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Standard for Interchange of USENET Messages Mark R. Horton 1. Introduction Introduction Introduction Introduction This document defines the standard format for interchange of Network News articles among USENET sites. It describes the format for articles themselves, and gives partial standards for transmission of news. The news transmission is not entirely standardized in order to give a good deal of flexibility to the individual hosts to choose transmission hardware and software, whether to batch news, and so on. There are five sections to this document. Section two section defines the format. Section three defines the valid control messages. Section four specifies some valid transmission methods. Section five describes the overall news propagation algorithm. 2. Article Format Article Format Article Format Article Format The primary consideration in choosing an article format is that it fit in with existing tools as well as possible. Existing tools include both implementations of mail and news. (The notesfiles system from the University of __________ Illinois is considered a news implementation.) A standard format for mail messages has existed for many years on the ARPANET, and this format meets most of the needs of USENET. Since the ARPANET format is extensible, extensions to meet the additional needs of USENET are easily made within the ARPANET standard. Therefore, the rule is adopted that all USENET news articles must be formatted as valid ARPANET mail messages, according to the ARPANET standard RFC 822. This standard is more restrictive than the ARPANET standard, placing additional requirements on each article and forbidding use of certain ARPANET features. However, it should always be possible to use a tool expecting an ARPANET message to process a news article. In any situation where this standard conflicts with the ARPANET standard, RFC 822 should be considered correct and this standard in error. An example message is included to illustrate the fields. - 2 - Relay-Version: version B 2.10 2/13/83; site cbosgd.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 2/13/83; site eagle.UUCP Path: cbosgd!mhuxj!mhuxt!eagle!jerry From: jerry@eagle.uucp (Jerry Schwarz) Newsgroups: net.general Subject: Usenet Etiquette -- Please Read Message-ID: <642@eagle.UUCP> Date: Friday, 19-Nov-82 16:14:55 EST Followup-To: net.news Expires: Saturday, 1-Jan-83 00:00:00 EST Date-Received: Friday, 19-Nov-82 16:59:30 EST Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill The body of the article comes here, after a blank line. Here is an example of a message in the old format (before the existence of this standard). It is recommended that implementations also accept articles in this format to ease upward conversion. From: cbosgd!mhuxj!mhuxt!eagle!jerry (Jerry Schwarz) Newsgroups: net.general Title: Usenet Etiquette -- Please Read Article-I.D.: eagle.642 Posted: Fri Nov 19 16:14:55 1982 Received: Fri Nov 19 16:59:30 1982 Expires: Mon Jan 1 00:00:00 1990 The body of the article comes here, after a blank line. Some news systems transmit news in the ``A'' format, which looks like this: Aeagle.642 net.general cbosgd!mhuxj!mhuxt!eagle!jerry Fri Nov 19 16:14:55 1982 Usenet Etiquette - Please Read The body of the article comes here, with no blank line. An article consists of several header lines, followed by a blank line, followed by the body of the message. The header lines consist of a keyword, a colon, a blank, and some additional information. This is a subset of the ARPANET standard, simplified to allow simpler software to handle it. The ``from'' line may optionally include a full name, in the format above, or use the ARPANET angle bracket syntax. To keep the implementations simple, other formats (for example, with part of the machine address after the close parenthesis) are not allowed. The ARPANET convention of continuation header lines (beginning with a - 3 - blank or tab) is allowed. Certain headers are required, certain headers are optional. Any unrecognized headers are allowed, and will be passed through unchanged. The required headers are Relay-Version, Posting-Version, From, Date, Newsgroups, Subject, Message-ID, Path. The optional headers are Followup-To, Date-Received, Expires, Reply-To, Sender, References, Control, Distribution, Organization. 2.1 Required Headers Required Headers Required Headers Required Headers 2.1.1 Relay-Version This header line shows the version _____________ of the program responsible for the transmission of this article over the immediate link, that is, the program that is relaying the article from the next site. For example, suppose site A sends an article to site B, and site B forwards the article to site C. The message being transmitted from A to B would have a Relay-Version header identifying the program running on A, and the message transmitted from B to C would identify the program running on B. This header can be used to interpret older headers in an upward compatible way. Relay-Version must always be the first in a message; thus, all articles meeting this standard will begin with an upper case ``R''. No other restrictions are placed on the order of header lines. The line contains two fields, separated by semicolons. The fields are the version and the full domain name of the site. The version should identify the system program used (e.g., ``B'') as well as a version number and version date. For example, the header line might contain Relay-Version: version B 2.10 2/13/83; site cbosgd.UUCP This header should not be passed on to additional sites. A relay program, when passing an article on, should include only its own Relay-Version, not the Relay-Version of some other site. (For upward compatibility with older software, if a Relay-Version is found in a header which is not the first line, it should be assumed to be moved by an older version of news and deleted.) 2.1.2 Posting-Version This header identifies the _______________ software responsible for entering this message into the network. It has the same format as Relay-Version. It will normally identify the same site as the Message-ID, unless the posting site is serving as a gateway for a message that already contains a message ID generated by mail. (While it is permissible for a gateway to use an externally generated message ID, the message ID should be - 4 - checked to ensure it conforms to this standard and to RFC 822.) 2.1.3 From The From line contains the electronic mailing ____ address of the person who sent the message, in the ARPA internet syntax. It may optionally also contain the full name of the person, in parentheses, after the electronic address. The electronic address is the same as the entity responsible for originating the article, unless the Sender header is present, in which case the From header might not be verified. Note that in all site and domain names, upper and lower case are considered the same, thus mark@cbosgd.UUCP, mark@cbosgd.uucp, and mark@CBosgD.UUcp are all equivalent. User names may or may not be case sensitive, for example, Billy@cbosgd.UUCP might be different from BillY@cbosgd.UUCP. Programs should avoid changing the case of electronic addresses when forwarding news or mail. RFC 822 specifies that all text in parentheses is to be interpreted as a comment. It is common in ARPANET mail to place the full name of the user in a comment at the end of the From line. This standard specifies a more rigid syntax. The full name is not considered a comment, but an optional part of the header line. Either the full name is omitted, or it appears in parentheses after the electronic address of the person posting the article, or it appears before an electronic address enclosed in angle brackets. Thus, the three permissible forms are: From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) From: Mark Horton <mark@cbosgd.UUCP> Full names may contain any printing ASCII characters from space through tilde, with the exceptions that they may not contain parentheses ``('' or ``)'', or angle brackets ``<'' or ``>''. Additional restrictions may be placed on full names by the mail standard, in particular, the characters comma ``,'', colon ``:'', and semicolon ``;'' are inadvisable in full names. 2.1.4 Date The Date line (formerly ``Posted'') is the ____ date, in a format that must be acceptable both to the ARPANET and to the getdate routine, that the article was originally posted to the network. This date remains unchanged as the article is propagated throughout the network. One format that is acceptable to both is Weekday, DD-Mon-YY HH:MM:SS TIMEZONE - 5 - Several examples of valid dates appear in the sample article above. Note in particular that ctime format: Wdy Mon DD HH:MM:SS YYYY is not acceptable because it is not a valid ARPANET date. ___ However, since older software still generates this format, news implementations are encouraged to accept this format and translate it into an acceptable format. The contents of the TIMEZONE field is currently subject to revision. Eventually, we hope to accept all possible worldwide time zone abbreviations, including the usual American zones (PST, PDT, MST, MDT, CST, CDT, EST, EDT), the other North American zones (Bering through Newfoundland), European zones, Australian zones, and so on. Lacking a complete list at present (and unsure if an unambiguous list exists), authors of software are encouraged to keep this code flexible, and in particular not to assume that time zone names are exactly three letters long. Implementations are free to edit this field, keeping the time the same, but changing the time zone (with an appropriate adjustment to the local time shown) to a known time zone. 2.1.5 Newsgroups The Newsgroups line specifies which __________ newsgroup or newsgroups the article belongs in. Multiple newsgroups may be specified, separated by a comma. Newsgroups specified must all be the names of existing newsgroups, as no new newsgroups will be created by simply posting to them. Wildcards (e.g., the word ``all'') are never allowed in a Newsgroups line. For example, a newsgroup ``net.all'' is illegal, although a newsgroup name ``net.sport.football'' is permitted. If an article is received with a Newsgroups line listing some valid newsgroups and some invalid newsgroups, a site should not remove invalid newsgroups from the list. Instead, the invalid newsgroups should be ignored. For example, suppose site A subscribes to the classes ``btl.all'' and ``net.all'', and exchanges news articles with site B, which subscribes to ``net.all'' but not ``btl.all''. Suppose A receives an article with ``Newsgroups: net.micro,btl.general''. This article is passed on to B because B receives net.micro, but B does not receive btl.general. A must leave the Newsgroup line unchanged. If it were to remove ``btl.general'', the edited header could eventually reenter the ``btl.all'' class, resulting in an article that is not shown to users - 6 - subscribing to ``btl.general''. Also, followups from outside ``btl.all'' would not be shown to such users. 2.1.6 Subject The Subject line (formerly ``Title'') _______ tells what the article is about. It should be suggestive enough of the contents of the article to enable a reader to make a decision whether to read the article based on the subject alone. If the article is submitted in response to another article (e.g., is a ``followup'') the default subject should begin with the four characters ``Re: '' and the References line is required. (The user might wish to edit the subject of the followup, but the default should begin with ``Re: ''.) 2.1.7 Message-ID The Message-ID line gives the article a __________ unique identifier. The same message ID may not be reused during the lifetime of any article with the same message ID. (It is recommended that no message ID be reused for at least two years.) Message ID's have the syntax "<" "string not containing blank or >" ">" In order to conform to RFC 822, the Message-ID must have the format "<" "unique" "@" "full domain name" ">" where ``full domain name'' is the full name of the host at which the article entered the network, including a domain that host is in, and unique is any string of printing ASCII characters, not including "<", ">", or "@". For example, the "unique" part could be an integer representing a sequence number for articles submitted to the network, or a short string derived from the date and time the article was created. For example, valid message ID for an article submitted from site ucbvax in domain Berkeley.ARPA would be "<4123@ucbvax.Berkeley.ARPA>". Programmers are urged not to make assumptions about the content of message ID fields from other hosts, but to treat them as unknown character strings. It is not safe, for example, to assume that a message ID will be under 14 characters, nor that it is unique in the first 14 characters. The angle brackets are considered part of the message ID. Thus, in references to the message ID, such as the ihave/sendme and cancel control messages, the angle brackets are included. White space characters (e.g., blank and tab) are not allowed in a message ID. All characters between the angle brackets must be printing ASCII characters. - 7 - 2.1.8 Path This line shows the path the article took to ____ reach the current system. When a system forwards the message, it should add its own name to the list of systems in the Path line. The names may be separated by any punctuation character or characters, thus ``cbosgd!mhuxj!mhuxt'', ``cbosgd, mhuxj, mhuxt'', and ``@cbosgd.uucp,@mhuxj.uucp,@mhuxt.uucp'' and even ``teklabs, zehntel, sri-unix@cca!decvax'' are valid entries. (The latter path indicates a message that passed through decvax, cca, sri-unix, zehntel, and teklabs, in that order.) Additional names should be added from the left, for example, the most recently added name in the third example was ``teklabs''. Letters, digits, periods and hyphens are considered part of site names; other punctuation, including blanks, are considered separators. Normally, the rightmost name will be the name of the originating system. However, it is also permissible to include an extra entry on the right, which is the name of the sender. This is for upward compatibility with older system. The Path line is not used for replies, and should not be taken as a mailing address. It is intended to show the route the message travelled to reach the local site. There are several uses for this information. One is to monitor USENET routing for performance reasons. Another is to establish a path to reach new sites. Perhaps the most important is to cut down on redundant USENET traffic by failing to forward a message to a site that is known to have already received it. In particular, when site A sends an article to site B, the Path line includes ``A'', so that site B will not immediately send the article back to site A. The site name each site uses to identify itself should be the same as the name by which its neighbors know it, in order to make this optimization possible. A site adds its own name to the front of a path when it receives a message from another site. Thus, if a message with path A!X!Y!Z is passed from site A to site B, B will add its own name to the path when it receives the message from A, e.g., B!A!X!Y!Z. If B then passes the message on to C, the message sent to C will contain the path B!A!X!Y!Z, and when C receives it, C will change it to C!B!A!X!Y!Z. Special upward compatibility note: Since the From, Sender, and Reply-To lines are in internet format, and since many USENET sites do not yet have mailers capable of understanding internet format, it would break the reply - 8 - capability to completely sever the connection between the Path header and the reply function. Thus, sites are required to continue to keep the Path line in a working reply format as much as possible, until January 1, 1984. It is recognized that the path is not always a valid reply string in older implementations, and no requirement to fix this problem is placed on implementations. However, the existing convention of placing the site name and an ``!'' at the front of the path, and of starting the path with the site name, an ``!'', and the user name, should be maintained at least until 1984. 2.2 Optional Headers Optional Headers Optional Headers Optional Headers 2.2.1 Reply-To This line has the same format as From. ________ If present, mailed replies to the author should be sent to the name given here. Otherwise, replies are mailed to the name on the From line. (This does not prevent additional copies from being sent to recipients named by the replier, or on To or Cc lines.) The full name may be optionally given, in parentheses, as in the From line. 2.2.2 Sender This field is present only if the submitter ______ manually enters a From line. It is intended to record the entity responsible for submitting the article to the network, and should be verified by the software at the submitting site. For example, if John Smith is visiting CCA and wishes to post an article to the network, using friend Sarah Jones account, the message might read From: smith@ucbvax.uucp (John Smith) Sender: jones@cca.arpa (Sarah Jones) If a gateway program enters a mail message into the network at site sri-unix, the lines might read From: John.Doe@CMU-CS-A.ARPA Sender: network@sri-unix.ARPA The primary purpose of this field is to be able to track down articles to determine how they were entered into the network. The full name may be optionally given, in parentheses, as in the From line. 2.2.3 Followup-To This line has the same format as ___________ Newsgroups. If present, follow-up articles are to be posted to the newsgroup(s) listed here. If this line is not present, followups are posted to the newsgroup(s) listed in the Newsgroups line, except that followups to - 9 - ``net.general'' should instead go to ``net.followup''. 2.2.4 Date-Received This line (formerly ``Received'') is _____________ in a legal USENET date format. It records the date and time that the article was first received on the local system. If this line is present in an article being transmitted from one host to another, the receiving host should ignore it and replace it with the current date. Since this field is intended for local use only, no site is required to support it. However, no site should pass this field on to another site unchanged. 2.2.5 Expires This line, if present, is in a legal _______ USENET date format. It specifies a suggested expiration date for the article. If not present, the local default expiration date is used. This field is intended to be used to clean up articles with a limited usefulness, or to keep important articles around for longer than usual. For example, a message announcing an upcoming seminar could have an expiration date the day after the seminar, since the message is not useful after the seminar is over. Since local sites have local policies for expiration of news (depending on available disk space, for instance), users are discouraged from providing expiration dates for articles unless there is a natural expiration date associated with the topic. System software should almost never provide a default Expires line. Leave it out and allow local policies to be used unless there is a good reason not to. 2.2.6 References This field lists the message ID's of __________ any articles prompting the submission of this article. It is required for all follow-up articles, and forbidden when a new subject is raised. Implementations should provide a follow-up command, which allows a user to post a follow-up article. This command should generate a Subject line which is the same as the original article, except that if the original subject does not begin with ``Re: '' or ``re: '', the four characters ``Re: '' are inserted before the subject. If there is no References line on the original header, the References line should contain the message ID of the original article (including the angle brackets). If the original article does have a References line, the followup article should have a References line containing the text of the original References line, a blank, and the message ID of the original article. The purpose of the References header is to allow articles to be grouped into conversations by the user interface program. This allows conversations within a newsgroup to - 10 - be kept together, and potentially users might shut off entire conversations without unsubscribing to a newsgroup. User interfaces may not make use of this header, but all automatically generated followups should generate the References line for the benefit of systems that do use it, and manually generated followups (e.g. typed in well after the original article has been printed by the machine) should be encouraged to include them as well. 2.2.7 Control If an article contains a Control line, the _______ article is a control message. Control messages are used for communication among USENET host machines, not to be read by users. Control messages are distributed by the same newsgroup mechanism as ordinary messages. The body of the Control header line is the message to the host. For upward compatibility, messages that match the newsgroup pattern ``all.all.ctl'' should also be interpreted as control messages. If no Control: header is present on such messages, the subject is used as the control message. However, messages on newsgroups matching this pattern do not conform to this standard. 2.2.8 Distribution This line is used to alter the ____________ distribution scope of the message. It has the same format as the Newsgroups line. User subscriptions are still controlled by Newsgroups, but the message is sent to all systems subscribing to the newsgroups on the Distribution line instead of the Newsgroups line. Thus, a car for sale in New Jersey might have headers including Newsgroups: net.auto,net.wanted Distribution: nj.all so that it would only go to persons subscribing to net.auto or net.wanted within New Jersey. The intent of this header is to further restrict the distribution of a newsgroup, not to increase it. A local newsgroup, such as nj.crazy-eddie, will probably not be propagated by sites outside New Jersey that do not show such a newsgroup as valid. Wildcards in newsgroup names in the Distribution line are allowed. Followup articles should default to the same Distribution line as the original article, but the user can change it to a more limited one, or escalate the distribution if it was originally restricted and a more widely distributed reply is appropriate. 2.2.9 Organization The text of this line is a short ____________ phrase describing the organization to which the sender belongs, or to which the machine belongs. The intent of this line is to help identify the person posting the - 11 - message, since site names are often cryptic enough to make it hard to recognize the organization by the electronic address. 3. Control Messages Control Messages Control Messages Control Messages This section lists the control messages currently defined. The body of the Control header is the control message. Messages are a sequence of zero or more words, separated by white space (blanks or tabs). The first word is the name of the control message, remaining words are parameters to the message. The remainder of the header and the body of the message are also potential parameters; for example, the From line might suggest an address to which a response is to be mailed. Implementors and administrators may choose to allow control messages to be automatically carried out, or to queue them for manual processing. However, manually processed messages should be dealt with promptly. 3.1 Cancel Cancel Cancel Cancel cancel <message ID> If an article with the given message ID is present on the local system, the article is cancelled. This mechanism allows a user to cancel an article after the article has been distributed over the network. Only the author of the article or the local super user is allowed to use this message. The verified sender of a message is the Sender line, or if no Sender line is present, the From line. The verified sender of the cancel message must be the same as either the Sender or From field of the original message. A verified sender in the cancel message is allowed to match an unverified From in the original message. 3.2 Ihave/Sendme Ihave/Sendme Ihave/Sendme Ihave/Sendme ihave <message ID list> <remotesys> sendme <message ID list> <remotesys> This message is part of the ``ihave/sendme'' protocol, which allows one site (say ``A'') to tell another site (``B'') that a particular message has been received on A. Suppose that site A receives article ``ucbvax.1234'', and wishes to transmit the article to site B. A sends the control message ``ihave ucbvax.1234 A'' to site B (by - 12 - posting it to newsgroup ``to.B''). B responds with the control message ``sendme ucbvax.1234 B'' (on newsgroup to.A) if it has not already received the article. Upon receiving the Sendme message, A sends the article to B. This protocol can be used to cut down on redundant traffic between sites. It is optional and should be used only if the particular situation makes it worthwhile. Frequently, the outcome is that, since most original messages are short, and since there is a high overhead to start sending a new message with UUCP, it costs as much to send the Ihave as it would cost to send the article itself. One possible solution to this overhead problem is to batch requests. Several message ID's may be announced or requested in one message. If no message ID's are listed in the control message, the body of the message should be scanned for message ID's, one per line. 3.3 Newgroup Newgroup Newgroup Newgroup newgroup <groupname> This control message creates a new newsgroup with the name given. Since no articles may be posted or forwarded until a newsgroup is created, this message is required before a newsgroup can be used. The body of the message is expected to be a short paragraph describing the intended use of the newsgroup. 3.4 Rmgroup Rmgroup Rmgroup Rmgroup rmgroup <groupname> This message removes a newsgroup with the given name. Since the newsgroup is removed from every site on the network, this command should be used carefully by a responsible administrator. 3.5 Sendsys Sendsys Sendsys Sendsys sendsys (no arguments) The ``sys'' file, listing all neighbors and which newsgroups are sent to each neighbor, will be mailed to the author of the control message (Reply-to, if present, otherwise From). This information is considered public information, and it is a requirement of membership in USENET that this information be provided on request, either automatically in response to this control message, or manually, by mailing the requested information to the - 13 - author of the message. This information is used to keep the map of USENET up to date, and to determine where netnews is sent. The format of the file mailed back to the author should be the same as that of the ``sys'' file. This format has one line per neighboring site (plus one line for the local site), containing four colon separated fields. The first field has the site name of the neighbor, the second field has a newsgroup pattern describing the newsgroups sent to the neighbor. The third and fourth fields are not defined by this standard. A sample response: From cbosgd!mark Sun Mar 27 20:39:37 1983 Subject: response to your sendsys request To: mark@cbosgd.UUCP Responding-System: cbosgd.UUCP cbosgd:osg,cb,btl,bell,net,fa,to,test ucbvax:net,fa,to.ucbvax:L: cbosg:net,fa,bell,btl,cb,osg,to.cbosg:F:/usr/spool/outnews/cbosg cbosgb:osg,to.cbosgb:F:/usr/spool/outnews/cbosgb sescent:net,fa,bell,btl,cb,to.sescent:F:/usr/spool/outnews/sescent npois:net,fa,bell,btl,ug,to.npois:F:/usr/spool/outnews/npois mhuxi:net,fa,bell,btl,ug,to.mhuxi:F:/usr/spool/outnews/mhuxi 3.6 Senduuname Senduuname Senduuname Senduuname senduuname (no arguments) The ``uuname'' program is run, and the output is mailed to the author of the control message (Reply-to, if present, otherwise From). This program lists all uucp neighbors of the local site. This information is used to make maps of the UUCP network. The sys file is not the same as the ___ UUCP L.sys file. The L.sys file should never be _____ transmitted to another party without the consent of the sites whose passwords are listed therein. It is optional for a site to provide this information. Some reply should be made to the author of the control message, so that a transmission error won't be blamed. It is also permissible for a site to run the uuname program (or in some other way determine the uucp neighbors) and edit the output, either automatically or manually, before mailing the reply back to the author. The file should contain one site per line, beginning with the uucp site name. Additional information may be included, separated from the site name by a blank or tab. The phone number or password for the site should NOT be included, as the reply is considered to be in the public domain. (The uuname - 14 - program will send only the site name and not the entire contents of the L.sys file, thus, phone numbers and passwords are not transmitted.) The purpose of this message is to generate and maintain UUCP mail routing maps. Thus, connections over which mail can be sent using the site!user syntax should be included, regardless of whether the link is actually a UUCP link at the physical level. If a mail router should use it, it should be included. Since all information sent in response to this message is optional, sites are free to edit the list, deleting secret or private links they do not wish to publicise. 3.7 Version Version Version Version version (no arguments) The name and version of the software running on the local system is to be mailed back to the author of the article (Reply-to if present, otherwise From). 4. Transmission Methods Transmission Methods Transmission Methods Transmission Methods USENET is not a physical network, but rather a logical network resting on top of several existing physical networks. These networks include, but are not limited to, UUCP, the ARPANET, an Ethernet, the BLICN network, an NSC Hyperchannel, and a Berknet. What is important is that two neighboring systems on USENET have some method to get a new article, in the format listed here, from one system to the other, and once on the receiving system, processed by the netnews software on that system. (On UNIX systems, this usually means the ``rnews'' program being run with the article on the standard input.) It is not a requirement that USENET sites have mail systems capable of understanding the ARPA Internet mail syntax, but it is strongly recommended. Since From, Reply-To, and Sender lines use the Internet syntax, replies will be difficult or impossible without an internet mailer. A site without an internet mailer can attempt to use the Path header line for replies, but this field is not guaranteed to be a working path for replies. In any event, any site generating or forwarding news messages must have an internet address that allows them to receive mail from sites with internet mailers, and they must include their internet address on their From line. - 15 - 4.1 Remote Execution Remote Execution Remote Execution Remote Execution Some networks permit direct remote command execution. On these networks, news may be forwarded by spooling the rnews command with the article on the standard input. For example, if the remote system is called ``remote'', news would be sent over a UUCP link with the command ``uux - remote!rnews'', and on a Berknet, ``net -mremote rnews''. It is important that the article be sent via a reliable mechansim, normally involving the possibility of spooling, rather than direct real-time remote execution. This is because, if the remote system is down, a direct execution command will fail, and the article will never be delivered. If the article is spooled, it will eventually be delivered when both systems are up. 4.2 Transfer by Mail Transfer by Mail Transfer by Mail Transfer by Mail On some systems, direct remote spooled execution is not possible. However, most systems support electronic mail, and a news article can be sent as mail. One approach is to send a mail message which is identical to the news message: the mail headers are the news headers, and the mail body is the news body. By convention, this mail is sent to the user ``newsmail'' on the remote machine. One problem with this method is that it may not be possible to convince the mail system that the From line of the message is valid, since the mail message was generated by a program on a system different from the source of the news article. Another problem is that error messages caused by the mail transmission would be sent to the originator of the news article, who has no control over news transmission between two cooperating hosts and does not know who to contact. Transmission error messages should be directed to a responsible contact person on the sending machine. A solution to this problem is to encapsulate the news article into a mail message, such that the entire article (headers and body) are part of the body of the mail message. The convention here is that such mail is sent to user ``rnews'' on the remote system. A mail message body is generated by prepending the letter ``N'' to each line of the news article, and then attaching whatever mail headers are convenient to generate. The N's are attached to prevent any special lines in the news article from interfering with mail transmission, and to prevent any extra lines inserted by the mailer (headers, blank lines, etc.) from becoming part of the news article. A program on the receiving machine receives mail to ``rnews'', - 16 - extracting the article itself and invoking the ``rnews'' program. An example in this format might look like this: Date: Monday, 3-Jan-83 08:33:47 MST From: news@cbosgd.UUCP Subject: network news article To: rnews@npois.UUCP NRelay-Version: B 2.10 2/13/83 cbosgd.UUCP NPosting-Version: B 2.9 6/21/82 sask.UUCP NPath: cbosgd!mhuxj!harpo!utah-cs!sask!derek NFrom: derek@sask.UUCP (Derek Andrew) NNewsgroups: net.test NSubject: necessary test NMessage-ID: <176@sask.UUCP> NDate: Monday, 3-Jan-83 00:59:15 MST N NThis really is a test. If anyone out there more than 6 Nhops away would kindly confirm this note I would Nappreciate it. We suspect that our news postings Nare not getting out into the world. N Using mail solves the spooling problem, since mail must always be spooled if the destination host is down. However, it adds more overhead to the transmission process (to encapsulate and extract the article) and makes it harder for software to give different priorities to news and mail. 4.3 Batching Batching Batching Batching Since news articles are usually short, and since a large number of messages are often sent between two sites in a day, it may make sense to batch news articles. Several articles can be combined into one large article, using conventions agreed upon in advance by the two sites. One such batching scheme is described here; its use is still considered experimental. News articles are combined into a script, separated by a header of the form: ##! rnews 1234 where 1234 is the length, in bytes, of the article. Each such line is followed by an article containing the given number of bytes. (The newline at the end of each line of the article is counted as one byte, for purposes of this count, even if it is stored as CRLF.) For example, a batch - 17 - of articles might look like this: #! rnews 374 Relay-Version: version B 2.10 2/13/83; site cbosgd.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 2/13/83; site eagle.UUCP Path: cbosgd!mhuxj!mhuxt!eagle!jerry From: jerry@eagle.uucp (Jerry Schwarz) Newsgroups: net.general Subject: Usenet Etiquette -- Please Read Message-ID: <642@eagle.UUCP> Date: Friday, 19-Nov-82 16:14:55 EST Here is an important message about USENET Etiquette. #! rnews 378 Relay-Version: version B 2.10 2/13/83; site cbosgd.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 2/13/83; site eagle.UUCP Path: cbosgd!mhuxj!mhuxt!eagle!jerry From: jerry@eagle.uucp (Jerry Schwarz) Newsgroups: net.followup Subject: Notes on Etiquette article Message-ID: <643@eagle.UUCP> Date: Friday, 19-Nov-82 17:24:12 EST There was something I forgot to mention in the last message. Batched news is recognized because the first character in the message is ``#''. The message is then passed to the unbatcher for interpretation. 5. The News Propagation Algorithm The News Propagation Algorithm The News Propagation Algorithm The News Propagation Algorithm This section describes the overall scheme of USENET and the algorithm followed by sites in propagating news to the entire network. Since all sites are affected by incorrectly formatted articles and by propagation errors, it is important for the method to be standardized. USENET is a directed graph. Each node in the graph is a host computer, each arc in the graph is a transmission path from one host to another host. Each arc is labelled with a newsgroup pattern, specifying which newsgroup classes are forwarded along that link. Most arcs are bidirectional, that is, if site A sends a class of newsgroups to site B, then site B usually sends the same class of newsgroups to site A. This bidirectionality is not, however, required. USENET is made up of many subnetworks. Each subnet has a name, such as ``net'' or ``btl''. The special subnet ``net'' is defined to be USENET, although the union of all - 18 - subnets may be a superset of USENET (because of sites that get local newsgroup classes but do not get net.all). Each subnet is a connected graph, that is, a path exists from every node to every other node in the subnet. In addition, the entire graph is (theoretically) connected. (In practice, some political considerations have caused some sites to be unable to post articles reaching the rest of the network.) An article is posted on one machine to a list of newsgroups. That machine accepts it locally, then forwards it to all its neighbors that are interested in at least one of the newsgroups of the message. (Site A deems site B to be ``interested'' in a newsgroup if the newsgroup matches the pattern on the arc from A to B. This pattern is stored in a file on the A machine.) The sites receiving the incoming article examine it to make sure they really want the article, accept it locally, and then in turn forward the article to all their interested _____ neighbors. This process continues until the entire network has seen the article. An important part of the algorithm is the prevention of loops. The above process would cause a message to loop along a cycle forever. In particular, when site A sends an article to site B, site B will send it back to site A, which will send it to site B, and so on. One solution to this is the history mechanism. Each site keeps track of all articles it has seen (by their message ID) and whenever an article comes in that it has already seen, the incoming article is discarded immediately. This solution is sufficient to prevent loops, but additional optimizations can be made to avoid sending articles to sites that will simply throw them away. One optimization is that an article should never be sent to a machine listed in the Path line of the header. When a machine name is in the Path line, the message is known to have passed through the machine. Another optimization is that, if the article originated on site A, then site A has already seen the article. (Origination can be determined by the Posting-Version line.) Thus, if an article is posted to newsgroup ``net.misc'', it will match the pattern ``net.all'' (where ``all'' is a metasymbol that matches any string), and will be forwarded to all sites that subscribe to net.all (as determined by what their neighbors send them). These sites make up the ``net'' subnetwork. An article posted to ``btl.general'' will reach all sites receiving ``btl.all'', but will not reach sites that do not get ``btl.all''. In effect, the - 19 - articles reaches the ``btl'' subnetwork. An article posted to newsgroups ``net.micro,btl.general'' will reach all sites subscribing to either of the two classes. ============ From schein Thu Jun 9 14:36:35 1988 remote from cbmvax Received: by cbmvax.UUCP (1.2/UUCP-Project/Commodore 12/21/87)) id AA14116; Thu, 9 Jun 88 14:36:35 edt Date: Thu, 9 Jun 88 14:36:35 edt From: cbmvax!schein (Dan Schein CATS) Message-Id: <8806091836.AA14116@cbmvax.UUCP> To: heimat!sysop Subject: How to UseNet How to Use USENET Effectively Matt Bishop Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science Mail Stop 230-5 NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA 94035 1. Introduction USENET is a worldwide bulletin board system in which thousands of computers pass articles back and forth. Of necessi- ty, customs have sprung up enabling very diverse people and groups to communicate peaceably and effectively using USENET. These customs are for the most part written, but are scattered over several documents that can be difficult to find; in any case, even if a new user can find all the documents, he most likely will have neither the time nor the inclination to read them all. This document is intended to collect all these conven- tions into one place, thereby making it easy for new users to learn about the world of USENET. (Old-timers, too, will benefit from reading this.) You should read this document and understand it thoroughly before you even think about posting anything. If you have ques- tions, please ask your USENET administrator (who can usually be reached by sending mail to usenet) or a more knowledgeable USENET user. Believe me, you will save yourself a lot of grief. The mechanics of posting an article to USENET are explained in Mark Horton's excellent paper How to Read the Network News; if you have not read that yet, stop here and do so. A lot of what follows depends on your knowing (at least vaguely) the mechanics of posting news. Before we discuss these customs, we ought to look at the history of USENET, what it is today, and why we need these con- ventions. 2. All About USENET USENET began on a set of computers in North Carolina's Research Triangle. The programs involved (known as "netnews" then, and "A news" now) exchanged messages; it was a small, multi-computer bulletin board system. As time passed, adminis- trators of other systems began to connect their computers to this bulletin board system. The network grew. Then, at Berkeley, the News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986 news programs were rewritten (this version became known as "B news") and the format changed to conform to ARPA standards (again, this became the "B protocol for news".*) This version of news was very widely distributed, and at this point USENET began to take on its current shape. USENET is a logical network (as opposed to a physical net- work.) It is also a very amorphous network, in that there is no central administration or controlling site. There is not even an official list of members, although there is a very complete unof- ficial one. A site gets access to USENET by finding some other site already on USENET that it can connect to and exchange news articles. So long as this second site (called a neighbor of the first site) remains willing and able to pass articles to and from the first site, the first site is on USENET. A site leaves the USENET only when no one is willing or able to pass articles to, or accept articles from, it. As a result, USENET has no equivalent of a "sysop" or cen- tral authority controlling the bulletin board. What little con- trol is exercised is wielded by the person at each site who is responsible for maintaining the USENET connections (this person is called the "USENET administrator.") Because most USENET ad- ministrators are (relatively) new to USENET, and because adminis- tering USENET locally involves a great deal of work, most USENET administrators tend to follow the lead of other, more experi- enced, administrators (often known somewhat irreverently as "net gurus.") This is not an abdication of responsibility, but a means of keeping the amount of work little enough so it can be done without interfering with the local USENET administrator's job. An example of this is the list of currently active newsgroups circulated every month or so. It is not "official" - no one has that authority - but as the maintainer is doing the work that every other USENET administrator would have to do otherwise, it is accepted as a valid list. If the maintainer changes the list in a way another USENET administrator finds unacceptable, that administrator can simply ignore the list. (Incidentally, the "net gurus" became known as such because of the work they have contributed to USENET. Their experience is a valuable resource for each USENET administrator.) Because the USENET has grown so wildly, a number of problems have appeared. One of these problems is technical, and a number of the conventions this document describes spring from attempts to keep this problem under control. The technical problem arises due to the transport mechanism used by most USENET sites. Most computers on USENET do not have access to large-area networks like ARPANET. As a result the only __________ * See Standard for Interchange of USENET Messages for a description of the two formats. News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986 viable transport mechanism these sites can use is a set of pro- grams collectively known as UUCP and which communicate over dial- up telephone lines. Initially, news programs generated one UUCP command per article. With the explosion of the USENET, the number of articles simply swamped many sites; phone lines would be tied up all day transmitting news, and many articles would be processed at the same time, slowing down the computers notice- ably. The solution was to batch messages. This way, many articles are sent via UUCP with one command, and the command on the re- ceiving machine would split the file into separate articles, which could then be processed individually. While this increased the size of the files being sent, it cut down on the number of UUCP commands sent, and since sending a command involves quite a bit of overhead, this decreased the duration of phone calls, and to a lesser degree the load on the computer. At some sites, such as Purdue, this was not quite enough, so a simple spooler was im- plemented to process the individual articles one at a time. This reduced the system load to a very acceptable amount. However, the problem has not gone away by any means. In one sense it has become worse; as more articles are posted to the network, phone costs and system loads averages increase, and sys- tem administrators require USENET administrators to cut back or eliminate newsgroups and to transmit news only at night (which means long propagation delays). In short, everyone who has any- thing to do with administering any USENET site is very concerned about the future of USENET, both in general and at his own site. Many of the rules you will read address this concern. The fear that USENET may collapse is not a bogeyman, but very real. We hope it will not collapse, and the rules below outline some ways to prevent problems and increase the likelihood that enough sites will remain on USENET to keep it alive. There is no cen- tral authority that can force you to follow them, but by doing so you will help keep USENET a valuable resource to the computer community. 3. Deciding to Post Before you decide to post an article, you should consider a few things. 3.1. Do not repeat postings This applies even if you did not post the information the first time around. If you know the answer to a question someone asked, first read the follow-ups, and if you have something more to contribute, mail it to the questioner; if you think it should be seen by others, ask the questioner to summarize the answers he receives in a subsequent article. One of the biggest problems on USENET is that many copies of the same answer to a simple ques- tion are posted. News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986 If you want to repost something because you believe it did not get to other USENET sites due to transmission problems (this happens sometimes, but a lot less often than commonly believed), do some checking before you repost. If you have a friend at another USENET site, call him and ask if the article made it to his site. Ask your USENET administrator if he knows of any prob- lems in the USENET; there are special newsgroups to which USENET administrators subscribe in which problems are reported, or he can contact his counterparts at other sites for information. Fi- nally, if you decide you must repost it, indicate in the article subject that it is a reposting, and say why you are reposting it (if you don't, you'll undoubtedly get some very nasty mail.) Reposting announcements of products or services is flatly forbidden. Doing so may convince other sites to turn off your USENET access. When school starts, hoards of new users descend upon the USENET asking questions. Many of these questions have been asked, and answered, literally thousands of times since USENET began. The most common of these questions, and their answers, have been collected in the hope that the new users will read them and not re-post the same questions. So, if you want to ask a question, check Appendix A (Answers to Frequently Asked Ques- tions) to be sure it isn't one that has been asked and answered literally hundreds of times before you started reading the USENET. 3.2. Do not post anything when upset, angry, or intoxicated Posting an article is a lot like driving a car - you have to be in control of yourself. Postings which begin "Jane, you ig- norant slut, ..." are very definitely considered in poor taste*. Unfortunately, they are also far too common. The psychology of this is interesting. One popular belief is that since we interact with USENET via computers, we all often forget that a computer did not do the posting; a human did. A contributing factor is that you don't have to look the target of abuse in the eye when you post an abusive message; eye-to-eye contact has an amazing effect on inhibiting obnoxious behavior. As a result, discussions on the USENET often degenerate into a catfight far more readily than would a face-to-face discussion. Before you post an article, think a minute; decide whether or not you are upset, angry, or high. If you are, wait until you calm down (or come down) before deciding to post something. Then think about whether or not you really want to post it. You will be amazed what waiting a day or even a few hours can do for your perspective. __________ * Unless you are critiquing Saturday Night Live. News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986 Bear in mind that shouting hasn't convinced anyone of any- thing since the days of Charlemagne, and being abusive makes peo- ple hold even more tenaciously to their ideas or opinions. Gen- tleness, courtesy, and eloquence are far more persuasive; not only do they indicate you have enough confidence in your words to allow them to speak for you, but also they indicate a respect for your audience. This in turn makes it easier for your audience to like or respect you - and people tend to be far more interested in, and receptive to, arguments advanced by those they like or respect than by writers who are abusive. Finally, remember that some discussions or situations simply cannot be resolved. Be- cause people are different, agreed-upon facts often lead to wild- ly different feelings and conclusions. These differences are what makes life so wonderful; were we all alike, the world would be a very boring place. So, don't get frantic; relax and enjoy the discussion. Who knows, you might even learn something! 3.3. Be sure your posting is appropriate to USENET Some things are inappropriate to post to USENET. Discussing whether or not some other discussion is appropriate, or if it is in the right newsgroup, is an example. Invariably, the "meta- discussion" generates so many articles that the discussion is simply overwhelmed and vanishes; but the meta-discussion lingers on for several weeks, driving most of the readers of that news- group out of their collective minds. Help preserve the sanity of your fellow USENET readers by mailing such comments to the people involved, rather than posting them. Another example of inappropriate postings is the infamous "spelling flame." Every few months someone takes another poster to task for poor spelling or grammar. Soon, everyone jumps on the bandwagon, tearing apart one another's postings for such er- rors. To put it mildly, this angers almost everyone involved for no real reason. Please remember that we all make mistakes, and there are a lot of people for whom English is a second language. So, try to keep your spelling and grammar comments to yourself - but if you find you simply cannot, mail them to the poster rather than posting them. Far more insidious are requests similar to "How can I splice into the local cable TV transmission line?" Posting to USENET is akin to publishing, so don't ask for or post instructions on how to do something illegal. And please don't quote the First Amend- ment, or the laws allowing freedom of speech in your country; while the posting programs will not stop you, the aftermath could be very unpleasant - lawsuits and court trials usually are, and the USENET would certainly collapse as sites dropped from it to protect themselves from legal liability. You wouldn't want that on your conscience, would you? Of course not. Related to this is the next rule. News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986 3.4. Do not post other people's work without permission Posting something to USENET puts it in the public domain for all practical purposes. So, be careful about posting things like UNIX*-related material (specifically source code) or company do- cuments; consider licensing and nondisclosure agreements first. Some people regard the posting of "diffs" based on licensed code to be a suitable compromise, as they are only useful to those who have the base code already. Copyrighted works are a separate problem. Both United States and international law provide protection for copyrighted works; other than short extracts for purposes of criticism, you cannot copy a copyrighted work in whole or in part without per- mission of the copyright holder (who may, or may not, be the au- thor.) Without this protection, artists could not make any money and hence would have limited incentive to make the fruits of their art available at all. Posting a copyrighted work without permission is theft, even though the property stolen is not tan- gible in most cases. Hence, posting movie and book reviews, song lyrics, or anything else which is copyrighted without the permis- sion of the copyright holder, could cause you personally, your company, or the USENET itself to be held liable for damages. Please be very careful that you obey the law when posting such material! 3.5. Don't forget that opinions are those of the poster and not his employer. Every so often, someone will post a particularly disgusting article, and a number of responses will ask if all employees of the original poster's company share his (revolting) opinion, or suggest that action be taken against that company. Please remember that all opinions or statements in articles are to be attributed to the poster only, and in particular, do not neces- sarily represent the opinions of the poster's employer, the owner of the computer on which the article originated, or anyone in- volved with any aspect of USENET - and consequently the responsi- bility for any USENET message rests with the poster and with no one else. The appropriate response is not to attack the company or its other employees; let the poster know what you think of his posting via mail. If the postings continue, take advantage of the news software's presenting you with the author's name and the subject line and then asking if you want to see the article; start looking for the poster's name or the offensive subject in the articles presented to you and skip them. If you really get offended, you can unsubscribe from a newsgroup. Part of the price of freedom is allowing others to make fools of themselves. You wouldn't like to be censored, so don't advocate censorship of others. No one is forcing you to read the __________ *UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T. News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986 postings. In some countries, posting or receiving certain types of ar- ticles may be a criminal offense. As a result, certain news- groups which circulate freely within the United States may not be circulated in other nations without risking civil or criminal li- abilities. In this case, the appropriate action for sites in that country is neither to accept nor to transmit the newsgroup. No site is ever forced to accept or pass on any newsgroup. 4. Where to Post The various newsgroups and distributions have various rules associated with their use. This section will describe these rules and offer suggestions on which newsgroups to post your mes- sage. 4.1. Keep the distribution as limited as possible A basic principle of posting is to keep the distribution of your article as limited as possible. Like our modern society, USENET is suffering from both an information glut and information pollution. It is widely believed that the USENET will cease to function unless we are able to cut down the quantity of articles. One step in this direction is not to post something to places where it will be worthless. For example, if you live in Hacken- sack, New Jersey, the probability of anyone in Korea wanting to buy your 1972 Toyota is about as close to zero as you can get. So confine your posting to the New Jersey area. To do this, you can either post to a local group, or post to a net-wide group and use the distribution feature to limit how widely your article will go. When you give your posting program (usually postnews(1)) a distribution, you are (in essence) saying that machines which do not recognize that distribution should not get the article. (Think of it as a subgroup based on locality and you'll get the idea.) For example, if you are posting in the San Francisco Bay Area, and you post your article to rec.auto but give ba as the distribution, the article will not be sent beyond the San Francisco Bay Area (to which the ba distribution is lo- cal) even though you put it in a net-wide newsgroup. Had you given the distribution as ca (the California distribution), your article would have been sent to all Californian sites on USENET. Had you given the distribution as world, your article would have been sent to all sites on USENET. 4.2. Do not post the same article twice to different groups If you have an article that you want to post to more than one group, post to both at the same time. Newer versions of the news software will show an article only once regardless of how many newsgroups it appears in. But if you post it once to each different group, all versions of news software will show it once for each newsgroup. This angers a lot of people and wastes News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986 everybody's time. 4.3. Do not post to moderated newsgroups. You may not post directly to certain newsgroups; you cannot post to some at all. Newer versions of the news software will inform you when either of these restrictions apply, but older versions of news software will not. If you want to have the appropriate moderator post some- thing, mail it to the moderator. (If you do not know the ad- dress, ask your USENET administrator. In some cases, the software will automatically mail, rather than post, your article to the moderator.) 4.4. Ask someone if you can't figure out where to post your ar- ticle If you cannot figure out where to post something, look in news.announce.newusers for the list of active newsgroups. (This is posted biweekly. If you can't find it, look at the list in How to Read the Network News; but be aware that list is undoubt- edly out of date already.) If your article does not seem to fit in any of the listed groups, post it to misc.misc or don't post it. If you still are not sure which newsgroup to post your arti- cle to, ask an old-timer. If your site doesn't have any old- timers (or none of the old-timers will admit to being old- timers), contact any of the following people: Gene Spafford (spaf@gatech.CSNET, spaf@gatech.UUCP) Mark Horton (mark@cbosgd.UUCP) Rick Adams (rick@seismo.CSS.GOV, rick@seismo.UUCP) Chuq Von Rospach (chuq@sun.UUCP) Matt Bishop (mab@riacs.ARPA, mab@riacs.UUCP) We will be happy to help you. But, please, do not post the arti- cle to the net before you ask us! 4.5. Be sure there is a consensus before creating a new news- group Creating a new newsgroup is, in general, a very bad idea. Currently, there are so many articles being posted that the USENET is in danger of collapse as site after site decides to cease to accept and retransmit certain newsgroups. Moreover, there is no established procedure for deleting a newsgroup, so once created, newsgroups tend to stay around. They also tend to encourage people to think up new newsgroups, and the cycle re- peats. Try to avoid thinking up new newsgroups. If, however, you believe a new group should be created, be sure you have a consensus that the group is needed (either a News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986 mailing list has enough traffic and readers to justify turning it into a newsgroup, or a discussion in a current newsgroup becomes so large for a period of time long enough to warrant splitting it into a newsgroup.) Then post an article to news.group as well as any other groups related to your proposed new group, and discuss the topics you are proposing be covered in your new group, what it should be called, whether it is really needed, and so forth. Try to resolve all objections, and take into account all sugges- tions and comments; finally, have everyone mail you a "yes" or "no" vote on whether the group should be created. Try to get at least 40 or 50 "yes" votes before creating the group; if you want to be safe, get around 100. 4.6. Watch out for newsgroups which have special rules about posting Some newsgroups have special rules. This section summarizes them. rec.arts.books Do not post anything revealing a plot or a plot twist without putting the word "spoiler" somewhere in the "Subject" field. This will let those who do not wish to have a surprise spoiled skip the article. rec.humor If you want to post an offensive joke (this includes racial, religious, sexual, and sca- tological humor, among other kinds) rotate it. (If you do not know what this means, look in the section Writing Your Posting.) rec.arts.movies Do not post anything revealing a plot or a plot twist without putting the word "spoiler" in the "Subject" field. This will let those who do not wish to have a surprise spoiled skip the article. news.group Discussions about whether or not to create new groups, and what to name them, go here. Please mail your votes to the proposer; don't post them. comp.sources Source code postings go here. Discussions are not allowed. Do not post bug fixes here. comp.sources.bugs Bug reports and bug fixes to sources posted in comp.sources go here. comp.sources.wanted Requests for sources go here. misc.test Use the smallest distribution possible. In the body of the message, say what you are testing. News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986 misc.wanted Requests for things other than source code go here. Please use the smallest distribution possible. Post offers here, too. 5. Writing the Article Here are some suggestions to help you communicate effective- ly with others on the USENET. Perhaps the best advice is not to be afraid to consult a book on writing style; two of the best are How to Write for the World of Work by Cunningham and Pearsall, and Elements of Style by Strunk and White. 5.1. Write for your audience USENET is an international network, and any article you post will be very widely read. Even more importantly, your future em- ployers may be among the readers! So, try to make a good impres- sion. A basic principle of all writing is to write at your readers' reading level. It is better to go below than above. Aiming where "their heads ought to be" may be fine if you are a college professor (and a lot of us would dispute even that), but it is guaranteed to cause people to ignore your article. Studies have shown that the average American reads at the fifth grade level and the average professional reads at the twelfth grade level. 5.2. Be clear and concise Remember that you are writing for a very busy audience; your readers will not puzzle over your article. So be very clear and very concise. Be precise as well; choose the least ambiguous word you can, taking into account the context in which you are using the word. Split your posting into sections and paragraphs as appropriate. Use a descriptive title in the "Subject" field, and be sure that the title is related to the body of the article. If the title is not related, feel free to change it to a title that is. 5.3. Proofread your article This is a matter of courtesy; since you want others to read your article, the least you can do is check that it says what you mean in a clear, concise manner. Check for typographical errors, silly grammar errors, and misspellings; if you have a spelling checking program, use it. Also be sure the article is easy to read. Use white space - blanks, tabs, and newlines - and both upper and lower case letters. Do not omit the definite and inde- finite articles, either; not only do "a", "an", and "the" make a posting much easier to read, their omission can make a posting ambiguous. News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986 5.4. Be extra careful with announcements of products or services When writing a product or service announcement, bear in mind that others will be paying most of the telephone bills. So, if you are announcing several things, combine all the announcements into one article. Mark the posting as a product or service an- nouncement in the title in the "Subject" field. Advertising hy- perbole is not appropriate here; remember that your audience is to a large degree technically literate, and your product will stand or fall on its technical merits. Be aware that posting ob- noxious or inappropriate advertisements is very serious and if you do it, you may find your neighbors yanking your USENET ac- cess. 5.5. Indicate sarcasm and humor Remember that people cannot see you when they read your posting; hence, all the subtle nuances of body and facial motion are hidden. It can be quite difficult to tell when you are being sarcastic or humorous. To deal with this problem, the USENET readers and posters have developed a special sign. Mark passages you intend to be taken as humorous with the "smiley face", while looks like this: ":-)". (Think of a head facing you lying on its right side and look again if you don't understand why that symbol was chosen.) As for sarcasm, there is no universal symbol for that (unless the sarcasm is meant humorously, in which case use the smiley face again.) But mark your passage so everyone will realize you are being sarcastic. 5.6. Mark postings which spoil surprises High on the list of obnoxious messages are those that spoil the plot of a book or movie by giving away an unexpected detail. If you post such an article, please put the word "spoiler" in the "Subject" field of your posting, so people who do not wish to have a surprise ruined can skip the article. 5.7. Rotate offensive postings If you feel you must post a message that may offend people, you can take steps to be sure the message will only be read by those who explicitly ask for it to be shown to them. The USENET convention is to encrypt these messages by shifting each letter 13 characters, so that (for example) "a" becomes "n". (In more precise terms, this is a Caesar cipher of shift 13; on the USENET, it is called rot13.) When you do this, put the word "rot13" in the "Subject" field. The news reader you are using almost certainly has a command to encrypt and decrypt such mes- sages; if not, use the UNIX command tr a-zA-Z n-za-mN-ZA-M News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986 5.8. The shorter your signature, the better Keep signatures concise; 2 or 3 lines are usually plenty. Include your name and addresses on any major networks (such as ARPANET, BITNET, or CSNET). This helps people contact you quick- ly and easily, usually more so than by following the return path of the article. Do not include pictures, graphics or clever quo- tations that make the signature longer; this is not the appropri- ate place for them, and many sites resent paying the phone bills for such signatures. 6. Conclusion and Summary Here is a list of the rules given above: => Deciding to post + Do not repeat postings + Do not post anything when upset, angry, or intoxicat- ed + Be sure your posting is appropriate to USENET + Do not post other people's work without permission + Don't forget that opinions are those of the poster and not his company => Where to Post + Keep the distribution as limited as possible + Do not post the same article twice to different groups + Do not post to news.announce newsgroups + Ask someone if you can't figure out where to post your article + Be sure there is a consensus before creating a new newsgroup + Watch out for newsgroups which have special rules about posting => Writing the Article + Write for your audience + Be clear and concise News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986 + Proofread your article + Be extra careful with announcements of products or services + Indicate sarcasm and humor + Mark postings which spoil surprises + Rotate offensive postings + The shorter your signature, the better The USENET can be a great place for us all. Sadly, not enough people are following the customs that have been esta- blished to keep the USENET civilized. This document was written to educate all users of the USENET on their responsibilities. Let's clean up the USENET, and turn it into a friendly, helpful community again! Acknowledgements: The writing of this document was inspired by Chuq von Rospach's posting on USENET etiquette, and it draws on previous work by Mark Horton, A. Jeff Offutt, Gene Spafford, and Chuq von Rospach. News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986 Appendix A. Answers to Frequently Asked Questions originally from Jerry Schwarz (jerry@eagle.UUCP) modified by Gene Spafford (spaf@gatech.UUCP) modified by Matt Bishop (mab@riacs.ARPA) This document discusses some items that occur repeatedly on USENET. They frequently are submitted by new users, and result in many follow-ups, sometimes swamping groups for weeks. The purpose of this note is to head off these annoying events by answering some questions and warning about the inevitable conse- quence of asking others. If you don't like my answers, let me know and I may include revisions in future versions of this note. 1. What does UNIX stand for? It is not an acronym, but is a pun on "MULTICS." MULTICS is a large operating system that was being developed shortly be- fore UNIX was created. 2. What is the derivation of "foo" as a filler word? The favorite story is that it comes from "fubar" which is an acronym for "fouled up beyond all recognition," which is sup- posed to be a military term. (Various forms of this exist, "fouled" usually being replaced by a stronger word.) "Foo" and "Bar" have the same derivation. 3. Is a machine at "foo" on the net? These questions belong in news.config if anywhere, but in fact your best bet is usually to phone somebody at "foo" to find out. If you don't know anybody at "foo" you can always try calling and asking for the "computer center." Also, see the newsgroup mod.map, where maps of USENET and the UUCP net- work are posted regularly. 4. What does "rc" at the end of files like .newsrc mean? According to Dennis Ritchie, "The name rc comes from RUNCOM, which was the rough equivalent on the MIT CTSS system of what UNIX calls shell scripts. Of course, RUNCOM derives from run commands." 5. What do "- (nf)" and "Orphaned Response" in an item's title mean? It means that the item was created by "notefiles," an alter- native news handling interface that many people prefer. If you want to find out more you can read the Notesfile System Reference Manual" or contact uiucdcs!essick. News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986 6. What does ":-)" mean? This is the net convention for a "smiley face." It means that something is being said in jest. If it doesn't look like a smiley face to you, flop your head over to the left and look again. 7. How do I decrypt jokes in rec.humor? The standard cipher used in rec.humor in called "rot13." Each letter is replaced by the letter 13 further along in the al- phabet (cycling around at the end). Most systems have a built in command to decrypt such articles; readnews(1) and vnews(1) have the D command, rn(1) (another popular public- domain full screen news reader) has the X or <CONTROL-X> com- mands, notes(1) has % or R. If your system doesn't have a program to encrypt and decrypt these, you can quickly create a shell script using tr(1): tr A-Za-z N-ZA-Mn-za-m On some versions of UNIX, the tr command should be written as: tr "[a-m][n-z][A-M][N-Z]" "[n-z][a-m][N-Z][A-M]" 8. soc.net-people: Is John Doe out there anywhere? I suspect that these items are people looking for freshman roommates that they haven't seen in ten years. If you have some idea where the person is you are usually better off cal- ling the organization. For example, if you call any Bell Labs location and request John Doe's number. They can give it to you even if he works at a different location. 9. sci.math: Proofs that 1 = 0. Almost everyone has seen one or more of these in high school. They are almost always based on either division by 0 or tak- ing the square root of a negative number. 10. rec.games: Where can I get the source for empire(6) or ro- gue(6)? You can't. The authors of these games, as is their right, have chosen not to make the sources available. 11. comp.unix.wizards: How do I remove files with non-ASCII char- acters in their names? You can try to find a pattern that uniquely identifies the file. This sometimes fails because a peculiarity of some shells is that they strip off the high-order bit of charac- ters in command lines. Next, you can try an "rm -i", or "rm News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986 -r" (see rm(1).) Finally, you can mess around with i-node numbers and find(1). 12. comp.unix.wizards: There is a bug in the way UNIX handles protection for programs that run setuid. There are indeed problems with the treatment of protection in setuid programs. When this is brought up, suggestions for changes range from implementing a full capability list ar- rangement to new kernel calls for allowing more control over when the effective id is used and when the real id is used to control accesses. Sooner or later you can expect this to be improved. For now you just have to live with it. 13. soc.women: What do you think about abortion? Although abortion might appear to be an appropriate topic for soc.women, more heat than light is generated when it is brought up. Since the newsgroup talk.abortion has been created, all abortion-related discussion should take place there. 14. soc.singles: What do "MOTOS," "MOTSS,", "MOTAS", and "SO" stand for? Member of the opposite sex, member of the same sex, member of the appropriate sex, and significant other, respectively. 15. How do I use the "Distribution" feature? When postnews(1) prompts you for a distribution, it's asking how widely distributed you want your article. The set of possible replies is different, depending on where you are, but at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, possibilities include: local local to this machine mh Bell Labs, Murray Hill Branch nj all sites in New Jersey btl All Bell Labs machines att All AT&T machines usa Everywhere in the USA na Everywhere in North America world Everywhere on USENET in the world If you hit <RETURN>, you'll get the default, which is the first part of the newsgroup name. This default is often not appropriate - please take a moment to think about how far away people are likely to be interested in what you have to say. Used car ads, housing wanted ads, and things for sale other than specialized equipment like computers certainly shouldn't be distributed to Europe and Korea, or even to the next state. News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986 The newsgroup misc.forsale exists for postings of sale an- nouncements. Its distribution is limited to North America; posters should restrict this distribution even further, if possible and appropriate. 16. Why do some people put funny lines ("bug killers") at the be- ginning of their articles? Some earlier versions of news had a bug which would drop the first 512 or 1024 bytes of text of certain articles. The bug was triggered whenever the article started with white space (a blank or a tab). A fix many people adopted was to begin their articles with a line containing a character other than white space. This gradually evolved into the habit of in- cluding amusing first lines. The original bug has since been fixed in newer version of news, and sites running older versions of news have applied a patch to prevent articles from losing text. The "bug-killer" lines are therefore probably no longer needed, but they linger on. 17. What is the address or phone number of the "foo" company? Try the white and yellow pages of your phone directory, first; a sales representative will surely know, and if you're a potential customer they will be who you're looking for. Phone books for other cities are usually available in li- braries of any size. Whoever buys or recommends things for your company will probably have some buyer's guides or na- tional company directories. Call or visit the reference desk of your library; they have several company and organization directories and many will answer questions like this over the phone. Remember if you only know the city where the company is, you can telephone to find out their full address or a dealer. The network is not a free resource, although it may look like that to some people. It is far better to spend a few minutes of your own time researching an answer rather than broadcast your laziness and/or ineptness to the net. News Version B 2.11 October 19, 1986