eggert@twinsun.com (Paul Eggert) (06/12/91)
Commonly used news transport software accepts many Message-IDs that do
not conform to the Internet RFCs (1036, 822, and 1123). Of course,
news software need not, and probably should not, reject all articles
containing nonconforming Message-IDs, but they are signs that something
is misconfigured or is otherwise confused, and some of the problems may
be serious enough to warrant concern. Typically the problem lies at
the originating site.
I looked at a sample news history file containing 63381 recent Usenet
Message-IDs, and found 388 nonconforming Message-IDs. Here is a table
of reasons for lack of conformance, together with the number of
corresponding Message-IDs.
#articles conformance problem, and example nonconforming Message-ID
217 The local-part may not contain an unquoted `:'.
<17169:Jun1122:04:5791@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
47 A domain may not end with `.'.
<25590171@hpcvra.cv.hp.com.>
42 A domain may not begin with `.'.
<9106052317.AA01532@.devon.prepnet.com>
36 A Message-ID cannot contain two unquoted `@'s.
<1991Jun6.165406.70@%boot.decnet@edwards-tems.af.mil>
32 The local-part may not end with `.'.
<k#mh7z.@rpi.edu>
22 The local-part may not begin with `.'.
<.+9+WD_@cs.widener.edu>
17 Two adjacent unquoted `.'s may not appear in a Message-ID.
<9105211421.AA10695@mailserv.zdv.uni-tuebingen..de>
12 The domain may not be empty.
<1991Jun5.192745.1945@>
2 The local-part may not contain an unquoted `]'.
<]ocdj2.cj7@cat.de>
2 Quotes must match.
<"<9105141856.AA26881@cnmus.cnm.us.es>
The article count does not sum to 388, because some Message-IDs had
more than one reason. The list of reasons may not be exhaustive,
because I stopped looking for reasons once I discovered a reason for
every nonconforming Message-ID. The news history file examined was
twinsun.com's news history file as of 1991/06/12 03:15 GMT. This host
runs C News 24-Mar-1991, subscribes to just the technical Usenet
newsgroups, and expires history after 30 days.
You can look for nonconforming Message-IDs on your host by running the
following shell script with your news history file as standard input;
it will copy nonconforming lines to standard output. It's been tested
only under C News. Please make sure your egrep is up to the task; I
used GNU egrep.
#!/bin/sh
# These definitions are taken from RFC 822, except (as per RFC 1036)
# white space and nonprinting characters are excluded.
dtext='[!-Z^-~]'
qtext='[]-~!#-[]'
quoted_pair='\\[!-~]'
quoted_string="\"($qtext|$quoted_pair)*\""
atom="[-!#-'*-+/-9=?A-Z^-~]+"
word="($atom|$quoted_string)"
domain_literal="\\[($dtext|$quoted_pair)*\\]"
domain_ref="$atom"
sub_domain="($domain_ref|$domain_literal)"
domain="$sub_domain(\\.$sub_domain)*"
local_part="$word(\\.$word)*"
addr_spec="$local_part@$domain"
msg_id="<$addr_spec>"
egrep -v "^$msg_id"eggert@twinsun.com (Paul Eggert) (06/12/91)
Here is a list of recently observed nonconforming Usenet Message-IDs. A companion posting describes how this list was derived. The list starts with a list of domains that posted nonconforming IDs, together with a count of nonconforming postings from each domain. At the end of this message is a complete listing of host names and nonconforming Message-IDs. #posts domain ---- -------- 86 hpcvbbs.UUCP 48 kramden.acf.nyu.edu 33 ab20.larc.nasa.gov 30 lehigh.bitnet 20 rpi.edu 17 hpcvra.cv.hp.com. 12 ...!asuvax!gtephx 12 (empty) 8 scrumpy@.bnr.ca 8 cluster@ukc.ac.uk 7 cs.widener.edu 7 %boot.decnet@edwards-tems.af.mil 5 braille.uwo.ca 5 .next1.osf.org. 4 xds13.ferranti.com 4 news%jho@iex.com 4 feki.toppoint.de 4 MHS 4 .vaxkiller.agi.org. 3 uunet.UU.NET 3 idunno.Princeton.EDU 3 dutepp13 3 cymbal.reasoning.com. 3 cognos.uucp@uunet.uu.net 3 UK.AC.SALF.C 3 EMAS-A 3 .nextoid. 3 .econ.vu.nl 3 .devon.prepnet.com 2 jev. 2 engin.umich.edu 2 dutepp1 2 dutepp0 2 cnmus.cnm.us.es 2 cat.de 1 vax1.rz.uni-regensburg.dbp.de 1 vax1.informatik.fh-regensburg.dbp.de 1 usenet@kadsma 1 ukulele.reasoning.com. 1 train@bcm.tmc.edu 1 splash. 1 soleil.iarc.mco.edu. 1 seneca.Sed.Novell.COM. 1 sct60a.sunyct.edu 1 pn9050.cr.usgs.gov. 1 obelix. 1 nfhsn1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de. 1 mute.ruhr.de 1 mandata@uunet.uu.net 1 mailserv.zdv.uni-tuebingen..de 1 goofy.llnl.gov. 1 elsinore. 1 eana.f3.gmd.dbp.de 1 e8@e8ha.eas.asu.edu 1 domina.cs.tu-berlin.de 1 apollo. 1 UK.AC.MCC.CMS 1 NEFX4.91Jun7101949@nefx4.ncsuvx.ncsu.edu 1 .uucp 1 .share. 1 .nextserver.cs.stthomas.edu.cs.stthomas.edu.. 1 .halfdome.uucp. 1 %rtsmv1.decnet@edwards-vax.af.mil Here is the complete list of nonconforming Message-IDs, sorted by domain and then by local-part. To save space, the list's entries are of the form domain local1 local2 ... which stand for the Message-IDs <local1@domain>, <local2@domain>, ... One @ is elided in this brief report, so each @ in the list below stands for one or more nonconforming Message-IDs containing two @s. For example, %boot.decnet@edwards-tems.af.mil 1991May17.121427.61 stands for <1991May17.121427.61@%boot.decnet@edwards-tems.af.mil>, which has two @s and therefore does not conform. (empty) 9105100407.AA01243 9105140937.AA22725 9105150227.AA00828 9105181320.AA25591 1991May17.155656.367 9105201309.AA14790 9105220715.AA22652 9105241604.AA08437 SHAWN.91May28142234 9105280148.AA13156 1991Jun5.192745.1945 9106062125.AA12728 %boot.decnet@edwards-tems.af.mil 1991May17.121427.61 1991May31.092959.64 1991May31.122359.65 1991Jun5.141704.67 1991Jun6.165220.69 1991Jun6.165848.71 1991Jun6.165406.70 %rtsmv1.decnet@edwards-vax.af.mil 1991Jun11.123907.1 ...!asuvax!gtephx 1991May14.183620.7561 1991May15.162125.6532 1991May15.162310.6587 1991May15.200222.12702 1991May20.200345.26003 1991May24.172753.14239 1991May28.202713.1040 1991May28.202814.1095 1991May29.195754.25342 1991Jun7.225601.27271 1991Jun7.232904.804 1991Jun10.234526.335 .devon.prepnet.com 9105171830.AA06830 9105241623.AA11642 9106052317.AA01532 .econ.vu.nl 769 770 771 .halfdome.uucp. 9106011825.AA01359 .next1.osf.org. 9105282023.AA06828 9105300227.AA11055 9106031655.AA03418 9106052145.AA11115 9106061843.AA14156 .nextoid. 9105220158.AA01321 9105231413.AA01980 9105251432.AA00333 .nextserver.cs.stthomas.edu.cs.stthomas.edu.. 9105242334.AA02258 .share. 9105301224.AA29978 .uucp 1991Jun2.002543.22989 .vaxkiller.agi.org. 9105142307.AA18397 9105171735.AA06835 9105241658.AA00346 9105301825.AA00271 EMAS-A 16.May.91..08:57:28.bst..060957 28.May.91..17:32:28.bst..060196 31.May.91..11:23:12.bst..060024 MHS 22*.S=rohrer.OU=cvax.O=psi.PRMD=SWITCH.ADMD=ARCOM.C=CH. 1227*.G=Geir.S=Thorud.OU=forskning.O=teledir.PRMD=tele.ADMD=telemax.C=no. 169*.S=zogg.OU=prz.O=ntb.PRMD=SWITCH.ADMD=ARCOM.C=CH. 910529114115*.G=Allan.S=Cargille.OU=cs.O=uw-madison.PRMD=xnren.C=us. NEFX4.91Jun7101949@nefx4.ncsuvx.ncsu.edu HOLMES UK.AC.MCC.CMS 05.Jun.91.12:26:12.BST.MBBGPBA UK.AC.SALF.C 29.May.91.20:25:16.A106EC 29.May.91.20:49:08.A106FA 31.May.91.16:46:40.A1018B ab20.larc.nasa.gov comp.binaries.amiga:v91i154 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i155 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i156 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i157 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i158 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i159 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i160 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i161 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i162 comp.sources.amiga:v91i104 comp.sources.amiga:v91i105 comp.sources.amiga:v91i106 comp.sources.amiga:v91i107 comp.sources.amiga:v91i114 comp.sources.amiga:v91i108 comp.sources.amiga:v91i109 comp.sources.amiga:v91i110 comp.sources.amiga:v91i111 comp.sources.amiga:v91i112 comp.sources.amiga:v91i113 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i163 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i164 comp.sources.amiga:v91i115 comp.sources.amiga:v91i116 comp.sources.amiga:v91i117 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i165 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i166 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i167 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i168 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i169 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i170 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i171 comp.binaries.amiga:v91i172 apollo. 9106041014.AA15603 braille.uwo.ca .674593550 .675091650 .675501501 .676306327 .676650084 cat.de $7]7j2.i& ]ocdj2.cj7 cluster@ukc.ac.uk 22448.2837941c 22449.283795eb 22454.28383c19 22458.2838e31f 22466.283a426b 22484.28422990 22494.2843795b 22552.284f8019 cnmus.cnm.us.es "<9105132259.AA23725 "<9105141856.AA26881 cognos.uucp@uunet.uu.net GARYM.91May30115448 GARYM.91May31123148 GARYM.91Jun6093906 cs.widener.edu RWS+J5. N!Y+N4. 2!Y+66. 4!Y+P8. .P1+4M. AV6+T+. .+9+WD_ cymbal.reasoning.com. 9105232056.AA25432 9105302308.AA18221 9106020028.AA07159 domina.cs.tu-berlin.de 336: dutepp0 .674293522 .675935210 dutepp13 .674298839 .674326830 .674999288 dutepp1 .675678144 .676108875 e8@e8ha.eas.asu.edu 3478 eana.f3.gmd.dbp.de 118:licht elsinore. 9105171259.AA16646 engin.umich.edu RL0+Y0. CW!-KM. feki.toppoint.de 91.130.08:21:20 91.142.20:51:31 91.146.12:14:27 91.152.16:50:49 goofy.llnl.gov. 9105242042.AA13310 hpcvbbs.UUCP 282d2c85:3069.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 282da161:3053.3comp.sys.handhelds;1 282da1db:3074comp.sys.handhelds 282daa63:3040.2comp.sys.handhelds;1 282dad1a:3045.11comp.sys.handhelds;1 282dbbf8:3077comp.sys.handhelds 282eb2d5:3069.2comp.sys.handhelds;1 282ec8d2:3076.2comp.sys.handhelds;1 282ed46c:3079comp.sys.handhelds 282efa57:3081comp.sys.handhelds 282ffadd:3091comp.sys.handhelds 283005ca:2766.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 2830416e:3095comp.sys.handhelds 28305a8d:3076.5comp.sys.handhelds;1 2830a2ff:3095.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 2830a398:3102comp.sys.handhelds 283142be:3101.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 28319bd0:3079.2comp.sys.handhelds;1 283191f3:3106comp.sys.handhelds 28319e55:3105.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 2831a475:3101.2comp.sys.handhelds;1 2831cb27:3101.3comp.sys.handhelds;1 28322248:3095.2comp.sys.handhelds;1 2832b42c:3121comp.sys.handhelds 2832f360:3101.9comp.sys.handhelds;1 2833207d:2897.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 2833223b:2811.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 283322a6:2812.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 28334a11:3143.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 28336e38:2668.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 2833e7cc:3095.3comp.sys.handhelds;1 283607b6:3027.4comp.sys.handhelds;1 28342b60:3149comp.sys.handhelds 283483b7:3076.7comp.sys.handhelds;1 2835a558:3102.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 2836056d:3004.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 2837572e:3150comp.sys.handhelds 28375d18:3102.2comp.sys.handhelds;1 28386d51:2423.5comp.sys.handhelds;1 2838d9fc:3163.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 2839891d:3015.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 283a0232:3195.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 283a319e:3220comp.sys.handhelds 283a3242:3220.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 283a7f78:3220.2comp.sys.handhelds;1 283ab4b6:3187.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 283b27b5:2972.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 283b6022:3227.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 283b60a9:3214.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 283bcf39:3221.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 283c3634:3224.7comp.sys.handhelds;1 283ca390:3248comp.sys.handhelds 283f4202:3273comp.sys.handhelds 2841d19f:3150.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 2841e299:3283comp.sys.handhelds 2842f4fc:3286.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 284354f9:3187.2comp.sys.handhelds;1 28449127:3255.2comp.sys.handhelds;1 2844927c:3306comp.sys.handhelds 2846746b:3319.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 2846731a:3313.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 2846d68f:3233.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 28473da6:3329comp.sys.handhelds 2847cff1:3330comp.sys.handhelds 2847d178:3331comp.sys.handhelds 2847ddad:3325.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 284813da:3337comp.sys.handhelds 28486743:3340comp.sys.handhelds 28497f99:3342comp.sys.handhelds 2849ea48:3329.2comp.sys.handhelds;1 2849ee27:3343comp.sys.handhelds 284aa075:3342.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 284b2af4:3349.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 284bb02a:3356comp.sys.handhelds 284c8120:3354.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 284c81c6:3361comp.sys.handhelds 284cf5aa:3360.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 284d4e10:3371.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 284d4cd2:3368.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 284dc9fc:3373comp.sys.handhelds 284dca48:3374comp.sys.handhelds 284dca79:3375comp.sys.handhelds 284f1f60:3374.2comp.sys.handhelds;1 2850bd41:3374.4comp.sys.handhelds;1 285159d4:3003.1comp.sys.handhelds;1 285314ec:3374.6comp.sys.handhelds;1 hpcvra.cv.hp.com. 25590162 25590163 40790009 25590164 25590165 25690005 31600018 25590166 25590167 25590168 25590169 31570005 40730001 28000001 49550003 25590170 25590171 idunno.Princeton.EDU azhMklLK7RHF. az.gM8fzw6Wm. azPmJYC3NWq1. jev. 9105141929.AA02157 9106101844.AA00906 kramden.acf.nyu.edu 10581:May1315:01:2891 10984:May1315:52:0591 14077:May1321:14:2691 25239:May1416:21:3591 25361:May1416:31:0791 25833:May1416:43:4291 26085:May1416:52:3491 26227:May1416:59:4091 26899:May1417:39:1691 1775:May1420:06:1291 1905:May1420:11:4991 7491:May1502:05:3291 8834:May1504:18:2391 9150:May1504:50:0591 11900:May1518:21:5491 12130:May1518:43:0491 14021:May1521:56:2291 14213:May1522:13:2291 14365:May1522:32:5891 14499:May1522:45:0491 13550:May1819:18:3891 13658:May1819:26:2491 23781:May1901:08:3591 23893:May1901:19:2191 23997:May1901:27:0891 25666:May1904:50:0491 29167:May1918:13:2991 3690:May1921:22:5191 4703:May2000:47:5291 10429:May2020:10:1291 10670:May2020:25:2891 18457:May2119:19:3891 19060:May2120:58:0591 19233:May2121:28:2291 19427:May2121:58:5991 19515:May2122:03:3191 19659:May2122:17:2991 4547:May2223:16:3391 11942:May2521:33:5791 12098:May2521:41:2791 12177:May2521:45:5991 24071:Jun214:03:1191 24305:Jun214:50:4891 1965:Jun309:17:2191 2088:Jun309:46:2191 4172:Jun815:28:1691 14192:Jun923:16:0791 17169:Jun1122:04:5791 lehigh.bitnet 11059119:51:38RAD2 11059119:37:08RAD2 11059119:41:08RAD2 11059119:48:24RAD2 12059120:31:44HL00 14059105:30:40A039 14059108:50:50JV04 14059121:42:23HL00 14059121:55:36HL00 16059110:40:10JV04 16059111:59:05JV04 17059115:10:52JV04 19059110:01:46RP04 20059109:05:49JV04 20059118:41:50GB03 21059115:29:49JV04 22059105:31:48A039 22059111:18:28JV04 23059109:28:37JV04 23059115:30:02JV04 23059117:28:22EJK0 24059119:34:24DEB1 03069121:01:21BG00 04069111:25:32JV04 05069109:42:52JV04 05069121:02:14AWY0 05069122:17:50GB03 07069113:00:09EJK0 10069111:09:40LAL5 11069117:20:17EJK0 mailserv.zdv.uni-tuebingen..de 9105211421.AA10695 mandata@uunet.uu.net 1991May30.134639.586 mute.ruhr.de 91.131.19:21:14 news%jho@iex.com 1991May21.041224.3996 1991May23.145916.5268 1991May30.144855.27644 1991Jun1.060506.20532 nfhsn1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de. 9105211518.AA06420 obelix. 9105291547.AA01284 pn9050.cr.usgs.gov. 9105151237.AA28291 rpi.edu =+_hsq. 2-_hj1. 7p=h!!. lt=h8x. tjdhrt. m=fh4+. =dghjq. adgh+v. adgh-s. adgh8w. rdghcz. rfgh47. .3ghas- h9lhcf. k#mh7z. k#mhay. .snh5ag .xrh0q= .xrhfp= .pth#.n scrumpy@.bnr.ca 1991May13.220553.28817 1991May22.131136.25113 1991May22.133053.25258 1991May22.163101.26179 1991May30.153824.20151 1991Jun3.171023.29648 1991Jun6.175342.28998 1991Jun6.181622.29296 sct60a.sunyct.edu 5180.on.Tue,.14.May.91.07:39:56.EDT. seneca.Sed.Novell.COM. JKT.91Jun1015643 soleil.iarc.mco.edu. 9105231338.AA03611 splash. 9105171452.AA09476 train@bcm.tmc.edu 1991May20.080124 ukulele.reasoning.com. 9106061838.AA00554 usenet@kadsma 1991May23.155810.1904 uunet.UU.NET csx-12i101:xcal csx-13i006:xdtm csx-13i017:imagemagic vax1.informatik.fh-regensburg.dbp.de 60:windl vax1.rz.uni-regensburg.dbp.de 539:irtel xds13.ferranti.com KVFBE. .1GBQHF .RGBHK3 .QHBBXB
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (06/13/91)
In article <1991Jun12.071111.29652@twinsun.com> eggert@twinsun.com (Paul Eggert) writes: >Commonly used news transport software accepts many Message-IDs that do >not conform to the Internet RFCs (1036, 822, and 1123).... Uh, do bear in mind that RFC1036 message IDs are much more leniently defined than 822/1123 message IDs. While it may be unwise to use news message IDs that are not legal mail message IDs, it is not disastrous. -- "We're thinking about upgrading from | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology SunOS 4.1.1 to SunOS 3.5." | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
eggert@twinsun.com (Paul Eggert) (06/13/91)
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: >Uh, do bear in mind that RFC1036 message IDs are much more leniently >defined than 822/1123 message IDs. While it may be unwise to use news >message IDs that are not legal mail message IDs, it is not disastrous. Practically speaking, this is correct: after all, I wouldn't have observed the nonconforming Message-IDs if they hadn't propagated through part of Usenet successfully! But RFC-1036 says ``all USENET news messages must be formatted as valid Internet mail messages, according to the Internet standard RFC-822.'' RFC-1036 places its own constraints on message format, but it doesn't remove any RFC-822 constraints. Of the 388 nonconforming Message-IDs that I found, only 10% had C News format. This is a good record, since 40% of the conforming IDs had C News format. The two problems were nonconforming domain names, probably due to a C News installer answering conf/build's questions incorrectly, and multiple `@'s, probably due to NNTP mishaps.