[leafnode-list] Re: message id goes by FQDN or e-mail address?

[Matthias Andree]

Adam Funk schrieb am 2006-09-22:

> On 2006-09-22, Thufir <hawat.thufir at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Yes, it was a pan issue.  Do other newsreaders leave the MID generation up
> > to leafnode?
> 
> I started using slrn and leafnode together, and I've got these lines
> in my ~/.slrnrc file:
> 
>   %% Leafnode specific: We don't want SLRN to generate its own Message-IDs!
>   set generate_message_id 0
>   set read_active 1
> 
> which I probably copied from some FAQ or HOWTO.  I think (but I could
> be wrong!) most newsreaders generate their own MIDs by default.
> 
> Out of curiosity, what will go wrong in leafnode if I let slrn
> generate MIDs?

The question isn't what will go wrong in leafnode (nothing should), but
if newsreaders generate the MID properly.

Newsreaders that strip the local part from the mail address and use that
for the Message-ID generate IDs that are always on the brink of
collision which would cause disappearing articles (not a leafnode
problem though, but a newsreader problem) - and if you think that can't
happen, please check existing literature for the birthday paradoxon to
see that it's not at all unlikely that two identical Message-IDs are
generated - particularly for short Message-IDs or IDs with little
entropy, say, UNIX second-resolution timestamp and a counter would
probably be insufficient.

-- 
Matthias Andree