Subject: Assumption of USEFOR against RFC 3977

From: Julien ÉLIE <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:52:54 +0200

Hi,

In USEFOR:

3.2.14. Xref

      NOTE: The traditional form of an <article-locator> (as required by
      [RFC3977]) is a decimal number, with articles in each newsgroup
      numbered consecutively starting from 1.

Looking at this sentence, it seems that RFC 3977 requires that.
However, I do not see where it mentions that numbering is done
*consecutively*.
It is true that the "traditional form" is made that way but it
is not per RFC 3977.

See section 6 of RFC 3977:

   On a particular server, there MUST only be one article
   with a given number within any newsgroup, and an article MUST NOT
   have two different numbers in the same newsgroup.

   Article numbers MUST lie between 1 and 2,147,483,647, inclusive.

The next article in a newsgroup is defined as "the lowest existing
article number greater than the current article number" (6.1.4.2).
I think it is the best we can assume with RFC 3977.

-- 
Julien ÉLIE

« O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, agricolas. » (Virgile)