[Mailman-Developers] Improving the archives

[Barry Warsaw]

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On Jul 24, 2007, at 2:56 AM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

> I simply think we should be prepared for applications where relying on
> the sender to supply a UUID is not acceptable; we need to be able to
> provide one ourselves.  Creating UUIDs is a solved problem, after all.
> So we just specify a header to put it in, and subscribers will be able
> to use it, per definition of a canonical URL.
>
> Then we say that an archive SHOULD provide access to the resource via
> Message-ID if available, and define how to construct that URL from the
> List-Archive and Message-ID headers.

I think there's two approaches we could argue for.  One is for the  
mailing list manager to craft a UUID out of whole cloth and stick  
that in a header.  Then any downstream archiver would be obliged to  
use that header value as the canonical address of the message, with  
an alternative path to the message via the Message-ID (possibly  
returning a list of matching messages when there are collisions).

The second approach, and the one that I favor, is to use the Message- 
ID (and the Date) header on the original message as the UUID,  
properly handling corner cases like duplicate headers or missing  
header.  This UUID servers as the basis for the address to the  
message resource just like above.

I like the second approach better because in the case where you start  
with an off-list copy of the message, you have a decent enough chance  
of getting to the archived message, or at least to a resource  
containing a link to the message.  The first alternative would  
require access to the list copy.

Imagine if every archiver supported my proposal, knowing just the  
Message-ID and Date header, you could get to that message from almost  
anywhere, just by using the UUID as a relative URL rooted at say  
http://www.mail-archive.com, http://groups.google.com, http:// 
mail.python.org/pipermail, or whatever.  That would be pretty neat.

- -Barry

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