[9fans] Usenet Gateway and Mailing List Archive Woes.

[Ralph Corderoy <ralph@inputplus.demon.co.uk>]

Hi,

Jon Snader made me aware that Rob had posted -mpm-related material.  I
read comp.os.plan9 and didn't see the post.  Google Groups has it
without the attachments.

    http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=0ce9a17866461d0a3e0a61628c4149a9%40plan9.bell-labs.com&output=gplain

    Newsgroups: comp.os.plan9
    From: rob@plan9.bell-labs.com (rob pike)
    Subject: Re: [9fans] [troff] Is there a macro package called -mpm ?
    Approved: plan9mod@bath.ac.uk
    Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
            boundary="upas-wnnfbneirzpjzzrtpxqsivpjsg"
    Reply-To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
    Sender: ccsis@bath.ac.uk (Icarus Sparry)
    Organization: Plan 9 mailing list
    Message-ID: <0ce9a17866461d0a3e0a61628c4149a9@plan9.bell-labs.com>
    Mime-Version: 1.0
    Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 17:58:52 GMT
    Lines: 3850


    Enjoy.


    --

My guess is the mailing list to Usenet gateway stripped off the
attachments but didn't adjust the optional Lines header.  My ISP's news
server correctly dropped this post when it received it because it
appears corrupt.  Since no better version ever arrives from another
peer I never see the post on comp.os.plan9.

Can whoever runs the gateway confirm this supposition is correct and do
something about it, e.g. delete any Lines headers since they're
optional.

[Moderator's notes:

    (1) The mailing list to Usenet gateway doesn't strip off
    attachments.  It's only concerned with adjusting headers to
    suit.

    (2) The mailing list to Usenet gateway runs through the News
    system here.  That is neutral as far as the Lines: header is
    concerned.  It doesn't generate one for articles that pass
    through it.  If one is present in the incoming article, it is
    left untouched.

    (3) The mailing list to Usenet gateway is also neutral as far
    as the Lines: header is concerned.  If one is present in the
    incoming message it is passed through.  If one isn't present,
    the s/w doesn't add one.

    In practice none of the above should cause problems.  I don't
    know of of any email client or MTA that adds the Lines header
    to mail messages.  Certainly Outlook Express can differentiate
    between posting a News article and a mail message. It adds a
    Lines: header to the former but not the latter.

    So News articles that are injected from the mailing list
    generally leave here *without* a Lines: header.  Certainly that
    is the case for the article in question.  I believe this header
    was added further downstream of here.  There's not much I can do
    about that.

    As noted in private email I have trouble reading this article
    with the trn Newsreader + metamail-2.7.  I get the error
    message:

    metamail: Incomplete multipart message -- unexpected EOF

    I suspect that this is more likely to be the source of
    confusion.  However the contents should be easily extracted
    manually.]

Knowing it existed on the mailing list I went to the archives.
Unfortunately, http://lists.cse.psu.edu/archives/9fans re-directs you
to a HTTPS connection as has previously been mentioned.  And
https://lists.cse.psu.edu/archives/9fans doesn't work with this
Netscape which complains `Netscape and this server cannot communicate
securely because they have no common encryption algorithm(s)'.

It's pointless having an archive for a public list hidden behind HTTPS,
and in addition demanding recent encryption algorithms.  Anyone got a
public archive of the list?

[Moderator's note:

    I suspect that the web server at lists.cse.psu.edu has been
    configured to not accept export-grade cryptography.  And this
    may be the source of the problem.  Versions of Netscape since
    4.73 have been available with full-strength cryptography from
    the download page at:

    http://www.netscape.com/download/

    Earlier versions of Netscape can be brough up to full-strength
    cryptography by "fortifying" them.  See:

    http://www.fortify.net/

    for details.]

Cheers,


Ralph.