Purging newsgroups in my Agent 1.93 is now taking almost 30 seconds
for a single group. This just started a couple of days back.

Anyone have a clue why?

In Message-ID:<8dtcbgthiu8fjoh1doubq249huv5n99e38@4ax.com>,
rob@gmailnot.com wrote:

>Purging newsgroups in my Agent 1.93 is now taking almost 30 seconds
>for a single group. This just started a couple of days back.
>
>Anyone have a clue why?

I have some possible ideas, but I'd need more information.

Ask again *without* the XNA:YES. I want problems *and solutions* to
be findable by those with the same problems in the future.

--
Arthur T. - ar23hur "at" pobox "dot" com

On Tue, 01 Jun 2021 13:01:43 -0500, rob@gmailnot.com wrote:

>Purging newsgroups in my Agent 1.93 is now taking almost 30 seconds
>for a single group. This just started a couple of days back.
>
>Anyone have a clue why?

You may just have a database that has grown too big. Since Agent will
run straight from the EXE. I keep a copy of the one I use that is
completely clean, just my subscribed groups with no notes in it and
occasionally when the one I use gets sluggish I just overlay it with a
virgin. It is not an elegant solution but it works.

On Tue, 01 Jun 2021 13:01:43 -0500, rob@gmailnot.com wrote:

> Purging newsgroups in my Agent 1.93 is now taking almost 30 seconds
> for a single group. This just started a couple of days back.
>
> Anyone have a clue why?

It would take more information to narrow it down.
Without any more information, it is a pig in a poke.
Here is a sample of 5 different guesses out of many more possible.

A. Agent's purging uses a lot of disk access. Your hard disk has
recently become slow.

A.i Your hard disk is getting old and slow. The slow-down
is caused by the hard drive doing multiple retries to
recover from soft errors. Your hard disk is nearing the
far end of the bathtub curve.

A.ii Your hard disk is a new SSD. You are running on Windows XP
which does not know how to trim SSDs. Without trimming,
your SSD may run out of erased pages. When your SSD runs
out of erased pages, disk writes become very slow.

B. The single group you are purging now has many more messages in it
when you purge, compared with a few days ago.

B.i You cannot see this, because the extra messages are hidden
by your view of only 'Unread Messages'.

B.ii You cannot see this because the extra messages are hidden
by your view of 'Not Incomplete Multiparts'.

B.iii You can see this yourself.

--
Kind regards
Ralph

On Wed, 02 Jun 2021 22:09:33 +1200, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
wrote:

>On Tue, 01 Jun 2021 13:01:43 -0500, rob@gmailnot.com wrote:
>
>> Purging newsgroups in my Agent 1.93 is now taking almost 30 seconds
>> for a single group. This just started a couple of days back.
>>
>> Anyone have a clue why?
>
>
>It would take more information to narrow it down.
>Without any more information, it is a pig in a poke.
>Here is a sample of 5 different guesses out of many more possible.
>
>
> A. Agent's purging uses a lot of disk access. Your hard disk has
> recently become slow.
>
> A.i Your hard disk is getting old and slow. The slow-down
> is caused by the hard drive doing multiple retries to
> recover from soft errors. Your hard disk is nearing the
> far end of the bathtub curve.
>
> A.ii Your hard disk is a new SSD. You are running on Windows XP
> which does not know how to trim SSDs. Without trimming,
> your SSD may run out of erased pages. When your SSD runs
> out of erased pages, disk writes become very slow.
>
> B. The single group you are purging now has many more messages in it
> when you purge, compared with a few days ago.
>
> B.i You cannot see this, because the extra messages are hidden
> by your view of only 'Unread Messages'.
>
> B.ii You cannot see this because the extra messages are hidden
> by your view of 'Not Incomplete Multiparts'.
>
> B.iii You can see this yourself.

None of the above apply.

On Wed, 02 Jun 2021 00:21:39 -0400, gfretwell@aol.com wrote:

>On Tue, 01 Jun 2021 13:01:43 -0500, rob@gmailnot.com wrote:
>
>>Purging newsgroups in my Agent 1.93 is now taking almost 30 seconds
>>for a single group. This just started a couple of days back.
>>
>>Anyone have a clue why?
>
>You may just have a database that has grown too big. Since Agent will
>run straight from the EXE. I keep a copy of the one I use that is
>completely clean, just my subscribed groups with no notes in it and
>occasionally when the one I use gets sluggish I just overlay it with a
>virgin. It is not an elegant solution but it works.

I have no idea if your solution would work here.

I think I'm just going reinstall Agent and start afresh.

Tnx for answering.

On Wed, 02 Jun 2021 11:13:00 -0500, rob@gmailnot.com wrote:

>On Wed, 02 Jun 2021 00:21:39 -0400, gfretwell@aol.com wrote:
>
>>On Tue, 01 Jun 2021 13:01:43 -0500, rob@gmailnot.com wrote:
>>
>>>Purging newsgroups in my Agent 1.93 is now taking almost 30 seconds
>>>for a single group. This just started a couple of days back.
>>>
>>>Anyone have a clue why?
>>
>>You may just have a database that has grown too big. Since Agent will
>>run straight from the EXE. I keep a copy of the one I use that is
>>completely clean, just my subscribed groups with no notes in it and
>>occasionally when the one I use gets sluggish I just overlay it with a
>>virgin. It is not an elegant solution but it works.
>
>I have no idea if your solution would work here.
>
>I think I'm just going reinstall Agent and start afresh.
>
>Tnx for answering.

Agent really does not need to be "installed". (At least not the old
ones anyway).
I carry one around on a thumb drive and it will run wherever I plug it
in. If you have a copy of a virgin one you can simply write it into a
directory and go or run it from where it is, although that will start
growing the database on that copy.
The Agent I am running was "installed" exactly once and every other
instance I have is a copy of that install. I don't even have a copy of
that original install package. (from W/98 I think).

On Wed, 02 Jun 2021 11:09:26 -0500, rob@gmailnot.com wrote:

>On Wed, 02 Jun 2021 22:09:33 +1200, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
>wrote:
>
>>On Tue, 01 Jun 2021 13:01:43 -0500, rob@gmailnot.com wrote:
>>
>>> Purging newsgroups in my Agent 1.93 is now taking almost 30 seconds
>>> for a single group. This just started a couple of days back.
>>>
>>> Anyone have a clue why?
>>
>>
>>It would take more information to narrow it down.
>>Without any more information, it is a pig in a poke.
>>Here is a sample of 5 different guesses out of many more possible.
>>
>>
>> A. Agent's purging uses a lot of disk access. Your hard disk has
>> recently become slow.
>>
>> A.i Your hard disk is getting old and slow. The slow-down
>> is caused by the hard drive doing multiple retries to
>> recover from soft errors. Your hard disk is nearing the
>> far end of the bathtub curve.
>>
>> A.ii Your hard disk is a new SSD. You are running on Windows XP
>> which does not know how to trim SSDs. Without trimming,
>> your SSD may run out of erased pages. When your SSD runs
>> out of erased pages, disk writes become very slow.
>>
>> B. The single group you are purging now has many more messages in it
>> when you purge, compared with a few days ago.
>>
>> B.i You cannot see this, because the extra messages are hidden
>> by your view of only 'Unread Messages'.
>>
>> B.ii You cannot see this because the extra messages are hidden
>> by your view of 'Not Incomplete Multiparts'.
>>
>> B.iii You can see this yourself.
>
>None of the above apply.

When you do your purge, are you also doing a compact?
I set mine up a long time ago to purge and compact when I close Agent.
It's under "Folders > Default Properties" IIRC.

Mike

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

On Wed, 02 Jun 2021 20:55:07 -0400, Special Access
<nonyabidnezz@hotmail.com> wrote:

>On Wed, 02 Jun 2021 11:09:26 -0500, rob@gmailnot.com wrote:
>
>>On Wed, 02 Jun 2021 22:09:33 +1200, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>On Tue, 01 Jun 2021 13:01:43 -0500, rob@gmailnot.com wrote:
>>>

>
>When you do your purge, are you also doing a compact?
>I set mine up a long time ago to purge and compact when I close Agent.
>It's under "Folders > Default Properties" IIRC.
>
>Mike

I've used this install of Agent for a quite a few years. I never did
a compact until the other day. It was after that this purge problem
started. I had forgotten all about the compacting I had done. I
don't know why I did it. I was not having a problem until afterwards.

So...?

On Wed, 02 Jun 2021 20:04:04 -0500, rob@gmailnot.com wrote:

>>When you do your purge, are you also doing a compact?
>>I set mine up a long time ago to purge and compact when I close Agent.
>>It's under "Folders > Default Properties" IIRC.
>>
>>Mike
>
>I've used this install of Agent for a quite a few years. I never did
>a compact until the other day. It was after that this purge problem
>started. I had forgotten all about the compacting I had done. I
>don't know why I did it. I was not having a problem until afterwards.
>
>So...?

What happens if as a test, you purge only one group at a time?

Then, a few at a time?

ie, is it a problem with all groups (individually or collectively),
certain groups only, or something that occurs whenever any kind of
purge is done?

On Thu, 03 Jun 2021 06:32:29 +0200, none@given.com wrote:

>On Wed, 02 Jun 2021 20:04:04 -0500, rob@gmailnot.com wrote:
>
>>>When you do your purge, are you also doing a compact?
>>>I set mine up a long time ago to purge and compact when I close Agent.
>>>It's under "Folders > Default Properties" IIRC.
>>>
>>>Mike
>>
>>I've used this install of Agent for a quite a few years. I never did
>>a compact until the other day. It was after that this purge problem
>>started. I had forgotten all about the compacting I had done. I
>>don't know why I did it. I was not having a problem until afterwards.
>>
>>So...?
>
>What happens if as a test, you purge only one group at a time?

Same thing

>Then, a few at a time?

>ie, is it a problem with all groups (individually or collectively),
>certain groups only, or something that occurs whenever any kind of
>purge is done?

How many groups doesn't matter. Same result.

I'm going to install another copy of Agent from my original install
file. I've had it with this problem. I'll leave the screwed up Agent
as is, keeping all my folders intact.

Thanks to all for trying to help.

On Thu, 03 Jun 2021 11:36:19 -0500, rob@gmailnot.com wrote:

>I'm going to install another copy of Agent from my original install
>file. I've had it with this problem. I'll leave the screwed up Agent
>as is, keeping all my folders intact.

One of the most important secrets for a successful life is knowing
when to give up on stuff.

Wise decision. Good luck.

On Thu, 03 Jun 2021 19:59:28 +0200, none@given.com wrote:

>On Thu, 03 Jun 2021 11:36:19 -0500, rob@gmailnot.com wrote:
>
>>I'm going to install another copy of Agent from my original install
>>file. I've had it with this problem. I'll leave the screwed up Agent
>>as is, keeping all my folders intact.
>
>One of the most important secrets for a successful life is knowing
>when to give up on stuff.
>
>Wise decision. Good luck.

Like Dirty Harry said: "A man's gotta know his limitations." :o)

On Tue, 01 Jun 2021 13:01:43 -0500, in
<8dtcbgthiu8fjoh1doubq249huv5n99e38@4ax.com>, rob@gmailnot.com wrote:

>Purging newsgroups in my Agent 1.93 is now taking almost 30 seconds
>for a single group. This just started a couple of days back.
>
>Anyone have a clue why?

After reading the whole thread, I don't see anywhere that you've told
us how full the various group folders are. How about some details?

Knowing very little because you've told very little, I suggest you
create some new folders with names associated with each of your groups
and move half of the articles in each groups folder into the
corresponding storage folder.

First compact after doing so may be slow, but probably faster for
subsequent compacts.

Don't forget to give us some details about how full the current
folders are.
--
Jim H

On Fri, 04 Jun 2021 16:54:42 +0000, Jim H <invalid@invalid.invalid>
wrote:

>On Tue, 01 Jun 2021 13:01:43 -0500, in
><8dtcbgthiu8fjoh1doubq249huv5n99e38@4ax.com>, rob@gmailnot.com wrote:
>
>>Purging newsgroups in my Agent 1.93 is now taking almost 30 seconds
>>for a single group. This just started a couple of days back.
>>
>>Anyone have a clue why?
>
>After reading the whole thread, I don't see anywhere that you've told
>us how full the various group folders are. How about some details?
>
>Knowing very little because you've told very little, I suggest you
>create some new folders with names associated with each of your groups
>and move half of the articles in each groups folder into the
>corresponding storage folder.
>
>First compact after doing so may be slow, but probably faster for
>subsequent compacts.
>
>Don't forget to give us some details about how full the current
>folders are.

I tried most suggestions and still couldn't solve the problem. I
installed another Agent and copied my Usenet filter files to it.

I use very few groups. It was not a problem subscribing anew to those
few groups I use.

Problem over. It wasn't worth my time to screw with this nonsense any
longer. I ain't tech inclined, so I have very little curiosity as to
what caused it. I just wanted things working again. Done.