''X-No-Archive'', also known colloquially as xna, is a

newsgroup A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are discussion groups and are not devoted to publishing news. Newsgroups are technically distinct ...

message header field used to prevent a

Usenet Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was ...

message from being

archived An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

in various servers.

Origin

The need for X-No-Archive began when

DejaNews Google Groups is a service from Google that provides Internet forum, discussion groups for people sharing common interests. The Groups service also provides a gateway to Usenet newsgroups via a shared user interface. Google Groups became operati ...

debuted in 1995. DejaNews was the first large-scale commercial attempt to archive the Usenet news feed, and several newsgroup participants were concerned about privacy rights and about the possibility that their messages could be re-posted through DejaNews in the future. DejaNews addressed these concerns by announcing that it would not archive Usenet messages containing the X-No-Archive header field.

How it works

X-No-Archive was designed to follow the standard message header protocol, RFC 1036 and RFC 977, used in existing newsgroups. In addition to the standard header fields used in all newsgroup messages (including ''Path:, From:, Subject:,'' and ''Date:''), news reader software allows a user to add optional fields to a header. According to RFC 822, these additional fields are prefixed with the label X- so that they can be ignored by news servers and newsreaders. The phrase "No Archive" was coined as a way to state "Do not archive this message," and the X- prefix was added to complete the term ''X-No-Archive.'' The proper field to prevent a message from being archived is: ''X-No-Archive: Yes'' (abbreviated as "XNAY"). Some software systems also do not archive if the first line in the body of the message contains this text. This is useful for those users who cannot change the header of messages they send out. If the X-No-Archive field is set to "No", or the field is absent, a Usenet archive will not recognize a prohibition on archiving the message.

Newsreader software programs

When DejaNews was purchased by

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

, Google continued to honor the X-No-Archive directive. Other newsgroup archiving services have also followed in DejaNews' footsteps, though the decision not to archive X-No-Archive messages has been entirely voluntary. Many popular newsreader and posting software programs, such as

Forté Agent Forté Agent is an email and Usenet news client used on the Windows operating system. Agent was conceived, designed and developed by Mark Sidell and the team at Forté Internet Software in 1994 to address the need for an online/offline newsreader w ...

, include, as a standard option, the ability to insert an X-No-Archive field into messages at the user's request.

Mozilla Thunderbird Mozilla Thunderbird is a free and open-source cross-platform email client, personal information manager, news client, RSS and chat client developed by the Mozilla Foundation and operated by subsidiary MZLA Technologies Corporation. The project s ...

has the ability to insert custom fields into the header of both email and Usenet messages. This feature must be manually enabled by editing the mailnews.js file (instructions are included in the .js file). However, custom fields are not automatically inserted into messages by Thunderbird - the user must add them manually to each message as desired.

Mail Archive software

GNU Mailman GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operat ...

supports XNA; archiving is suppressed for any value of ''X-No-Archive''

Gmane Gmane (pronounced "mane") is an e-mail to news gateway. It allows users to access electronic mailing lists as if they were Usenet newsgroups, and also through a variety of web interfaces. Since Gmane is a bidirectional gateway, it can also be ...

suppresses archiving for ''X-No-Archive: yes'' The online service mail-archive.com supports ''X-No-Archive: yes''mail-archive.com FAQ, Feb. 2015
/ref>

References

External links