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NEWS(5)			      File Formats Manual		       NEWS(5)

       news - USENET network news articles and batches

       There are two formats of	news articles: A and B.	 A format is obsolete,
       but looks like this:

	    Body of article

       A B format article consists of a	series of header  lines	 (collectively
       referred	to as the message header), followed by an empty	line, followed
       by the body.  A header line must	begin with a word (consisting  of  al-
       phanumerics  and	 dashes), a colon, and at least	one space, in that or-
       der.  This is a specialisation of RFC 822  format.   Continued  headers
       are  as per RFC 822.  Unrecognized headers are ignored.	News is	stored
       in the same format transmitted, see ``Standard for the  Interchange  of
       USENET  Messages''  (RFC	1036 nee 850) and ``Standard for the Format of
       ARPA Internet Text Messages'' (RFC 822,	but  note  amendments  in  RFC
       1123)  for  a  full description.	 The following headers are among those

	    From: user@host.domain[.domain ...]	( Full Name)
	    Newsgroups:	news groups
	    Message-ID:	<Unique	RFC822 message-id>
	    Subject: descriptive title
	    Date: date posted
	    Expires: expiration	date
	    Reply-To: address for mail replies
	    References:	Message-ID of article this is a	follow-up to.
	    Control: text of a control message

       A news batch consists of	zero or	more articles, each preceded by	a line
       of the form

	    #! rnews byte-count

       where byte-count	is the number of bytes in the following	article, where
       each newline is counted as a single byte, even if it is stored as a CR-
       LF  or  some  other representation.  Spaces are significant: one	before
       and one after rnews.  News batches are usually transmitted compressed.

       Various peculiar	optional encapsulations	of news	 batches  exist	 which
       consist	of  doing  something  to the (probably compressed) batch, then
       prepending a #! goo line	to the output, where goo reflects the form  of
       encapsulation;  known values of goo include cunbatch (the null encapsu-
       lation),	and c7unbatch (encode the batch	 using	only  seven  bits  per

       An article.

	    Path: att!eagle!jerry
	    From: jerry@eagle.uucp (Jerry Schwarz)
	    Newsgroups:	news.announce
	    Subject: Usenet Etiquette -- Please	Read
	    Message-ID:	<642@eagle.UUCP>
	    Date: Friday, 19 Nov 82 16:14:55 EST
	    Followup-To: news.misc
	    Expires: Saturday, 1 Jan 83	00:00:00 EST
	    Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
	    The	body of	the article comes here,	after an empty line.

       checknews(1CN),	compress(1),  inews(1CN),  nn(1), postnews(1CN), read-
       news(1CN), rn(1), vnews(1), getabsdate(3), newsctl(5), newssys(5),  ex-
       pire(8CN),  newsbatch(8CN),  newsmail(8CN), relaynews(8CN), rnews(8CN),
       DARPA RFCs 1036,	850, 822, 1123


       B format	articles must not start	with A,	to  distinguish	 them  from  A
       format; this is only a problem if moderators put	Approved: first.

       Processing  would  be  easier  and  potentially	faster if Control: (if
       present)	and Newsgroups:	were required to be the	first headers.

       People insist on	making their whacko local encapsulation	schemes	 (cun-
       batch, etc.)  rnews's problem.

       One  could  argue  that	RFC 822	is less	than an	ideal base for article
       format.	(On the	other hand, at least it's  textual,  unlike  ISO  mes-

				  9 Sept 1994			       NEWS(5)


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