from above and optionally followed by white space and a textual message. 6.1.2. Response Code Values, Structure and Meaning The first digit of the response code indicates the message type, i.e. informational, success, warning, error, data: 1xx Information 2xx Request successful 3xx Request successful, data follow 4xx Request accepted, but no operation possible 5xx Request is wrong (syntax error), not implemented, or leads to an internal error 6xx Request successful, data follow until end mark The second digit specifies the message category: x0x connection related stuff x1x queries, answers, data x2x server-server communication x3x authentication, authorization x8x non-standard extensions x9x debugging output The actual response code for a specific command is listed in the description of the commands. Answers of the type 1xx, 2xx, 4xx, and 5xx can have a text after the numerical code. 3xx answers contain one or more parameters with data, the exact format is explained in the description of the commands. An answer to an incorrect request may be longer than one line. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 8] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 6.2. Connection setup NAS uses typically port 991, which is reserved by IANA [IANA-PN]. If a connection is set up by the client, the server answers immediately (without a request) with the greeting message, which will start with code 200: 200 nas.fu-berlin.de ready If a connection is refused because the client has no permission to access the server, the answer code is 434. When the server is currently out of service, the answer code is 404. Examples: 434 You have no permission to retrieve data. Good bye. 404 Maintenance time After sending the 404 or 434 message the connection will be closed. 6.3. Commands 6.3.1. Structure A command consists of a command word, sometimes followed by a parameter. Parameters are separated from the command word by white space. Commands used in the NAS protocol are not case sensitive. A command word or parameter may be upper case, lower case, or any mixture of upper and lower case. The length of a command line is not limited. The protocol level described in this document uses command words with a length of exactly four characters each. In examples, octets sent to the NAS server are preceded by "<-- " and those sent by the NAS server by "--> ". The indicator is omitted if the direction of the dialog does not change. 6.3.2. Overview The commands described below are defined using the Augmented Backus- Naur Form (ABNF) defined in [RFC2234]. The definitions for `ALPHA', `CRLF', `DIGIT', `WSP' and `VCHAR' are taken from appendix A of Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 9] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 [RFC2234] and not repeated here. The following ABNF definitions comprise the set of NAS commands which can be sent from the client to an NAS server. 6.3.3. Detailed Description Some overall definitions: text = %d1-9 / ; all octets except %d11-12 / ; US-ASCII NUL, CR and LF %d14-255 answertext = WSP *(ALPHA / DIGIT / "+"/ "-"/ "/"/ "_"/ "="/ "?"/ SP) endmark = 1*32VCHAR utc-time = 14*DIGIT ; The date and time of the server in UTC ; YYYYMMDDhhmmss Newsgroup names and hierarchy names are defined according to the following ABNF definitions. Since a hierarchy name can be the same as a newsgroup name (e.g., hierarchy bln.announce.fub.* and newsgroup name bln.announce.fub) there is no difference between the two. hierarchy-name = newsgroup-name ; these two are identical newsgroup-name = plain-component *( "." component ) component = plain-component / encoded-word encoded-word = lowercase / DIGIT =/ "+"/ "-"/ "/"/ "_"/ "="/ "?" plain-component = first-component-start component-rest first-component-start = lowercase component-start = lowercase / digit lowercase = %x61-7a ; letter a-z lowercase component-rest = component-start / "+"/ "-"/ "_" NOTE: This definition of a newsgroup name is according to son-of-1036-draft [SON1036]. When the current draft "News Article Format" [USERFOR] is established as an RFC, it's definitions should be integrated into a higher protocol level of NAS. 6.3.3.1. HELP Description This command prints a short help text on a given command. If called without parameters it will display a complete list of commands. help-cmd = "HELP" [ WSP Commandname ] CRLF Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 10] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 Commandname = "DATA" / "DATE" / "GETL" / "GETP" / "GETA" =/ "HELP" / "HIER" / "INFO" / "LIST" / "LSTR" =/ "QUIT" / "VERS" Possible answers 100: Command overview, command description 410: Indicates that the server is not giving any information help-answer = *( "100" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "100" [ " " text ] CRLF =/ *( "410" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "410" [ " " text ] CRLF Examples <-- HELP --> 100-NAS server nas.fu-berlin.de, Version 1.0 100- 100-Supported commands: 100-DATA - data for a newsgroup 100-DATE - show time of server in UTC 100-GETL - get list of hierarchy packages 100-GETP - get package 100-GETA - get data from an authoritative server 100-HELP - show this help 100-HIER - data for a hierarchy 100-INFO - show info on current connection 100-LIST - list newsgroups or hierarchies 100-LSTR - recursive list newsgroups or hierarchies 100-QUIT - close the connection 100-VERS - show or set current protocol level 100- 100 Contact address nas@cis.fu-berlin.de <-- HELP LIST --> 100-LIST - list newsgroups or hierarchies 100-Syntax: LIST hierarchy ... 100-Get a list of newsgroups and sub-hierarchies 100-directly under the parameter hierarchy 100 <-- HELP NOOP --> 410 unknown command "NOOP" 6.3.3.2. INFO Description Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 11] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 Prints information about the current connection, the server, and the client. info-cmd = "INFO" CRLF Possible answers 101: Normal answer, prints some information about client and Server 400: Indicates that the server is not giving any information info-answer = *( "101" "-" text CRLF ) "101" [ WSP text ] CRLF =/ *( "400" "-" text CRLF ) "400" [ WSP text ] CRLF Examples <-- INFO --> 101-Server: nas.fu-berlin.de (160.45.11.141) 101-Uptime: 2 weeks, 3 days, 5 hours, 9 minutes 101-Software: NAS 1.0 101-Client: waran.cis.fu-berlin.de (160.45.11.136) 101-Connection: 9 minutes 101-Highest protocol level supported: 1 101-Requested protocol level: 1 101-Protocol level used: 1 101- 101 End <-- INFO --> 400 No information available. 6.3.3.3. DATE Description Prints the actual time of the server in UTC (Universal Coordinated Time) in the format YYYYMMDDhhmmss, followed by an optional comment. The DATE command is only for informational use and to control the server time. The NTP protocol [RFC1305] should be used for the transmission of time over the network. date-cmd = "DATE" CRLF Possible answers 300: Print the UTC time in specified format, see below 511: Error, print an error message Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 12] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 date-answer = "300" WSP utc-time [ answertext ] CRLF =/ *( "511" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "511" [ " " text ] CRLF Examples <-- DATE --> 300 19990427135230 UTC <-- DATE --> 511 Time is unknown 6.3.3.4. VERS Description The VERS command is used to determine the protocol level used between client and server. The parameter is a protocol level which the client supports and wants to use. The server will respond with the highest level that will be accepted. That version number must not be higher than requested by the client. Client and server must only use commands from the level that the server has confirmed. It is possible, but seldom necessary, to change the protocol level during a session by client request (VERS [protocol level]). When no option is given, the current protocol level will be printed. When no protocol level is negotiated, the protocol level 1 will be used. Commands of a higher level are not allowed without a successful negotiation. The protocol level can be followed by an optional comment. vers-cmd = "VERS" [ WSP level ] CRLF level = 1*5DIGIT ; the valid range is 1 - 32767 Possible answers 202: Returns current protocol level 302: Answer to an successful request 402: Requested level too high, falling back to lower level 510: Syntax error vers-answer = "202" WSP level [ answertext ] CRLF =/ "302" WSP level [ answertext ] WSP level CRLF =/ "402" WSP level [ answertext ] WSP level CRLF =/ "510" WSP level [ answertext ] CRLF Examples <-- VERS Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 13] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 --> 202 2 Current protocol level is 2 <-- VERS 2 --> 302 2 My max protocol level is 10 <-- VERS 11 --> 402 10 Falling back to level 10 <-- VERS BAL --> 510 1 Syntax error 6.3.3.5. QUIT Description Terminates the connection. quit-cmd = "QUIT" CRLF Possible answers 201: Termination of the connection quit-answer = "201" [ answertext ] CRLF Examples <-- QUIT --> 201 Closing connection. Bye. 6.3.3.6. LIST Description To obtain a list of newsgroups and sub-hierarchies in the requested hierarchies the command LIST is used. The status of the hierarchies is also given. The highest level consists of all top-level hierarchies and is labeled "0" (zero). It can be obtained this way, too. After the response code 610 follow white space and the end mark. The last line of the data stream must begin with the end mark. The end mark will be checked case insensitive. Comments after the separating white space are allowed. The data consist of a newsgroup- or hierarchy-name/status indicator Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 14] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 pair per line. Name and status indicator must be separated by at least one white space. The status indicator is one letter (see section 6.3.5). The interpretation is not case sensitive. list-cmd = "LIST" 1*(WSP hierarchy-name) CRLF Possible answers 401: Permission denied 530: The parameter "hierarchy" is missing 610: Regular answer with all requested data list-answer = "610" WSP endmark [ answertext ] CRLF *( listdata CRLF ) endmark [ answertext ] CRLF =/ *( "401" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "401" [ " " text ] CRLF =/ *( "530" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "530" [ " " text ] CRLF listdata = newsgroup-name WSP list-status CRLF The list-status is the status of a newsgroup or hierarchy according to section 6.3.5. list-status = "A" / "H" / "O" / "Y" / "M" / "U" / "N" / "X" / "I" ; these are also valid in lower case characters Examples <-- LIST 0 --> 610 .. data follow alt A bln H comp H de H rec H sub O .. <-- LIST de --> 610 .. data follow de.admin H de.alt A de.comm H de.comp H de.etc H de.markt H de.newusers H de.org H Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 15] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 de.rec H de.sci H de.soc H de.talk H de.answers M de.test Y .. <-- LIST foo --> 610 .. data follow foo U .. <-- LIST --> 530 missing parameter hierarchy <-- LIST de --> 401 Permission denied 6.3.3.7. LSTR Description To obtain a recursive list of newsgroups and sub-hierarchies in the named hierarchy the command LSTR is used. The status of the hierarchies is also given. The highest level consists of all top- level hierarchies and is labeled "0" (zero). It can be obtained this way, too. Only a recursive listing of all hierarchies with the status indicator "H" and "A" set will be listed, see section 6.3.5. lstr-cmd = "LSTR" ( "0" | 1*(WSP hierarchy-name)) CRLF Possible answers 401: Permission denied 530: The parameter "hierarchy" is missing 610: Regular answer with all requested data lstr-answer = "610" WSP endmark [ answertext ] CRLF *( listdata CRLF ) endmark [ answertext ] CRLF =/ *( "401" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "401" [ " " text ] CRLF =/ *( "530" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "530" [ " " text ] CRLF listdata = newsgroup-name WSP list-status CRLF Examples Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 16] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 <-- LSTR de.admin --> 610 .. recursive mode de.admin H de.admin.archiv Y de.admin.infos M de.admin.lists M de.admin.misc Y de.admin.net-abuse H de.admin.net-abuse.announce M de.admin.net-abuse.mail Y de.admin.net-abuse.misc Y de.admin.net-abuse.news Y de.admin.news H de.admin.news.announce M de.admin.news.groups Y de.admin.news.misc Y de.admin.news.nocem Y de.admin.news.regeln Y de.admin.submaps M .. 6.3.3.8. HIER Description The command HIER lists all available information about the hierarchy. The data block starts with the data code (0-32767, decimal) followed by white space or a dash. The dash indicates multiple entries of the same data code that belong together (e.g. data codes 81,82) where the entry has multiple lines. The last data line must have white space after the data code. When a data code is repeatable and has more then one entry (not multiple lines), there is no dash. With data code "0" (Zero) a new data block for another hierarchy is started. Code "0" gives the name of the hierarchy. The data codes are described in section 6.3.4. hier-cmd = "HIER" [ WSP range ] 1*( WSP hierarchy-name) CRLF range = [ "-" ] 1*2DIGIT *((( "," / " ") / "-") 1*2DIGIT) ; Describes the range of data codes that are ; requested Examples for range -30 : list all entries up to and including data code 30 0-20 : list all from 0 to 20 0,1,30 : list 0,1 and 30 Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 17] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 0 50 : list 0 and 50 Possible answers 401: Permission denied 530: Missing parameter 611: Regular answer with all requested data hier-answer = "611" WSP endmark [ answertext ] CRLF *( hierdata CRLF ) endmark [ answertext ] CRLF =/ *( "530" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "530" [ " " text ] CRLF =/ *( "401" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "401" [ " " text ] CRLF hierdata = 2*( *( datacode "-" text CRLF ) datacode WSP text) datacode = 1*6DIGIT ; datacode must be less than 32768 ; see section 6.3.4 Examples <-- HIER de --> 611 .. Data coming 0 de 1 H 10 Internationale deutschsprachige Newsgruppen 21 http://www.dana.de/de/netiquette.html 22 http://www.dana.de/de/neue-de-gruppe.html 30 moderator@dana.de 32 de.admin.news.announce 33 %s@moderators.dana.de 40 DE 41 ISO-8859-1 43 text/plain 50 D 51 I 60 14 70 199210060000 .. <-- HIER bln --> 401 Permission denied <-- HIER --> 530 missing parameter hierarchy Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 18] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 6.3.3.9. DATA Description The DATA command corresponds to the HIER command, but it is used for information about a newsgroup. A summary of codes can be found in section 6.3.4 data-cmd = "DATA" [ WSP range ] 1*( WSP newsgroup-name ) CRLF Possible answers 401: Permission denied 530: Missing parameter 612: Regular answer with all requested data data-answer = "612" WSP endmark CRLF *( datadata CRLF ) endmark CRLF =/ *( "530" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "530" [ " " text ] CRLF =/ *( "401" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "401" [ " " text ] CRLF datadata = 2*( *( datacode "-" text CRLF ) datacode WSP text) Examples <-- DATA de.comp.os.unix.linux.moderated --> 612 .. data follow 0 de.comp.os.unix.linux.moderated 1 M 10 Linux und -Distributionen. 20 http://www.dana.de/mod/chartas/de.comp.html#de.comp. os.unix.linux.moderated 21 http://www.dana.de/de/netiquette.html 21 ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/doc/usenet/german/netiquette.gz 34 dcoulm-moderators@linux-config.de 36 http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~dcoulmod/ 50 d .. <-- DATA de.foo --> 612 .. data follow 0 de.foo 1 I .. <-- DATA de --> 401 Permission denied Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 19] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 <-- DATA --> 530 missing parameter newsgroup 6.3.3.10. GETL Description The GETL command is intended for the server-server communication; it will request the list of packages that a server is offering. A package is the complete information available for a hierarchy or newsgroup. I.e. all entries that have a value including PGP keys. The format of the data is the same as for the commands "HIER" and "LIST". The server will send a list of available and distributable hierarchy packages. getl-cmd = "GETL" CRLF Possible answers 401: Permission denied 614: Lists all packages a server is authoritative for getl-answer = "614" WSP endmark CRLF *( getldata CRLF) endmark CRLF =/ *( "401" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "401" [ " " text ] CRLF getldata = *( newsgroup-name CRLF ) Examples <-- GETL --> 614 .. data follow de .. <-- GETL --> 614 .. data follow de hk comp rec [...] bln .. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 20] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 6.3.3.11. GETP Description GETP requests the packages specified by the parameter "Package". If "0" is given as package name, all data the server is offering will be transmitted. The "serial" is the date and time the package was last obtained by the client, so the server can check if the data on the client side is still valid or if it is too old. If the data on the client side is still valid a 213 answer is sent, so the client knows that his data is ok. If the serial is "0", the server is forced to transmit the data. The data for a successful request are sent in ASCII armor according to [RFC2440], so a client has the possibility to check the signature or to ignore it. The actual data will be surrounded by an indicator which indicates the signing method, the beginning mark, and the end mark. These specifications will be included in the signed text block. getp-cmd = "GETP" WSP password WSP serial WSP ( "0" / *[ WSP hierarchy-name ] ) CRLF password = *VCHAR / "0" serial = utc-time ; date and time of the last retrieval =/ "0" ; force the transmission of data Possible answers 213: Valid data at the client side 411: No package with that name 430: Permission denied 530: Missing parameter 613: Package data getp-answer = "613" WSP endmark CRLF pgp-start-mark ; this is according to [RFC2440] "GETP" WSP "SIGN" WSP method CRLF "GETP" WSP "BEGIN" CRLF *( getpdata CRLF) "GETP" WSP "END" CRLF pgp-end-mark ; this is according to [RFC2440] endmark CRLF =/ "213" [ answertext ] CRLF =/ *( "430" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "430" [ " " text ] CRLF =/ *( "411" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "411" [ " " text ] CRLF =/ *( "530" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "530" [ " " text ] CRLF Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 21] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 Currently the following methods are supported: method = "PGP2" / "PGP5" / "GPG" ; PGP version 2, PGP version 5 and GnuPG pgp-start-mark and the pgp-end-mark are build according to [RFC2440] Section 6.2. "Forming ASCII Armor". geta-data = 2*( *( datacode "-" text CRLF ) datacode WSP text) Examples <-- GETP 0 0 humanities --> 613 .. data follow -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- GETP SIGN PGP2 GETP BEGIN 0 humanities 1 H 10-branches of learning that investigate human constructs and 10 concerns as opposed to natural processes 21 ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers/ A_Primer_on_How_to_Work_With_the_Usenet_Community 23 http://www.uvv.org/formus/big8creation.htm 30 group-admin@isc.org 33 news.announce.newgroup 40 EN 41 US-ASCII 42 text/plain 50 D 51 I 61 14 70 19950417143009 0 humanities.answers 1 M 10 Repository for periodic USENET articles. (Moderated) 34 news-answers@mit.edu 35 news-answers-request@mit.edu 50 A 70 19950725182040 0 humanities.classics [...] GETP END -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3in Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 22] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBOBhmWTiii3auEmclAQEM9wP9FVem1VXYrywFa2FLEh1apsay9yJC9jKT V80U1M1LAKkR+xkXZdczd/PIGEAQapauKjINpxFOgynMWd8A2Ta0y4s4ZXHgEiZP A/tKaMGi/7roZwUp8ERQRBsvc54kckgnX57HiVUgsbVd41FHPTvsVLv/QIHmqaGd fR5aQJfwKhE= =Sg4p -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- .. <-- GETP 0 1999090091010 de --> 213 You are uptodate <-- GETP foo --> 411 no packages with that name <-- GETP test 0 de --> 430-You have no permission to retrieve the data 430 Cause: Wrong IP number 6.3.3.12. GETA Description The GETA command is used for the server-server communication; it will request packages that the server is authoritative for. A package is the authoritative data either for a newsgroup or a hierarchy. Each package has a serial number attached to control the age of the package. Serial is a number that is the date in UTC format of the last known modification of the package. A serial of "0" indicates that the package MUST be retrieved. If the retrieving client has a recent package (i.e. no modification on the authoritative server) the server sends only a 215 response. The format of the data is the same as for the commands "HIER" and "LIST". geta-cmd = "GETA" WSP password WSP serial WSP hierarchy-name CRLF password = *VCHAR / "0" Possible answers 215: The client already has the current data 430: Permission denied 411: No package with that name 530: Missing parameter 615: Regular answer with all requested data Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 23] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 geta-answer = "615" WSP endmark CRLF pgp-start-mark ; this is according to [RFC2440] "GETA" WSP "SIGN" WSP method CRLF "GETA" WSP "BEGIN" CRLF *( getadata CRLF) "GETA" WSP "END" CRLF pgp-end-mark ; this is according to [RFC2440] endmark CRLF =/ "215" [ answertext ] CRLF =/ *( "430" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "430" [ " " text ] CRLF =/ *( "411" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "411" [ " " text ] CRLF =/ *( "530" "-" [ text ] CRLF ) "530" [ " " text ] CRLF geta-data = 2*( *( datacode "-" text CRLF ) datacode WSP text) Examples <-- GETA 0 0 humanities --> 613 .. data follow -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- GETA SIGN PGP2 GETA BEGIN 0 humanities 1 H 10-the branches of learning that investigate human constructs and 10 concerns as opposed to natural processes 21 ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers/ A_Primer_on_How_to_Work_With_the_Usenet_Community 23 http://www.uvv.org/formus/big8creation.htm 30 group-admin@isc.org 33 news.announce.newgroup 40 EN 41 US-ASCII 42 text/plain 50 D 51 I 61 14 70 19950417143009 0 humanities.answers 1 M 10 Repository for periodic USENET articles. (Moderated) 34 news-answers@mit.edu 35 news-answers-request@mit.edu 50 A 70 19950725182040 0 humanities.classics [...] Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 24] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 GETA END -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3in Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBOBhmWTiii3auEmclAQEM9wP9FVem1VXYrywFa2FLEh1apsay9yJC9jKT V80U1M1LAKkR+xkXZdczd/PIGEAQapauKjINpxFOgynMWd8A2Ta0y4s4ZXHgEiZP A/tKaMGi/7roZwUp8ERQRBsvc54kckgnX57HiVUgsbVd41FHPTvsVLv/QIHmqaGd fR5aQJfwKhE= =Sg4p -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- .. 6.3.3.13. Unknown Commands and Syntax Errors If a command is recognized as unknown, it MUST be ignored. If an error occurs after the command string (e.g. a missing parameter) a 530 return code is given. 6.3.4. Data codes for the commands DATA and HIER 6.3.4.1. Description The following descriptions are keywords and key terms, which support retrieval and storing of information. Every data code has a unique decimal number and a unique English code name. The content of a data code is inheritable within a hierarchy, as long as the data code is marked as inheritable. The content is the default value for all downstream newsgroups and sub-hierarchies. For example in the hierarchy "de" the language code has a value of "DE" (German), therefore this value is true for all newsgroups in this hierarchy, except those who explicitly define a language code of their own. Hierarchies and newsgroups must at least have values for the data codes "0" (Name) and "1" (Status). Unknown hierarchies get the status "U" and unknown groups get the status "I". Code 0 - Name (Mandatory) Code: 0 Name: name Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: no Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 25] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 Repeatable: no Description: Name of a hierarchy Comment: Start of a new data block Example: 0 comp Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: no Description: Name of a newsgroup Comment: Start of a new data block Example: 0 de.admin.news.announce Code 1 - Status (Mandatory) Code: 1 Name: status Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: no Repeatable: no Description: Status of a hierarchy Comment: For a detailed description see section 6.3.5 Example: 1 H Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: no Description: Status of a newsgroup Comment: For a detailed description see section 6.3.5 Example: 1 M Code 2 - Group for followup Code: 2 Name: followup Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: no Description: Name of the newsgroup, that will take the followup postings of a moderated group. Comment: The value can be used as default value for the "Followup-To:" header on postings to a moderated group. This value is only useful on groups which are moderated (Status M) and have a dedicated discussion group. Example: 2 bln.announce.fub.zedat.d (for the moderated group bln.announce.fub.zedat) Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 26] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 Code 10 - Short description Code: 10 Name: description Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: no Repeatable: no Description: Short description of a hierarchy Example: 10 Angelegenheiten, die den Grossraum Berlin betreffen (for the hierarchy bln) Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: no Description: Short description of a newsgroup Comment: This information is often presented to the news reader upon selection of the newsgroup, and it should describe the topics in brief, but meaningful. Example: 10 Technisches zur Newssoftware (for de.admin.news.software) Code 20 - Charter-URL Code: 20 Name: charter Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: no Repeatable: yes Description: URL that points to the charter of a hierarchy Example: 20 ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/doc/news/bln/bln (for the hierarchy bln) Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: yes Description: URL that points to the charter of a newsgroup Comment: This information should be presented to the news reader upon selection of the newsgroup. Example: 20 http://www.dana.de/mod/charta/admin.html Code 21 - Netiquette-URL Code: 21 Name: netiquette Used for: hierarchy Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 27] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: URL that points to the netiquette of a hierarchy. Comment: Since the netiquettes are often valid for a complete hierarchy this is inheritable. Example: 21 http://www.dana.de/mod/netiquette.html Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: yes Description: URL for Netiquette Comment: If a group has some special rules, this is the pointer to these rules. Example: 21 http://research.de.uu.net:8080/de.sci.announce/faq (for de.sci.announce) Code 22 - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Code: 22 Name: faq Used for: Newsgroup Repeatable: yes Description: URL for the FAQ of a newsgroup Example: 22 http://www2.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de/dclc-faq/ (for de.comp.lang.c) Code 23 - Administration rules Code: 23 Name: rules Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: URL pointing to a document that describes the rules for creating, deleting or renaming newsgroups in this hierarchy. Comment: Normally inherited from the (toplevel) hierarchy Example: 23 http://www.dana.de/mod/einrichtung.html (for the hierarchy de) Code 30 - Control Email Code: 30 Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 28] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 Name: ctl_send_adr Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: Email address of the sender of control messages Comment: Multiple addresses are valid Example: 30 group-admin@isc.org (for the hierarchy sci) Code 32 - Control newsgroup Code: 32 Name: ctl_newsgroup Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: Name of the newsgroup that will get the postings for checkgroups, rmgroup and newsgroup control messages. Example: 32 de.admin.news.groups Code 33 - Moderators Code: 33 Name: mod_wildcard Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: yes Repeatable: no Description: Moderator wildcard for this hierarchy. Comment: This information can be used by the configuration of the news system, for example the moderators file in INN. Example: 33 %s@moderators.dana.de (for the hierarchy de) Code 34 - Submission address Code: 34 Name: mod_sub_adr Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: yes Description: Email address for submissions to the newsgroup. Comment: If there is no code 34 for a moderated newsgroup, Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 29] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 code 33 of the hierarchy is used. Code 34 is only useful for moderated groups (Status M). Example: 34 news-answers@mit.edu (for the newsgroup news.answers) Code 35 - Moderator's address (email) Code: 35 Name: mod_adm_adr Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: yes Description: Email address of the moderator for the newsgroup. Comment: If there is no code 35 for a moderated newsgroup, code 33 of the hierarchy is used. Code 35 is only useful for moderated groups (Status M). Example: 35 news-answers-request@mit.edu (for the newsgroup news.answers) Code 36 - Info-URL Code: 36 Name: mod_group_info Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: yes Description: URL that points to a document, where the moderator presents information about the newsgroup and the submission of articles. Example: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/mjrauhal/linux /cola-submit.html (for comp.os.linux.announce) Code 40 - Language Code: 40 Name: language Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: The language that will normally be used in postings Comment: The notation is according to [RFC1766], the "Content-Language" field. The languages that are not the preferred language are enclosed in parenthesis. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 30] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 Example: 40 DE (for the hierarchy de) Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: yes Description: The language that will normally be used in postings. Comment: The notation is according to [RFC1766], the "Content-Language" field. The languages that are not the preferred language are enclosed in parenthesis. Example: 40 TR 40 DE 40 (EN) (for the newsgroup bln.kultur.tuerkisch) Code 41 - Charset Code: 41 Name: charset Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: Charset that will normally be used in postings in this hierarchy. Comment: The complete set of charset names is defined by [RFC2277] and the IANA Character Set registry [IANA-CS]. The charsets that are not the preferred charsets are enclosed in parenthesis. Example: 41 ISO-8859-1 (for the hierarchy de) Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: yes Description: Charset that will normally be used in postings in this group. Comment: The complete set of charset names is defined by [RFC2277] and the IANA Character Set registry [IANA-CS]. The charsets that are not the preferred charsets are enclosed in parenthesis. Example: 41 ISO-8859-9 41 ISO-8859-1 (for the newsgroup bln.kultur.tuerkisch) Code 42 - Encoding Code: 42 Name: encoding Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 31] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: Encoding for this hierarchy according to MIME [RFC2045] Comment: This is the media type used in this hierarchy, a list of registered media types can be found at [IANA-MT]. The encodings that are not the preferred encoding are enclosed in parenthesis. Example: 42 text/plain Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: yes Description: Encoding for this newsgroup according to MIME [RFC2045] Comment This is the media type used in this newsgroup, a list of registered media types can be found at [IANA-MT]. The encodings that are not the preferred encoding are enclosed in parenthesis. Example: 42 text/plain Code 50 - Type of newsgroup Code: 50 Name: ng_type Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: Default newsgroup type in this hierarchy Comment: This code has no concrete meaning for a hierarchy, but is used for the inheritance to newsgroups in the hierarchy. Specification of the types can be found in section 6.3.6 Example: 50 D (for the hierarchy de) Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: yes Description: Type of newsgroup Comment: Specification of the types can be found in section 6.3.6 Example: 50 A (for de.admin.news.announce) Code 51 - Type of hierarchy Code: 51 Name: hier_type Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 32] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: Type of hierarchy Comment: Specification of the types can be found in section 6.3.7 Example: 51 R (for hierarchy bln) Code 52 - Regional or organizational area Code: 52 Name: area Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: Description of the geographical region or organization of this hierarchy Comment: This code is useful when the hierarchy type (51, hier_type) is R or O. Example: 52 Grossraum Berlin (for the hierarchy bln) Code 60 - Name length of group names Code: 60 Name: name_length Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: yes Repeatable: no Description: Maximum length of a newsgroup name Example: 60 72 (for the hierarchy bln) Code 61 - Component length of group names Code: 61 Name: comp_length Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: yes Repeatable: no Description: Maximum length of a single component in the newsgroup name Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 33] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 Example: 61 14 (for the hierarchy de) Code 62 - Article length Code: 62 Name: article_length Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: yes Repeatable: no Description: Maximum length of an article in bytes. Comment: This code has no concrete meaning for a hierarchy, but is used for the inheritance to newsgroups in the hierarchy. Example: 62 50000 Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: no Description: Maximum length of an article in bytes Example: 62 50000 Code 70 - Date of creation Code: 70 Name: date_create Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: yes Repeatable: no Description: Creation date of a hierarchy (can even be in future). Comment: The format is the same as in the DATE command. Example: 70 19970330101514 Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: no Description: Creation date of a newsgroup (can even be in future). Comment: The format is the same as in the DATE command. Example: 70 19970330101514 Code 71 - Date of removal Code: 71 Name: date_delete Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 34] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: yes Repeatable: no Description: Date of removal of a hierarchy (can even be in future). Comment: The format is the same as in the DATE command. Example: 71 19970330101514 Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: no Description: Date of removal of a newsgroup (can even be in future). Comment: The format is the same as in the DATE command. Example: 71 19970330101514 Code 72 - Successor Code: 72 Name: replacement Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: no Repeatable: yes Description: Name of the hierarchy that replaced a removed hierarchy if status is O or will replace a hierarchy if the date of removal is in the future. Example: 72 de (for the hierarchy sub) Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: yes Description: Name of the newsgroup or newsgroups that will replace a removed newsgroup if status is X or will replace the newsgroup if the date of removal is in the future. Example: 72 bln.markt.arbeit (for bln.jobs) Code 81 - Control PGP key Code: 81 Name: ctl_pgp_key Used for: hierarchy Inheritable: yes Repeatable: yes Description: PGP key (with additional information: key owner, key-id, etc.) of the sender of control messages in this hierarchy. Comment: This field is only printed if the attribute range Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 35] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 contains the "81". The exact format is described in section 6.3.8. Example: 81-U de.admin.news.announce 81-B 1024 81-I D3033C99 81-L http://www.dana.de/mod/pgp/dana.asc 81-L ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/unix/news/pgpcontrol /PGPKEYS.gz 81-F 5B B0 52 88 BF 55 19 4F 66 7D C2 AE 16 26 28 25 81-V 2.6.3ia 81-K------BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- 81-K-Version: 2.6.3ia 81-K- 81-K-mQCNEALZ+Xfm/WDCEMXM48gK1PlKG6TkV3SLbXt4CnzpGM0tOMa 81-K-HjlHqM1wEGUHD5hw/BL/heR5Tq+C5IEyXQQmYwkrgeVFMOz/rAQ [...] 81-K-SDw+iQgAAtN6zrYOhHFBp+68h9k674Yg9IHqj3BWdRjJF6tPKoa 81-K-VpvRovMz+lSOy9Zcsbs+5t8Pj9ZVAQyfxBkqD5A= 81-K-=Xwgc 81 K -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Code 82 - Moderator's PGP key Code: 82 Name: mod_pgp_key Used for: newsgroup Repeatable: yes Description: Public PGP key (with additional information: key owner, key-id, etc) of this newsgroup's moderator. Comment: This field is only printed if the attribute range contains the "82". The exact format is described in section 6.3.8 Example: see section 6.3.8 6.3.5. Status Indicators The status indicator is used as a unique indicator of the status of a hierarchy or newsgroup. The indicator is case-insensitive. Indicator Type Description --------- --------- ------------------------------------------- H hierarchy authorized, complete known hierarchy A hierarchy not completely known hierarchy O hierarchy obsolete hierarchy, should contain only newsgroups with status X Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 36] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 U hierarchy no information available, unknown hierarchy Y newsgroup posting allowed, unmoderated N newsgroup posting not allowed M newsgroup moderated group, articles must be sent to the moderator X newsgroup deleted or renamed newsgroup, no posting or transport I newsgroup unknown group, no information available 6.3.6. Newsgroup Types A comprehensive overview about some characteristics of a newsgroup, being a test group, a binary group and so on. The indicator is case- insensitive. Code Use of a newsgroup ---- ---------------------------------------------------- D discussion (text postings) B (encoded) binary postings S source postings (e.g., comp.unix.sources) A announcements, press releases, RfD/CfV T test postings, sometimes reflectors (e.g., de.test) R automatic postings (e.g., comp.mail.maps) X experimental, other 6.3.7. Hierarchy Types To describe a hierarchy the following codes are used. These flags are used to mark some properties of a news hierarchy. The indicator is case-insensitive. Code Type of hierarchy ---- -------------------------------------------------------- I international, global hierarchy (e.g., the hierarchies comp, de, rec) R regional hierarchy A alternative hierarchy, simpler rules for creating a group, no formal structure (e.g., the hierarchy alt) P only for personal use, commercial use is prohibited (e.g., the hierarchy de) C commercial use permitted (e.g., the hierarchy biz) O hierarchy bound to an organization Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 37] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 (e.g., the hierarchy gnu) letter "O" not zero 6.3.8. PGP Keys PGP keys for ctrl_pgp_key and mod_pgp_key are transmitted in the following structure: Code Mandatory Description ---- --------- ---------------------------------------------- K yes public key block in ASCII armor format RFC2440 V yes PGP-Version U no key user id B no number of bits I no key id, without leading "0x" F no fingerprint L no URL that points to the public key A hyphen following the code indicates that the block is continued on the next line. In the last message row there must be white space after the code, this is also true for a single line code. Example <-- HIER -81 de --> 611 .. 0 de 1 H [...] 81-U de.admin.news.announce 81-B 1024 81-I D3033C99 81-L http://www.dana.de/mod/pgp/dana.asc 81-L ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/unix/news/pgpcontrol/PGPKEYS.gz 81-F 5B B0 52 88 BF 55 19 4F 66 7D C2 AE 16 26 28 25 81-V 2.6.3ia 81-K------BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- 81-K-Version: 2.6.3ia 81-K- 81-K-mQCNAzGeB/YAAAEEALZ+Xfm/WDCEMXM48gK1PlKG6TkV3SLbXt4CnzpGMtOM 81-K-HjlHaU6Xco5ijAuqM1wEGUHD5hw/BL/heR5Tq+C5IEyXQQmYwkrgeVFMO/rA [...] 81-K-SDw+Id0JPFO9AWOiQgAAtN6zrYOhHFBp+68h9k674Yg9IHqj3BWdRjJF6PKo 81-K-VpvRovMz+lSOy9Zcsbs+5t8Pj9ZVAQyfxBkqD5A= 81-K-=Xwgc 81 K -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- [...] .. Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 38] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 7. Specification of the NAS Protocol (UDP) UDP is intended for reading programs (news reader), it is not in the scope of this document and will be described in a separate paper. 8. Security Considerations Security issues are only vital for the server-server communication, since we want a strict hierarchical model of the netnews administration system. So we want to be sure that only authorized clients connect to an authoritative server. Every server has the possibility to deny some commands or the whole connection based on the client's IP number. 9. References [IANA-CS] IANA: Character Sets ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/assignments/character-sets [IANA-MT] IANA: Media Types ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/ assignments/media-types/media-types [IANA-PN] IANA: Assigned Port Numbers ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/assignments/port-numbers [RFC1036] Horton, M., and Adams, R., "Standard for Interchange of USENET Messages, RFC 1036, AT&T Bell Laboratories/ Center for Seismic Studies, December 1987 [RFC1305] Mills, D.L., "Network Time Protocol", RFC 1305, University of Delaware, March 1992 [RFC1700] Reynolds, J., and J. Postel, "Assigned Numbers", STD 2, RFC 1700, USC/ISI, October 1994. [RFC1766] Alvestrand, H., "Tags for the Identification of Languages", RFC 1766, March 1995. [RFC2026] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process - Revision 3", RFC 2026, Harvard University, October 1996 [RFC2045] Freed, N. and Borenstein, N., "Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)", RFC 2045, Innosoft/First Virtual, November 1996 Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 39] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 [RFC2119] Bradner, "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", RFC 2119, Harvard University, March 1997. [RFC2234] Crocker, Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997. [RFC2277] Alvestrand, H., "IETF Policy on Character Sets and Language", RFC 2277, January 1998 [RFC2440] Callas, J., Donnerhacke, L., Finney, H. and R. Thayer, "OpenPGP Message Format", RFC 2240, November 1998. [SON1036] Henry Spencer, "News Article Format and Transmission", A Draft for an RFC 1036 Successor, ftp://zoo.toronto.edu/pub/news.txt.Z [USEFOR] USEFOR Working Group, "News Article Format" draft-ietf-usefor-article-02 10. Author's Address Philipp Grau, Vera Heinau, Heiko Schlichting Freie Universitaet Berlin ZEDAT, DFN-CIS Fabeckstr. 32 D-14195 Berlin Germany Phone: +49 30 838-56583 Fax: +49 30 838-56721 Email: nas@cis.fu-berlin.de WWW: http://nas.cis.fu-berlin.de/ Appendix A - Response Codes (Overview) Code Description ---- --------------------------------------------------------------- 100 Command overview, Infomation command description (HELP) 101 Information about connection, client and server (INFO) 200 Greeting message (Connection Setup) 201 Termination of the connection (QUIT) 202 Returns current protocol level (VERS) 213 Valid data at the client side (GETP) 215 The client already has the current data (GETA) 300 Time in UTC (DATE) Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 40] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 302 Answer to an successful request (VERS) 400 Indicates that the server is not giving any information (INFO) 401 Permission denied (LIST, LSTR, HIER, DATA, GETL) 402 Requested level too high, falling back to lower level (VERS) 404 Server currently out of service (Connection Setup) 410 Indicates that the server is not giving any information (HELP) 411 No package with that name (GETP, GETA) 430 Permission denied (GETP, GETA) 434 Client has no permission to talk to server (Connection Setup) 510 Syntax error (VERS) 511 Internal error (TIME) 530 Missing parameter (LIST, LSTR, HIER, DATA, GETP, GETA) 610 Regular answer with all requested data (LIST,LSTR) 611 Regular answer with all requested data (HIER) 612 Regular answer with all requested data (DATA) 613 Package data (GETP) 614 Lists all packages a server is authoritative for (GETL) 615 Regular answer with all requested data (GETA) Appendix B - Data Codes for DATA and HIER Commands (Overview) Code Name Mandatory Use Multiple Description ---- --------------- ---------- --- -------- ------------------------ 0 name yes H/N no Name of a hierarchy or newsgroup (Start of a new data block) 1 status yes H/N no Status of hierarchy or newsgroup 2 followup no N no Group for followup 10 description no H/N no Short description of a hierarchy/newsgroup 20 charter no H/N yes Charter-URL 21 netiquette no H/N yes Netiquette-URL 22 faq no N yes FAQ-URL 23 rules no H yes Administration rules URL 30 ctl_send_adr no H yes Control email 32 ctl_newsgroup no H yes Control newsgroup 33 mod_wildcard no H no Moderator wildcard 34 mod_sub_adr no N no Submission address 35 mod_adm_adr no N yes Moderator's address (email) 36 mod_group_info no N yes Info-URL 40 language no H/N yes Language 41 charset no H/N yes Charset 42 encoding no H/N yes Encoding 50 ng_type no H/N yes Type of newsgroup 51 hier_type no H yes Type of hierarchy Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 41] Internet Draft Netnews Administration System January 28, 2000 52 area no H yes Regional or organizational area 60 name_length no H no Total length of group names 61 comp_length no H no Component length of group names 62 article_length no H no Article length 70 date_create no H/N no Date of creation 71 date_delete no H/N no Date of removal 72 replacement no H/N yes Successor 81 ctl_pgp_key no H yes Control PGP key 82 mod_pgp_key no N yes Moderator's PGP key Expires August 2, 2000 Grau, Heinau, Schlichting [Page 42]