Wdy Mon DD HH:MM:SS YYYY
is not acceptable because it is not a valid RFC-822 date. However,
since older software still generates this format, news
implementations are encouraged to accept this format and translate
it into an acceptable format.
There is no hope of having a complete list of timezones. Universal
Time (GMT), the North American timezones (PST, PDT, MST, MDT, CST,
CDT, EST, EDT) and the +/-hhmm offset specifed in RFC-822 should be
supported. It is recommended that times in message headers be
transmitted in GMT and displayed in the local time zone.
2.1.3. Newsgroups
The "Newsgroups" line specifies the newsgroup or newsgroups in which
the message belongs. 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.
RFC 1036 Standard for USENET Messages December 1987
Wildcards (e.g., the word "all") are never allowed in a "News-
groups" line. For example, a newsgroup comp.all is illegal,
although a newsgroup rec.sport.football is permitted.
If a message is received with a "Newsgroups" line listing some valid
newsgroups and some invalid newsgroups, a host should not remove
invalid newsgroups from the list. Instead, the invalid newsgroups
should be ignored. For example, suppose host A subscribes to the
classes btl.all and comp.all, and exchanges news messages with host
B, which subscribes to comp.all but not btl.all. Suppose A receives
a message with Newsgroups: comp.unix,btl.general.
This message is passed on to B because B receives comp.unix, but B
does not receive btl.general. A must leave the "Newsgroups" line
unchanged. If it were to remove btl.general, the edited header
could eventually re-enter the btl.all class, resulting in a message
that is not shown to users subscribing to btl.general. Also,
follow-ups from outside btl.all would not be shown to such users.
2.1.4. Subject
The "Subject" line (formerly "Title") tells what the message is
about. It should be suggestive enough of the contents of the
message to enable a reader to make a decision whether to read the
message based on the subject alone. If the message is submitted in
response to another message (e.g., is a follow-up) the default
subject should begin with the four characters "Re:", and the
"References" line is required. For follow-ups, the use of the
"Summary" line is encouraged.
2.1.5. Message-ID
The "Message-ID" line gives the message a unique identifier. The
Message-ID may not be reused during the lifetime of any previous
message 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
message entered the network, including a domain that host is in, and
unique is any string of printing ASCII characters, not including "<"
(left angle bracket), ">" (right angle bracket), or "@" (at sign).
RFC 1036 Standard for USENET Messages December 1987
For example, the unique part could be an integer representing a
sequence number for messages submitted to the network, or a short
string derived from the date and time the message was created. For
example, a valid Message-ID for a message submitted from host ucbvax
in domain "Berkeley.EDU" would be "<4123@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>".
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, that it is unique in the
first 14 characters, nor that is does not contain a "/".
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
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