1788572 - Support newsgroup even if the name contains multiple consecutive dots

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(MailNews Core :: Networking: NNTP, defect)

Description

[Ping Chen [:rnons] (away)]

See bug 1787789 comment 5 as an example, alt.binaries.sounds..mp3.zappa is not an invalid group name.

Bug 1787789 only worked around the problem. This bug is about supporting such group name in nsISubscribableServer.addTo.

Comment 1

[Alfred Peters [:infofrommozilla]]

(In reply to Ping Chen [:rnons] (away) from comment #0)

See bug 1787789 comment 5 as an example, alt.binaries.sounds..mp3.zappa is not an invalid group name.

This isn't entirely correct.
The fact is that binary servers do not take the specifications from the RFC regulations very seriously. So we shouldn't completely rule out the possibility, but on non-binary servers I can't find any newsgroup names with a doubled dot.

RFC 3977¹⁾ does not yet make any restrictions regarding the points, but RFC 5536 does.

RFC 5536 - 3.1.4. Newsgroups Netnews Article Format

   newsgroup-name  =  component *( "." component )
   component       =  1*component-char
   component-char  =  ALPHA / DIGIT / "+" / "-" / "_"

Such a 'component' of a newsgroup name may therefore neither be empty, nor may itself contain a dot. A '..' must therefore be excluded.

---

¹) RFC 3977 - 9.8. General Non-terminals Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)

     newsgroup-name = 1*wildmat-exact
     [...]
     wildmat-exact = %x22-29 / %x2B / %x2D-3E / %x40-5A / %x5E-7E /

Comment 2

[Hartmut Welpmann [:welpy-cw]]

Closing in accordance with the previous comment.