Re: gnus-search-imap and quoted queries

[Sergio Durigan Junior <sergiodj@sergiodj.net>]

On Tuesday, April 19 2022, dick wrote:

> SDJ> I'm aware of what C-u does in this case, but IIUC the new
> SDJ> gnus-search backend should translate my query into Dovecot's
> SDJ> parlance
>
> Transpilation, even for a simple grammar, is a lot to ask from an
> obscure 25yo mail user agent.  Even if that had been done, it wouldn't
> have been done well.

gnus-search is new, but as far as I have seen it works surprisingly fine
for several backends, IMAP included.

> At this point I'd `C-u C-M-x` on
>
> (cl-defmethod gnus-search-run-search ((engine gnus-search-imap)

I did that.

The query I was using got translated correctly into:

  "FROM {20+}\n\"Debian FTP Masters\""

and then passed to Dovecot.  I tried invoking "doveadm search" directly
on the command line passing the query GNUS is using and noticed that the
results are the same, i.e., it didn't do an exact match on "Debian FTP
Masters" and ended up returning emails from "Debian Bug Tracking System"
as well.

At this point, I think it's safe to say that this is an
issue/idiosyncrasy of Dovecot or IMAP itself, and not GNUS.  Apparently
it's not possible to do a search for exact terms using quotes.

I will keep investigating, but I wonder if someone else has experienced
this as well.

Thanks,

-- 
Sergio
GPG key ID: 237A 54B1 0287 28BF 00EF  31F4 D0EB 7628 65FC 5E36
Please send encrypted e-mail if possible
https://sergiodj.net/