Help wanted on Unparsable dates

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4 total messages Started by Tim Lyons Mon, 16 Nov 1992 15:26

#44

Author: Tim Lyons
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 15:26

53 lines
3766 bytes

I am getting a large number of Unparsable date errors, as shown in
the extracts below.  (Sorry I don't know which articles the expire
errors come from).  This seems to be many more errors than in the
University of Kentuckey error list.  Am I doing something 
wrong? (I am running B-news Version 2.11)  Is there some change
I should have made to my getdate routine, or are there
just a lot of incorrect values being transmitted?

Thanks for any help,
Tim Lyons

<Bs7VTB1w163w@rebell.rmt.sub.org>  "Sun, 08 Nov 92 00:22:34 MEZ"
<92314.161539BTITMARS@ESOC.BITNET>  "Monday, 9 Nov 1992 16:15:39 CET"
<1689BE0B4.C96@vm.urz.uni-heidelberg.de>  "Tue, 10 Nov 92 15:58:42 CET"
<921109150@fcshome.UUCP>  "Mon, 9 Nov 92 18:41:33 EST5"
<GIS-L%92111014205581@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>  "Tue, 10 Nov 1992 10:07:37 BRA"
<1992Nov10.181612.12923@pcsbst.pcs.com>  "Tue, 10 Nov 1992 18:16:12 MEZ"
<1992Nov10.181618.12955@pcsbst.pcs.com>  "Tue, 10 Nov 1992 18:16:18 MEZ"
news expire: Unparsable date "December 3 1992"
<1992Nov11.190500.4001@wvnvms.wvnet.edu>  "11 Nov 92 19:05:00 SYS$TIME_ZONE"
<1992Nov11.190106.4000@wvnvms.wvnet.edu>  "11 Nov 92 19:01:06 SYS$TIME_ZONE"
<1992Nov11.191112.4004@wvnvms.wvnet.edu>  "11 Nov 92 19:11:12 SYS$TIME_ZONE"
<4qo5TB5w165w@CODEWKS.nacjack.gen.nz>  "Thu, 12 Nov 92 01:31:26 NZST"
<19921112.103847.846@almaden.ibm.com>  "Thu, 12 Nov 92 19:39:10 CET"
<92317.170516KCHAN@ESOC.BITNET>  "Thursday, 12 Nov 1992 17:05:16 CET"
news expire: Unparsable date "December 3 1992"
<TZ06TB1w165w@stam.nl>  "Fri, 13 Nov 92 11:07:52 CET"
<fVdXweJ@quack.sac.ca.us>  "13 Nov 1992 15:06:41 UTC"
<19921113.050730.479@almaden.ibm.com>  "Fri, 13 Nov 92 14:06:41 CET"
news expire: Unparsable date "December 3 1992"
<GIS-L%92111315480371@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>  "Thu, 12 Nov 1992 16:06:05 LCL"
<JXV1TB1w164w@ponton.hanse.de>  "Tue, 10 Nov 92 12:16:06 MEZ"
<92317.1453239051413@awiwuw11.wu-wien.ac.at>  "Thursday, 12 Nov 1992 14:53:22 CET"
<92318.140834CTIRABAS@ESTEC.BITNET>  "Friday, 13 Nov 1992 14:08:34 CET"
<92318.142107SLYNENSK@ESOC.BITNET>  "Friday, 13 Nov 1992 14:21:07 CET"
<JP47TB2w165w@CODEWKS.nacjack.gen.nz>  "Fri, 13 Nov 92 08:49:42 NZST"
<B147TB4w165w@CODEWKS.nacjack.gen.nz>  "Fri, 13 Nov 92 08:56:10 NZST"
<Hq57TB5w165w@CODEWKS.nacjack.gen.nz>  "Fri, 13 Nov 92 09:11:52 NZST"
<fVfuOg1@quack.sac.ca.us>  "14 Nov 1992 04:21:50 UTC"
<fVfuOfH@quack.sac.ca.us>  "14 Nov 1992 04:21:37 UTC"
<1992Nov14.002806.4029@wvnvms.wvnet.edu>  "14 Nov 92 00:28:05 SYS$TIME_ZONE"
<alien.010i@acheron.amigans.gen.nz>  "13 Nov 92 17:06:30 GMT+12"
news expire: Unparsable date "never!"
<1992Nov14.132824.4834@black.toppoint.de>  "Sat, 14 Nov 1992 13:28:24 GMT+0100"
<alien.013g@acheron.amigans.gen.nz>  "15 Nov 92 11:04:38 GMT+12"
<92318.201304RFLOOD@ESOC.BITNET>  "Friday, 13 Nov 1992 20:13:04 CET"
<92317.162913CEVDET@TRMETU.BITNET>  "Thursday, 12 Nov 1992 16:29:12 TUR"
<92317.164054CEVDET@TRMETU.BITNET>  "Thursday, 12 Nov 1992 16:40:54 TUR"
<MAILQUEUE-101.921116095823.480@geog.aukuni.ac.nz>  "Mon, 16 Nov 1992 09:58:23 GMT+1300"
<4pth7vJIDk@DATA-HH.zer.sub.org>  "Sun, 15 Nov 1992 16:24:00 CET"
<gX39TB1w165w@CODEWKS.nacjack.gen.nz>  "Sat, 14 Nov 92 10:28:03 NZST"
<dieter03186921014203151@dischw.toppoint.de>  "Sat, 14 Nov 92 20:31:51 MEZ"
<1992Nov15.165704.38@ittpub.nl>  "15 Nov 92 16:57:04 WET+0100"

Re: Help wanted on Unparsable dates

#47

Author: Paul Eggert
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 21:44

20 lines
1314 bytes

tgll@datasci.co.uk (Tim Lyons) writes:

>Is there some change I should have made to my getdate routine,
>or are there just a lot of incorrect values being transmitted?

The latter.  But it wouldn't hurt for you to upgrade to either C News
or INN -- they both have better date parsers than B News did.

Unfortunately, the RFCs notwithstanding, both C News and INN retransmit
articles with nonconforming dates.  Most likely your news feed has
switched to C News or INN, and it's neither rejecting nor fixing
articles with nonconforming dates, which leaves you with the mess.

Part of the problem is that the RFCs aren't crystal clear on exactly
what's allowed in a date line.  E.g. in the line

	Date: 8 Nov 1992 00:22:34+0900 (JST)

Is a space required before the `+'?  Is the trailing `(JST)' comment OK?
Implementors disagree.

Re: Help wanted on Unparsable dates

#49

Author: Rich Salz
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 17:45

12 lines
1006 bytes

In <bkhAb0F0@twinsun.com> eggert@twinsun.com (Paul Eggert) writes:
>Unfortunately, the RFCs notwithstanding, both C News and INN retransmit
>articles with nonconforming dates.
INN does not do this.  If the date is invalid, it rejects the article.
If the Expires header is invalid, it ignores it.  Perhaps this is what
Paul means?

>Part of the problem is that the RFCs aren't crystal clear on exactly
>what's allowed in a date line.
If it is not clear, then INN can't be passing nonconforming articles, can
it? :-)
	/r$

Re: Help wanted on Unparsable dates

#51

Author: Paul Eggert
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 01:08

27 lines
1835 bytes

rsalz@rodan.uu.net (Rich Salz) writes:

>In <bkhAb0F0@twinsun.com> eggert@twinsun.com (Paul Eggert) writes:
>>Unfortunately, the RFCs notwithstanding, both C News and INN retransmit
>>articles with nonconforming dates.
>INN does not do this.  If the date is invalid, it rejects the article.
>If the Expires header is invalid, it ignores it.  Perhaps this is what
>Paul means?

I wasn't thinking about Expires, although that's a good point.
I was thinking that since INN's definition of ``valid date'' is more
generous than the RFCs', INN doesn't reject all nonconforming dates.
E.g. from looking at inn/lib/parsedate.y,
it appears that INN accepts and retransmits nonsense like

	Date: 1:2:3pm Serendipitous Tuesday, 13 Nov. 092

under the impression that it's equivalent to

	Date: Friday, 13 Nov 1992 13:02:03 GMT

Propagating such nonsense causes problems for folks like Lyons who have
stricter date parsers.  If you're going to accept nonsense, you must
rewrite it before retransmitting it; if you don't believe in rewriting
headers, you mustn't retransmit articles with nonconforming headers.
Unfortunately, neither C News nor INN conforms to the RFCs on this point,
at least not yet.

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