Re: [sup-talk] searches

[Gregor Hoffleit <gregor@hoffleit.de>]

* John Bent <johnbent@lanl.gov> [Do Aug 05 15:49:38 +0200 2010]
> Excerpts from Brian May's message of Wed Aug 04 20:14:14 -0600 2010:
> > Where is the best documentation on performing searches?
> > 
> > I have noticed some quirks:
> > 
> > \label:VLSCI
> > 
> > finds nothing, even though lots of emails are labeled VLSCI.
> > 
> > \label:vlsci
> > 
> > finds all these emails.
> > 
> > \label:vlsci \label:unread
> > 
> > finds all vlsci OR unread emails - I would have assumed that should be AND?

I fell into these traps as well (there was a thread in this list two
months ago, search for this message: 1276181871-sup-2536@zyrg.net).

I started to rewrite the page SearchingMail in the Wiki:
http://sup.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl?SearchingMail

The information on that page should be correct, but certainly is not
complete. Neither is it easy to grok.

As a start, the basic query language is described in
http://xapian.org/docs/queryparser.html.


Some stumbling points about searching in Sup:

- By default, query terms are combined with AND
- Exception: Query terms within the same field type are combined as OR

I.e. a search for "label:ruby-talk subject:\[ANN\]" (without the
quotes!) is equivalent to "label:ruby-talk AND subject:\[ANN\]".

In contrast, the search "subject:apples subject:oranges" is equivalent
to "subject:apples OR subject:oranges"!

> The above looks like you are doing them one at a time.  If you do this:
> 
> \label:vlsci label:unread
> 
> that should do what you want.

Wrong. As these are two queries in the same field type, they are ORed.

The get the result you're expecting, you must search for
"label:vlsci AND label:unread" (without the quotes).

> Also, on the search results view, hitting '|' let you refine the search
> so:
> \label:vlsci | label:unread
> 
> should also do what you want.

Again, this is wrong. Refining a search will just let you append or 
edit the current query. I.e. after hitting '|' you should append
"AND label:unread" to the query string.


I would really welcome if somebody with a little more insight than me
could take the time to update the documentation about searching in Sup.


    Gregor Hoffleit
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