[3192] in SIPB bug reports
GRIPE about XRN 6.17
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (gonzalez@Athena.MIT.EDU)
Thu Sep 24 11:36:08 1992
From: gonzalez@Athena.MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 11:35:47 -0400
To: bug-sipb@Athena.MIT.EDU
X VERSION, RELEASE, and PATCH LEVEL MACHINE:
xrn version 6.17
CLIENT MACHINE and OPERATING SYSTEM:
Vax, rt, dec, all machines--using the MIT athena system
SYNOPSIS:
Running xrn is very slow, and it seems to get slower each month.
DESCRIPTION:
When you select the read option to load in the articles from a specific
group, the machine takes a long time. For example, loading in a group with 25
articles takes one or two minutes. Loading in a group with 50 articles might
take 3-5 minutes. Anything over 100 articles could take as much as 15 minutes to
load. This problem didn't always exist. A year or two ago, I could load in a
group with 300 or 400 articles in a minute--each month or two it seems to take
longer and longer, no matter what type of machine I am using, or where I am using
it.
POTENTIAL CAUSE
One problem could be the change in format...the server used to list how many
new articles there were by putting the phase "123 articles" or whatever number
there was. Now it reads "123 articles + 2000 old". Apparently the newserver
stores old articles now. two or three of my groups are pushing into the
thousands of stored old articles. Could these stored old articles be slowing me
down. If so, how can I purge them.
USING RN
Sometimes I dial into athena from home. I use the rn server when I do. Even
using the slow rn through the slower dialup service, I get faster results with
loading the newserver...almost instantaneous. If rn is instantaneous, using the
same newsgroups and articles are xrn, how come xrn cannot be faster than one
minute per 20 articles?
REPEAT BY:
Whenever I use the xrn system.
John R. Gonzalez
gonzalez@athena.mit.edu
