Question about how header-fetching works

[g51]

I have two usenet providers. Let's say one has a retention of 1000 days (Provider1 - P1), the other of 300 (Provider2 - P2). I download all headers in a group from P1, then i disable header-fetching from P1 and enable it only on P2. If i do that and then fetch headers from P2, will NB delete the remaining 600 headers that were fetched from P1? If so, when will it do that? The first time newest headers are retrieved or it depends on another setting (for instance Storage Age)?

[itimpi]

You only need to download headers from both servers if one server has posts that the other does not. Newsbin retrieves posts by message-Id (it does not track which server supplied the header containing that message-if, so it does not care what server a header comes from. In your case I suspect you only need to get headers from the longer retention server.

[g51]

In your case I suspect you only need to get headers from the longer retention server.

Well, yes, but the problem is that i downloaded the headers from the longest retention server but the main server is the one with the lowest one. The question is if i change the download-headers server to the lowest retention one, will it delete the oldest headers which do not exist in that server?

[Quade]

It won't delete headers unless you do a "Download All Headers". Only the "Storage Age" determines what headers to keep. At one point I used the server retention to purge headers but some servers lie about retention so I don't anymore.

[itimpi]

In your case I suspect you only need to get headers from the longer retention server.

Well, yes, but the problem is that i downloaded the headers from the longest retention server but the main server is the one with the lowest one. The question is if i change the download-headers server to the lowest retention one, will it delete the oldest headers which do not exist in that server?

Newsbin will quite happily use the header information from the longer retention server to retrieve posts from the shorter retention one. The only reason to get headers from both servers would be if they did not cover the same groups, or if one of them had incomplete sets of headers.

[g51]

It won't delete headers unless you do a "Download All Headers". Only the "Storage Age" determines what headers to keep. At one point I used the server retention to purge headers but some servers lie about retention so I don't anymore.

Thanks Quade, that clarifies things.

Newsbin will quite happily use the header information from the longer retention server to retrieve posts from the shorter retention one. The only reason to get headers from both servers would be if they did not cover the same groups, or if one of them had incomplete sets of headers.

Yup, i knew that. Thanks.