Re: Nntp inefficiencies

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org>]

Yair Friedman <yfriedma@JohnBryce.Co.Il> writes:

> > In the special case you described, getting the number right is
> > trivial, but it's a fairly unusual situation.  
> 
> So can you plase describe the usual situation?

The usual situation is that some articles (usually the FAQs) have a
longer expiry than the rest of the articles.  This leads to huge
active ranges, where the user usually has most of that range marked as 
read.  In this situation, having the actual article count doesn't help 
at all.

> When our server had NOV problems (Strange Line etc.) I edebuged some of
> the code to understand what commands are issued and what is the strange
> response.  I found out that gnus issus XOVER command for a a very long
> and as seems to me unneeded range (Usually 1-MAX).

That sounds like you have `gnus-fetch-old-headers' switched on.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen