Proposal for a standardized LIST MOTD command
Julien ÉLIE
In case you have any comments or special need on that command, do not
hesitate to speak up.
Expectations from news readers, how it can be used, implementation
on news servers, etc.
Usage
Syntax
LIST MOTD
Responses
215 Information follows (multi-line)
Description
See Section 7.6.1 of [RFC3977] for general requirements of the LIST
command.
The motd list contains a "message of the day" relevant to the news
server. It is intended to provide notification and communication
between the news administrator and the news user. For instance,
notification of upcoming downtime or information about new facilities
available on the news server can be advertised via this means of
communication.
The information is returned as a multi-line data block following the
215 response code. This text is not guaranteed to be in any
particular format although, like all multi-line data blocks, it is
"dot-stuffed".
The server need not return the same information if this command is
used more than once in a session. It MAY indeed send a different
message of the day depending on the state of the session. For
instance, on a mode-switching news server, the information can be
different between its transit mode and its reader mode, or between an
authenticated session and an unauthenticated session.
The information MUST be in UTF-8.
The motd list is not newsgroup-based, and an argument MUST NOT be
specified. Otherwise, a 501 response code MUST be returned.
The motd list MAY be empty. If the server does not maintain the
information, a 503 response code MUST be returned.
It is up to the client to decide when and how to display this message
to the user. No timestamp or date of last modification date is
provided. The client may want to keep some state if it wishes to
show the message only upon modification.
Example
Example of output:
[C] CAPABILITIES
[S] 101 Capability list:
[S] VERSION 2
[S] READER
[S] LIST ACTIVE MOTD NEWSGROUPS
[S] .
[C] LIST MOTD
[S] 215 Message of the day follows
[S] Attention all users,
[S]
[S] This server will be down for scheduled upgrades on February, 1st.
[S] It should be back up by 8:00 a.m. February, 2nd.
[S] Any questions should be e-mailed to <newsm...@example.com>.
[S]
[S] Apologies for the disturbance.
[S] .
ABNF syntax
list-arguments =/ "MOTD"
list-content =/ list-motd-content
list-motd-content = *(*U-CHAR CRLF)
--
Julien ï¿œLIE
ￜ Cela n'a rien de remarquable. Il suffit d'appuyer sur la
bonne touche au bon moment et l'instrument
joue tout seul. ￜ (J.-S. Bach)
Julien ÉLIE
Just a suggestion:
> Syntax
> LIST MOTD
>
> The motd list contains a "message of the day" relevant to the news
> server. It is intended to provide notification and communication
> between the news administrator and the news user. For instance,
> notification of upcoming downtime or information about new facilities
> available on the news server can be advertised via this means of
> communication.
Is there a need to provide newsgroup-based "messages of the day"?
LIST MOTD [newsgroup]
(not a wildmat)
When a newsgroup is specified, we could return information, if any,
related to the corresponding newsgroup.
For instance its charter...
But it would imply to have a list of all charters (for public hierarchies).
Otherwise, it could be useful only for local newsgroups.
--
Julien ï¿œLIE
ￜ -- Il t'arrive une tuile ?
-- Oui, je ne peux pas payer mon ardoise. ￜ
Aioe
> LIST MOTD [newsgroup]
> (not a wildmat)
>
> When a newsgroup is specified, we could return information, if any,
> related to the corresponding newsgroup.
> For instance its charter...
imho it's a great idea