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Re: Searching messages (other than 'grep' and 'pick') (Was: Re: repl -cc broken?)

1998-09-01 18:15:02
------ Hal DeVore, <18411(_dot_)904651831(_at_)erehwon(_dot_)bmc(_dot_)com> 
writes: 

    
    Nathan(_dot_)Bailey(_at_)cc(_dot_)monash(_dot_)edu(_dot_)au wrote:
    > I guess I mean does anyone use indexing software (glimpse et al)
    
    I used glimpse for a while, mostly from exmh.  But I found that my search 
    frequency compared to the storage for the indices just wasn't worth it, 
    IMHO.  So I've switched to grep.
    
in one situation, i have 17K messages across 30 folders (this is not my
full mailbox though).  since this directory is 67MB, grep just chokes 
after a bit, so i ended up indexing the From/Subject/Date fields in a
file marked .index in a MH directory and wrote some perl to allow me to
search that file.  this allows me to quickly search only a portion of my
mail directory at a much faster clip.  i also run glimpse which i don't
use as much but can be useful in a pinch. 

the downside is i recreate the index from scratch every night, and if i
perform a bunch of manipulations on the mail folder i usually reindex
the whole thing.  the upside is others i work with who struggle with the
PC mail apps can do some quick searching from a clunky web front end.
you'd be suprised how many people find that useful. 

i've felt that MH should have index files in each folder which contains
perhaps all header info (or basic info like from/to/date/subject) which
can be opened by front ends and quickly scanned.  since the sbr
functions manipulate the files, i have thought it should be able to
manipulate index files as well.  

any thoughts on that? 

tim


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