[net.news.b] Invalid Posting-Version: headers

rick@seismo.UUCP (Rick Adams) (03/26/84)

Admittedly, there is probably only one program in the world
that currently cares about the Posting-Version: header (My
statistics generating program). For some time now, I have noticed
that people have been changing the Posting-Version: line to
reflect that they are running a locally modified version of news.
I have no problem with that (I do it myself).

However, the variations have now gotten so out of hand that
it is not possible to parse the header on any regular basis.

My interpretation of the format of the Posting-Version header
(and the Relay-Version: header for that matter) is:

	Posting-version: any text MM/DD/YY; site sitename.DOMAIN

Perhaps, the MM/DD/YY is technically part of the "any text". The
standard does not say either way. It makes a lot more sense
if it is a deliberate field. The ";" seperator definitely is
mandatory.

The worst offender/offenders are the sites generating:
	Posting-Version: notesfiles

My program currently gives up when it sees a line of this type.
(The second field is missing).
This is clearly wrong and should be fixed.

Many other sites do not follow my interpretation of the MM/DD/YY
field and are confusing my program. If your site is generating
one of the following headers, please take a moment to change it.

Thanks.

Rick Adams.

	notesfiles
	notesfiles - hp internal release 1.2
	notesfiles - ucb internal release 1.0
	version B 2.10 5/3/83 based
	version B 2.10 Apollo
	version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC830713)
	version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC830919)
	version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC840302)
	version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 SMI
	version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 v7 ucbopal-1.9 BSD 4.2
	version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 v7 ucbtopaz-1.5

For example, note that:
	version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC840302)
could be:
	version B 2.10.1 (MC840302) 6/24/83
with the same amount of information.