Gnus, # of headers to retrieve

Gnus, # of headers to retrieve

[* Tong *]

Hi, 

I think there might be a bug when Gnus decides how many of news
headers to retrieve. 

When entering a big newsgroup, Gnus will prompt me something like
"number of headers to retrieve". No matter how little I specified,
Gnus will always retrieve the whole list first, then show me the
number of messages I specified, with '{50 (+264714 more)}' showing
on the status bar. 

This does not bother me previously, but currently I'm on a dial up
networking, with the news server happens to carry huge postings. To
give you an idea how big it is:

  375094(  28): comp.os.linux.misc                          (0)
   26844(   5): comp.os.linux.security                      (0)
  264852(   1): comp.os.linux.setup                         (0)
  131964(   5): comp.os.linux.x                             (0)

The headers for comp.os.linux.setup e itself is over 3M, and
retrieving it seems forever for me (;->). What worse is that I have
to pay for those extra downloads that I don't need (and see). :-(

Ok, quite a long bug report but quite an easy fix. Hope the new
version of gnus will issue the xover command according to
gnus-large-newsgroup (or the user specification), to limit the
header download, and not retrieving the whole list.

Thanks

PS. My Gnus comes with RH8:

Gnus v5.9.0
GNU Emacs 21.2 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit)
200 Bell Nexxia News Server (Twister v1.2.0)

PPS. A side request,

It'd be quite nice to have some local caching capabilities for dial
up Internet access like me. 

What I was looking in the gnus info manual (but not found) were the
capabilities to cache

- the subscribed newsgroup headers 
- and viewed articles. 

So that they don't need to be retrieved again, once that have been
downlaoded. Surely a proper expiration mechanism is also need for
that. 

thanks 

-- 
Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply)
  *niX Power Tools Project: http://xpt.sourceforge.net/
  - All free contribution & collection

Re: Gnus, # of headers to retrieve

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

* Tong * <sun_tong@users.sourceforge.net> writes:

> When entering a big newsgroup, Gnus will prompt me something like
> "number of headers to retrieve". No matter how little I specified,
> Gnus will always retrieve the whole list first, then show me the
> number of messages I specified, with '{50 (+264714 more)}' showing
> on the status bar. 

It only does that if you have `gnus-fetch-old-headers' set.

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

Re: Gnus, # of headers to retrieve

[u.r. faust]

If you "catch up" then Gnus will not retrieve those old messages.

You can then just see the new ones.
If you do need to go back (say 500 old messages) then C-u SPC will do the job.

-- 
natsu-gusa ya  / tsuwamono-domo-ga / yume no ato
summer grasses / strong ones       / dreams site
 
Summer grasses,
All that remains
Of soldier's dreams
(Basho trans. Stryk)

Re: Gnus, # of headers to retrieve

[* Tong *]

Thank you all for the reply. 

* Tong * <sun_tong@users.sourceforge.net> writes:

> > When entering a big newsgroup, Gnus will prompt me something like
> > "number of headers to retrieve". No matter how little I specified,
> > Gnus will always retrieve the whole list first, then show me the
> > number of messages I specified, with '{50 (+264714 more)}' showing
> > on the status bar. 
> 
> If you "catch up" then Gnus will not retrieve those old messages.

No, still retrieving. 

> It only does that if you have `gnus-fetch-old-headers' set.

Ahh, YES! Mine's set to 'some. Thanks a lot!

-- 
Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply)
  *niX Power Tools Project: http://xpt.sourceforge.net/
  - All free contribution & collection

Re: Gnus, # of headers to retrieve

[Kai Großjohann]

mongoose <user@bar.foo> writes:

> I downloaded the latest nightly build of Gnus (27/01/03), but
> caching of headers does not seem to be enabled by default, nor do I
> see mention of how to activate this feature in the documentation. It
> is a feature I have been waiting on for a while, so it would be
> great if I could get it to work.

Maybe you have to agentize the server.  Hit ^ to go to the server
buffer, than J a in the right line to agentize the server.
-- 
Ambibibentists unite!