Re: 'Newsgroups:' header

---------

Steve Summit (scs@eskimo.com)
Fri, 25 Apr 1997 14:31:44 -0700 (PDT)


In <vndn2qmakfw.fsf@garathorm.ccs.neu.edu>, Justin Sheehy wrote:
> Bujatti Wolfgang <Wolfgang.Bujatti@bmu.gv.at> writes:
>> This was my newsgroups line:
>>> Newsgroups:
>>> sci.environment.waste,alt.wastewater,news.lists.misc,bionet.announce,sci.answ
>>> ers,alt.answers,news.answers
>
> You should probably start the list of newsgroups on the same line as
> the header name.

Indeed.

> The real problem, however, is that continuation
> lines _must_ start with whitespace.
> Change your header to:
> Newsgroups: sci.environment.waste,alt.wastewater,
> news.lists.misc,bionet.announce,sci.answers,
> alt.answers,news.answers

The problem, however, is that the Newsgroups: line is not
(currently) officially allowed to contain any internal
whitespace. There is no space after the comma, so there is
no place the line can be split.

Henry Spencer's "son of 1036" draft adds a whitespace allowance
in the Newsgroups: line, for precisely this reason, but that
draft has never (to my knowledge) been completed or adopted.

For now, the Newsgroups: line should be one, single, long line.

Steve Summit
scs@eskimo.com