[PATCH] Add search tuning section to manual
Hi,
as requested by Rado on #mutt, the attached patch adds some
documentation to the new "Tuning" section trying to describe when to
choose string search instead of regex search and why.
bye, Rocco
--
:wq!
diff --git a/doc/manual.xml.head b/doc/manual.xml.head
index 4d772c9..0b0b632 100644
--- a/doc/manual.xml.head
+++ b/doc/manual.xml.head
@@ -5938,6 +5938,40 @@ please refer to mutt's so-called
</sect1>
+<sect1 id="tuning-search">
+<title>Searching and limiting</title>
+
+<para>
+When searching mailboxes either via a search or a limit action, for
+some patterns mutt distincts between regular expression and string
+searches. For regular expressions, patterns are prefixed with
+``˜'' and with ``='' for string searches.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Even though a regular expression search is fast, it's several times
+slower than a pure string search which is noticable especially on large
+folders. As a consequence, a string search should be used instead of a
+regular expression search if the user already knows enough about the
+search pattern.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+For example, when limiting a large folder to all messages sent to or by
+an author, it's much faster to search for the initial part of an e-mail
+address via <literal>=Luser@</literal> instead of
+<literal>˜Luser@</literal>. This is especially true for searching
+message bodies since a larger amount of input has to be searched.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Please note that string search is an exact case-sensitive search
+while a regular expression search with only lower-case letters performs
+a case-insensitive search.
+</para>
+
+</sect1>
+
</chapter>
<chapter id="reference">