trouble searching with unix timestamps

trouble searching with unix timestamps

[Matthew Lear]

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Hi. I've noticed that I'm unable to notmuch search using date with unix
timestamps (ie number of seconds since Jan 1st 1970 UTC). I get a xapian
error. The notmuch man pages state that searching using
'date:<initial-timestamp>..<final-timestamp>'
where "each timestamp is a number representing the number of seconds since
1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC" is supported, so I'm wondering what's wrong with
my installation.

* notmuch config get built_with.field_processor
true
* xapian-config - xapian-core 1.4.4
* notmuch 0.26+8~ga727e7d

Here's an example:

# date +%s
1517238733

# date -d @1517238733
Mon Jan 29 15:12:13 GMT 2018

# date -d @1517152333
Sun Jan 28 15:12:13 GMT 2018


# notmuch search date:1517152333..1517238733
notmuch search: A Xapian exception occurred
A Xapian exception occurred parsing query: Didn't understand date
specification '1517152333..1517238733'
Query string was: date:1517152333..1517238733

Yet I can do:

# notmuch search date:yesterday..today
or
# notmuch search date:1/28/2018..1/29/2018
or
# notmuch search date:20180128..20180129

..and all show 216 results.

Any thoughts as to why Xapian doesn't like this type of query? Is it just
me? :-)

Thanks,
--  Matt

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Re: trouble searching with unix timestamps

[Jani Nikula]

On Mon, 29 Jan 2018, Matthew Lear <matt@bubblegen.co.uk> wrote:
> Hi. I've noticed that I'm unable to notmuch search using date with unix
> timestamps (ie number of seconds since Jan 1st 1970 UTC). I get a xapian
> error. The notmuch man pages state that searching using
> 'date:<initial-timestamp>..<final-timestamp>'
> where "each timestamp is a number representing the number of seconds since
> 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC" is supported, so I'm wondering what's wrong with
> my installation.

The man page could use some clarification.

The <initial-timestamp>..<final-timestamp> syntax predates the date:
prefix, and needs to be given as-is:

$ notmuch search 1517152333..1517238733

Alternatively, you can use @<timestamp> in date: queries, although this
seems to be completely undocumented:

$ notmuch search date:@1517152333..@1517238733

HTH,
Jani.

Re: trouble searching with unix timestamps

[Matthew Lear]

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Wonderful! Thanks Jani.

> Alternatively, you can use @<timestamp> in date: queries, although this
> seems to be completely undocumented:

I guess this relates to similar syntax requirements of date -d in that a
unix timestamp is required to be preceded by an @

# date -d 1517152333
date: invalid date ‘1517152333’
# date -d @1517152333
Sun Jan 28 15:12:13 GMT 2018

On Mon, Jan 29, 2018 at 4:03 PM, Jani Nikula <jani@nikula.org> wrote:

> On Mon, 29 Jan 2018, Matthew Lear <matt@bubblegen.co.uk> wrote:
> > Hi. I've noticed that I'm unable to notmuch search using date with unix
> > timestamps (ie number of seconds since Jan 1st 1970 UTC). I get a xapian
> > error. The notmuch man pages state that searching using
> > 'date:<initial-timestamp>..<final-timestamp>'
> > where "each timestamp is a number representing the number of seconds
> since
> > 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC" is supported, so I'm wondering what's wrong with
> > my installation.
>
> The man page could use some clarification.
>
> The <initial-timestamp>..<final-timestamp> syntax predates the date:
> prefix, and needs to be given as-is:
>
> $ notmuch search 1517152333..1517238733
>
> Alternatively, you can use @<timestamp> in date: queries, although this
> seems to be completely undocumented:
>
> $ notmuch search date:@1517152333..@1517238733
>
> HTH,
> Jani.
>

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Re: trouble searching with unix timestamps

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

On Mon 2018-01-29 16:13:38 +0000, Matthew Lear wrote:
> [ Jani wrote: ]
>> Alternatively, you can use @<timestamp> in date: queries, although this
>> seems to be completely undocumented:
>
> I guess this relates to similar syntax requirements of date -d in that a
> unix timestamp is required to be preceded by an @

agreed, it seems in line with that.

Matthew, since you've been reading the docs there most recently, maybe
you'd be up for sending a patch to make sure this feature is findable in
the documentation?

    --dkg

Re: trouble searching with unix timestamps

[Matthew Lear]

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Sure thing. Just done it now.

On Wed, Jan 31, 2018 at 3:04 AM, Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net>
wrote:

> On Mon 2018-01-29 16:13:38 +0000, Matthew Lear wrote:
> > [ Jani wrote: ]
> >> Alternatively, you can use @<timestamp> in date: queries, although this
> >> seems to be completely undocumented:
> >
> > I guess this relates to similar syntax requirements of date -d in that a
> > unix timestamp is required to be preceded by an @
>
> agreed, it seems in line with that.
>
> Matthew, since you've been reading the docs there most recently, maybe
> you'd be up for sending a patch to make sure this feature is findable in
> the documentation?
>
>     --dkg
>

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