[pkg-lynx-maint] Bug#893907: lynx: The subdomain name 'news' freezes Lynx

[Pelle Hjek]

Package: lynx
Version: 2.8.9dev16-3
Severity: important

Dear Maintainer,

When I use Lynx to read a web page, it freezes when the web page starts
with the subdomain 'news.' For example, on the terminal when I type in
this:

    lynx news.ycombinator.com

Then Lynx freezes while displaying this message in the status bar:

    Making NNTP connection to news.ycombinator.com

Lynx handles https://news.ycombinator.com just fine, but when https://
is missing, Lynx just assumes that I'm looking for something one Usenet.

Same problem with news.google.com, news.yahoo.com, etc.

I think it would be more reasonable if Lynx assumed HTTP unless told
otherwise, or perhaps had a time out in case NNTP lookup failed.
Freezing indefinitely is not the best option in that case.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: buster/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 4.15.0-1-686-pae (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages lynx depends on:
ii  libbsd0       0.8.7-1
ii  libbz2-1.0    1.0.6-8.1
ii  libc6         2.27-1
ii  libgnutls30   3.5.18-1
ii  libidn11      1.33-2.1
ii  libncursesw5  6.1-1
ii  libtinfo5     6.1-1
ii  lynx-common   2.8.9dev16-3
ii  zlib1g        1:1.2.8.dfsg-5

Versions of packages lynx recommends:
ii  mime-support  3.60

lynx suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information