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\=[HEADER]
  [https://www.iana.org/assignments/message-headers/message-headers.xhtml]
\=[CANCEL]
  [https://www.iana.org/assignments/netnews-parameters/netnews-parameters.xhtml]
\=[USEFOR]
  [https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/usefor/]

\==[bolddesc] [2] [\desc[\strong[\1]][\2]]
\==[desclink] [3] [\bolddesc[\link[\1][\2]][\3]]
\==[draft]    [2] [\bullet(packed)[\link[drafts/\1][\2] (\size[drafts/\1])]]

\heading[The Usenet Article Format and Protocols][indent]

\h1[The Usenet Article Format and Protocols]

\quote(short)[
    Usenet interprets management as damage and routes around it.
][Peter da Silva][]

\h2[Standards]

The current standard for the format of Usenet (Netnews) articles is
\link[rfcs/rfc5536.txt][RFC 5536], published in November of 2009.  The
standard for the architecture and protocols of Netnews, including how
articles are modified and checked when traveling from system to system, is
\link[rfcs/rfc5537.txt][RFC 5537], published at the same time.  I was the
document editor for RFC 5537.  Both of these documents are built on
\link[rfcs/rfc5322.txt][RFC 5322], the current standard for mail messages.
Netnews articles are compliant mail messages with some additional fields
and a few additional restrictions.

These RFCs obsolete the previous standard for the format of Usenet
articles, \link[rfcs/rfc1036.txt][RFC 1036], and the draft document known
as "Son-of-1036" which was published as \link[rfcs/rfc1849.txt][RFC 1849].
All software should now follow the newer standards, but RFC 1036 and RFC
1849 may be of interest in understanding the behavior of older standards.

There is one additional Netnews-specific RFC: \link[rfcs/rfc8315.txt][RFC
8315], which standardizes Cancel-Locks for Netnews articles.

See my \link[rfcs/][Netnews standards index] for a hopefully-complete list
of Netnews-related standards, and the \link[\=USEFOR][usefor] mailing list
archives for the discussion that led up to the current documents.

\h2[Header Registry]

Usenet (Netnews) articles use the same basic header format as e-mail
messages and HTTP headers and share the same \link[\=HEADER][IANA registry
for header field names].  Most of the references here for Netnews header
field names are to the current article format standards.

There is a separate \link[\=CANCEL][IANA registry for parameters specific
to Netnews], currently used only by Cancel-Lock hash algorithms.

\h2[Protocol Drafts]

Four Netnews-related drafts were never published as RFCs but may be of
interest:

\draft[draft-ietf-usefor-useage-01.txt]
      [Usenet Best Practice]
\draft[draft-ietf-usefor-message-id-01.txt]
      [Recommendations for Generating Message IDs]
\draft[draft-ietf-usefor-posted-mailed-01.txt]
      [Identification of Messages Delivered Via Both Mail and News]
\draft[draft-lindsey-usefor-signed-01.txt]
      [Signed Headers in Mail and Netnews]

If you're curious about the history of these documents, or want to see the