Slow header download on one group

[Patrick May]

     I see especially slow header downloads when accessing one
particular newsgroup.  Even if that group shows only a dozen unread
posts, it loads much more slowly than a groups with over a hundred.

     elp shows the following for the fast groups:

Function Name                                                                 
Call Count  Elapsed Time  Average Time
============================================================================  
==========  ============  ============
gnus-retrieve-headers                                                         3 
          5.690393      1.8967976666
gnus-group-read-group                                                         1 
          3.42949       3.42949
gnus-summary-read-group                                                       1 
          3.429393      3.429393
gnus-summary-read-group-1                                                     1 
          3.429363      3.429363
gnus-select-newsgroup                                                         1 
          2.889938      2.889938
gnus-fetch-headers                                                            1 
          2.650536      2.650536
gnus-cache-retrieve-headers                                                   1 
          2.638718      2.638718
gnus-agent-retrieve-headers                                                   1 
          2.637814      2.637814

The slow group shows:

Function Name                                           Call Count  Elapsed 
Time  Average Time
======================================================  ==========  
============  ============
gnus-retrieve-headers                                   3           78.807254   
  26.269084666
gnus-group-read-group                                   1           47.025916   
  47.025916
gnus-summary-read-group                                 1           47.02571    
  47.02571
gnus-summary-read-group-1                               1           47.025689   
  47.025689
gnus-select-newsgroup                                   1           42.567341   
  42.567341
gnus-fetch-headers                                      1           40.455486   
  40.455486
gnus-cache-retrieve-headers                             1           39.304998   
  39.304998
gnus-agent-retrieve-headers                             1           39.304134   
  39.304134

Could fragmentation in .newsrc.eld be the source of the problem?

Thanks,

Patrick

------------------------------------------------------------------------
S P Engineering, Inc.  | Large scale, mission-critical, distributed OO
                       | systems design and implementation.
          pjm@spe.com  | (C++, Java, Common Lisp, Jini, middleware, SOA)