Index: java/org/apache/lucene/index/SegmentTermPositions.java
===================================================================
--- java/org/apache/lucene/index/SegmentTermPositions.java	(revision 465175)
+++ java/org/apache/lucene/index/SegmentTermPositions.java	(working copy)
@@ -26,6 +26,11 @@
   private int proxCount;
   private int position;
   
+  // these variables are being used to remember information
+  // for a lazy skip
+  private long lazySkipPointer = 0;
+  private int lazySkipDocCount = 0;
+  
   SegmentTermPositions(SegmentReader p) {
     super(p);
     this.proxStream = (IndexInput)parent.proxStream.clone();
@@ -34,7 +39,9 @@
   final void seek(TermInfo ti) throws IOException {
     super.seek(ti);
     if (ti != null)
-      proxStream.seek(ti.proxPointer);
+      lazySkipPointer = ti.proxPointer;
+    
+    lazySkipDocCount = 0;
     proxCount = 0;
   }
 
@@ -44,22 +51,25 @@
   }
 
   public final int nextPosition() throws IOException {
+    // perform lazy skips if neccessary
+    lazySkip();
     proxCount--;
     return position += proxStream.readVInt();
   }
 
   protected final void skippingDoc() throws IOException {
-    for (int f = freq; f > 0; f--)		  // skip all positions
-      proxStream.readVInt();
+    // we remember to skip the remaining positions of the current
+    // document lazily
+    lazySkipDocCount += freq;
   }
 
   public final boolean next() throws IOException {
-    for (int f = proxCount; f > 0; f--)		  // skip unread positions
-      proxStream.readVInt();
-
-    if (super.next()) {				  // run super
-      proxCount = freq;				  // note frequency
-      position = 0;				  // reset position
+    // we remember to skip a document lazily
+    lazySkipDocCount += proxCount;
+    
+    if (super.next()) {               // run super
+      proxCount = freq;               // note frequency
+      position = 0;               // reset position
       return true;
     }
     return false;
@@ -72,8 +82,37 @@
 
   /** Called by super.skipTo(). */
   protected void skipProx(long proxPointer) throws IOException {
-    proxStream.seek(proxPointer);
+    // we save the pointer, we might have to skip there lazily
+    lazySkipPointer = proxPointer;
+    lazySkipDocCount = 0;
     proxCount = 0;
   }
 
+  private void skipPositions(int n) throws IOException {
+    for (int f = n; f > 0; f--)         // skip unread positions
+      proxStream.readVInt();
+  }
+
+  // It is not always neccessary to move the prox pointer
+  // to a new document after the freq pointer has been moved.
+  // Consider for example a phrase query with two terms:
+  // the freq pointer for term 1 has to move to document x
+  // to answer the question if the term occurs in that document. But
+  // only if term 2 also matches document x, the positions have to be
+  // read to figure out if term 1 and term 2 appear next
+  // to each other in document x and thus satisfy the query.
+  // So we move the prox pointer lazily to the document
+  // as soon as positions are requested.
+  private void lazySkip() throws IOException {
+    if (lazySkipPointer != 0) {
+      proxStream.seek(lazySkipPointer);
+      lazySkipPointer = 0;
+    }
+     
+    if (lazySkipDocCount != 0) {
+      skipPositions(lazySkipDocCount);
+      lazySkipDocCount = 0;
+    }
+  }
+
 }
Index: test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestLazyProxSkipping.java
===================================================================
--- test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestLazyProxSkipping.java	(revision 0)
+++ test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestLazyProxSkipping.java	(revision 0)
@@ -0,0 +1,150 @@
+package org.apache.lucene.index;
+
+/**
+ * Copyright 2006 The Apache Software Foundation
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+
+import org.apache.lucene.analysis.WhitespaceAnalyzer;
+import org.apache.lucene.document.Document;
+import org.apache.lucene.document.Field;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.Hits;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.IndexSearcher;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.PhraseQuery;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.Searcher;
+import org.apache.lucene.store.Directory;
+import org.apache.lucene.store.IndexInput;
+import org.apache.lucene.store.RAMDirectory;
+
+import junit.framework.TestCase;
+
+/**
+ * Tests lazy skipping on the proximity file.
+ *
+ */
+public class TestLazyProxSkipping extends TestCase {
+    private Searcher searcher;
+    private int seeksCounter = 0;
+    
+    private String field = "tokens";
+    private String term1 = "xx";
+    private String term2 = "yy";
+    private String term3 = "zz";
+    
+    private void createIndex(int numHits) throws IOException {
+        int numDocs = 500;
+        
+        Directory directory = new RAMDirectory();
+        IndexWriter writer = new IndexWriter(directory, new WhitespaceAnalyzer(), true);
+        
+        for (int i = 0; i < numDocs; i++) {
+            Document doc = new Document();
+            String content;
+            if (i % (numDocs / numHits) == 0) {
+                // add a document that matches the query "term1 term2"
+                content = this.term1 + " " + this.term2;
+            } else if (i % 15 == 0) {
+                // add a document that only contains term1
+                content = this.term1 + " " + this.term1;
+            } else {
+                // add a document that contains term2 but not term 1
+                content = this.term3 + " " + this.term2;
+            }
+
+            doc.add(new Field(this.field, content, Field.Store.YES, Field.Index.TOKENIZED));
+            writer.addDocument(doc);
+        }
+        
+        // make sure the index has only a single segment
+        writer.optimize();
+        writer.close();
+        
+        // the index is a single segment, thus IndexReader.open() returns an instance of SegmentReader
+        SegmentReader reader = (SegmentReader) IndexReader.open(directory);
+
+        // we decorate the proxStream with a wrapper class that allows to count the number of calls of seek()
+        reader.proxStream = new SeeksCountingStream(reader.proxStream);
+        
+        this.searcher = new IndexSearcher(reader);        
+    }
+    
+    private Hits search() throws IOException {
+        // create PhraseQuery "term1 term2" and search
+        PhraseQuery pq = new PhraseQuery();
+        pq.add(new Term(this.field, this.term1));
+        pq.add(new Term(this.field, this.term2));
+        return this.searcher.search(pq);        
+    }
+    
+    private void performTest(int numHits) throws IOException {
+        createIndex(numHits);
+        this.seeksCounter = 0;
+        Hits hits = search();
+        // verify that the right number of docs was found
+        assertEquals(numHits, hits.length());
+        
+        // check if the number of calls of seek() does not exceed the number of hits
+        assertEquals(numHits, this.seeksCounter);
+    }
+    
+    public void testLazySkipping() throws IOException {
+        // test whether only the minimum amount of seeks() are performed
+        performTest(5);
+        performTest(10);
+    }
+    
+
+    // Simply extends IndexInput in a way that we are able to count the number
+    // of invocations of seek()
+    class SeeksCountingStream extends IndexInput {
+          private IndexInput input;      
+          
+          
+          SeeksCountingStream(IndexInput input) {
+              this.input = input;
+          }      
+                
+          public byte readByte() throws IOException {
+              return this.input.readByte();
+          }
+    
+          public void readBytes(byte[] b, int offset, int len) throws IOException {
+              this.input.readBytes(b, offset, len);        
+          }
+    
+          public void close() throws IOException {
+              this.input.close();
+          }
+    
+          public long getFilePointer() {
+              return this.input.getFilePointer();
+          }
+    
+          public void seek(long pos) throws IOException {
+              TestLazyProxSkipping.this.seeksCounter++;
+              this.input.seek(pos);
+          }
+    
+          public long length() {
+              return this.input.length();
+          }
+          
+          public Object clone() {
+              return new SeeksCountingStream((IndexInput) this.input.clone());
+          }
+      
+    }
+}
