Re: search: namazu, mairix, org

[Erik Hetzner <egh@e6h.org>]

At Sun, 18 Mar 2012 20:19:24 -0400,
Rodrigo Amestica wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 15 Mar 2012 07:51:45 -0400,
> Randy Bush <randy@psg.com> wrote:
> >> I was somehow surveying for a mechanism that would let me globally
> >> search with namazu or mairix (extremely fast) but before generating
> >> the matching list of messages select only those coming from a certain
> >> given folder.
> 
> > i go to the folder, search with wl-summary-pick, and then step through
> > the marked messages with N
> 
> the problem I have with going to a folder is that some folders have
> thousands of messages and now and then just going to the folder will
> block for a couple of minutes before wl finishes updating. I thought
> that a work around was to filter with namazu/mairix and then visit the
> filtered folder, avoiding a direct visit and eventually the annoying
> waiting time.
> 
> I wonder if there is something wrong with my settings that make those
> updates so slow, it is really not usable at times; that's why I
> thought that I should stop visiting any folder and search instead. Do
> you go often to big folders?
> 
> thanks,
>  Rodrigo
> 
> ps: it was on 2011-04-02 that I did posted a help for slow folder
> updates (subject: how to avoid or optimize slow folder updates.)
> wl-summary-always-sticky-folder-list is indeed true in my
> configuration, therefore, that hint did not really help me. 

Hi Rodrigo,

Search in WL is tricky. Here is my understanding. wl-summary-pick and
filter folders (those that start with `/` and can be created with V in
the Folders buffer) either use the IMAP search feature *or* if
non-IMAP or offline will use the elmo database. These can work against
a given folder or collection of folders.

Search folders (those that start with `[`) use external search
programs (namazu, mairix, mu, etc.) The send a query to the search
engine and display to the user the results. It is up to the search
engine which folders or index to search. mu, for instance, appears to
support a maildir field, so it would be possible to ask mu to search a
given maildir. But WL’s interaction with the search engine is to send
a search string and nothing more. WL does not request the search
engine to search against a given folder.

To some up, filter folders and pick search in a given folder(s), while
search folders send a request to an index, but not generally a request
to search in a given folder.

I myself use filter folders and dovecot’s search capabilities, which
work well enough for my needs.

Hope that helps!

best, Erik

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