From: fairfield@slacvx.slac.stanford.edu
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: POSTMARK not displayed: "Date:" header changed.
Date: 14 Oct 92 22:45:22 GMT
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

Configuration:  ANU-News 6.0-3 (NNTP Client only), VMS V5.5-1, Multinet V3.1D.
-------------

Problem:        POSTMARK fails to be displayed in the "newsitem directory"
-------         (with SET PROFILE/DISPLAY=POSTMARK or
                SET PROFILE/DISPLAY=(LINES,POSTMARK) ), on _some_ but not
                all items.

Example:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
comp.os.vms: 6 Items (#29534 - #29539) Reg:1 Prot:RW Srv:@nntp.slac.stanford.edu

         Title                                  From                Lines  Date
->29534  Re: Phone number for TGV inc.          mike@jammin.nosc.mi     3
  29535  re: HELP! Tape transfer from PDP to VA zrepachol@cc.curtin    23
  29536  Re: General POSIX information          zrepachol@cc.curtin    34
  29537  Re: The [continuing] Posix debate      zrepachol@cc.curtin    40
  29538  RE: Reclaiming deleted space within a  zrepachol@cc.curtin    16
  29539  Re: DECnet for SUN: Info Needed        dwatts@ki.com (Dan     43 14-Oct

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Analysis:
--------
    Our site recently move the news server off a general-use Sun onto another
Sun dedicated to being the site's news server.  In the process, the software
running news on new server was upgraded cf. the old server:

        Old:    B-News 2.11.19,   NNTP 1.5.9
        New:    C-News (May '92), NNTP 1.5.11

I have found that the Date: header for those items failing to display a post-
mark have a leading "day-of-the-week, " before the "day-mon-year" field.  In
looking through items I'd saved previous to the server change, I found NO
examples of this format.  For example, Item 29543 above has:

        Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 16:53:55 GMT

while Item 29539 has:

        Date: 14 Oct 92 18:05:50 GMT

Note that the "new" Date: format occurs both for items posted on site as well
as items being received from offsite.

    Since we didn't change _anything_ on the VMS side, my assumption was that
the server was misconfigured.  However, our Unix guru wrote me the following
wrt the Date header:

   "This is permitted by RFC 1036, the RFC which documents the format of
    Usenet messages.  Therefore, the articles are correct and presumably
    the newsreader (ANEWS?) is wrong.

   "I have no idea why this came up when we changed.  I find it somewhat
    hard to believe that B news diddled with this, but it might have."

Would someone please comment on this?  If ANU-News is a "fault", does V6.1
correct the error?  Is there a work-around or patch I can apply to V6.0-3?
If the problem is in C-News or the NNTP server, what needs to be reconfigured?
Does RFC 1036 say what the local guru says it says??

                Thank for any help,
                                    Ken
--
 Dr. Kenneth H. Fairfield    |  Internet: Fairfield@Slacvx.Slac.Stanford.Edu
 SLAC, P.O.Box 4349, MS 98   |  DECnet:   45537::FAIRFIELD (45537=SLACVX)
 Stanford, CA   94309        |  BITNET    Fairfield@Slacvx
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 These opinions are mine, not SLAC's, Stanford's, nor the DOE's...