Search Case Sensitivity

Search Case Sensitivity

[Wenlong Dai]

[-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 281 bytes --]

Hi Guys,

I did a bit of Google Search and reading of notmuch man pages.
I'm surprised to find no mention of this.

Based on my usage and testing, it seems to me that all notmuch searches are
case-sensitive.
Is this true?
Is there a way to do case-insensitive search?

Thanks
Dave

[-- Attachment #1.2: Type: text/html, Size: 1533 bytes --]

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/plain, Size: 0 bytes --]

Re: Search Case Sensitivity

[David Bremner]

Wenlong Dai <whudwl@gmail.com> writes:

> Based on my usage and testing, it seems to me that all notmuch searches are
> case-sensitive.
> Is this true?
> Is there a way to do case-insensitive search?

Most searches (other than boolean prefixes and regex searches) are in
fact case insensitive. The definition of case is English-centric. Can
you give an example of a search that is case-sensitive that you are
expecting to be case insensitive?

d

Re: Search Case Sensitivity

[Wenlong Dai]

[-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1035 bytes --]

I later realised my statement was wrong. I did not test all search terms.
I was only testing the folder: search term.

It seems folder: search is always case-sensitive and it doesn't allow wild
cards.
So if I want to find messages in a specific folder, I'll have to spell the
folder name case-sensitively,
and I'll have to either remember the full path or use regex. Is this
understanding correct?
If it is, then I would say it's a bit unexpected and odd.

On Wed, 18 Nov 2020 at 22:28, David Bremner <david@tethera.net> wrote:

> Wenlong Dai <whudwl@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > Based on my usage and testing, it seems to me that all notmuch searches
> are
> > case-sensitive.
> > Is this true?
> > Is there a way to do case-insensitive search?
>
> Most searches (other than boolean prefixes and regex searches) are in
> fact case insensitive. The definition of case is English-centric. Can
> you give an example of a search that is case-sensitive that you are
> expecting to be case insensitive?
>
> d
>
>

-- 
Kind Regards,
Wenlong Dai

[-- Attachment #1.2: Type: text/html, Size: 2308 bytes --]

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/plain, Size: 0 bytes --]

Re: Search Case Sensitivity

[David Bremner]

Wenlong Dai <whudwl@gmail.com> writes:

> I later realised my statement was wrong. I did not test all search terms.
> I was only testing the folder: search term.
>
> It seems folder: search is always case-sensitive and it doesn't allow wild
> cards.
> So if I want to find messages in a specific folder, I'll have to spell the
> folder name case-sensitively,
> and I'll have to either remember the full path or use regex. Is this
> understanding correct?
> If it is, then I would say it's a bit unexpected and odd.

Yes, that sounds right. folder: (and path:) searches are based on the
paths on disk.  I have to admit I don't use folder searches (or upper
case path names ;)) much, so I leave it to others to discuss whether having
case-insensitive path searches would be worthwhile. Offhand I think it
would require indexing some additional terms, and we'd want to know how
much that increased the database size before deciding.

path: prefixes do support a limited form of wildcards to support
recursive search.  In general Xapian wildcard is somewhat limited,
currently only allowing wildcards at the end of terms. I think that may
change in the future, and could be useful for notmuch queries, since
people are used to globs in paths.