RFC 1036 (rfc1036) - Page 1 of 19

Standard for interchange of USENET messages

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Network Working Group                                          M. Horton
Request for Comments:  1036                       AT&T Bell Laboratories
Obsoletes: RFC-850                                              R. Adams
                                              Center for Seismic Studies
                                                           December 1987


              Standard for Interchange of USENET Messages



STATUS OF THIS MEMO

    This document defines the standard format for the interchange of
    network News messages among USENET hosts.  It updates and replaces
    RFC-850, reflecting version B2.11 of the News program.  This memo is
    disributed as an RFC to make this information easily accessible to
    the Internet community.  It does not specify an Internet standard.
    Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

1.  Introduction

    This document defines the standard format for the interchange of
    network News messages among USENET hosts.  It describes the format
    for messages themselves and gives partial standards for transmission
    of news.  The news transmission is not entirely in order to give a
    good deal of flexibility to the hosts to choose transmission
    hardware and software, to batch news, and so on.

    There are five sections to this document.  Section two 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.  Message Format

    The primary consideration in choosing a message format is that it
    fit in with existing tools as well as possible.  Existing tools
    include implementations of both 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 Internet, and this format meets most of the
    needs of USENET.  Since the Internet format is extensible,
    extensions to meet the additional needs of USENET are easily made
    within the Internet standard.  Therefore, the rule is adopted that
    all USENET news messages must be formatted as valid Internet mail
    messages, according to the Internet standard RFC-822.  The USENET
    News standard is more restrictive than the Internet standard,



Horton & Adams
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