Re: Add search tuning section to manual

[Rocco Rutte <pdmef@xxxxxxx>]

Hi,

* Cameron Simpson [06-11-19 08:47:46 +1100] wrote:
> On 18Nov2006 19:16, rocco rutte <pdmef@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> | +When searching mailboxes either via a search or a limit action, for
> | +some patterns mutt distincts between regular expression and string

> "distincts" => "distinguishes"

English is not my mother tongue, so please forgive me... :)

Corrected patch attached.

  bye, Rocco
--
:wq!

diff --git a/doc/manual.xml.head b/doc/manual.xml.head
index 4d772c9..7bceef6 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 distinguishes between regular expression and string
+searches. For regular expressions, patterns are prefixed with
+``&tilde;'' 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>&tilde;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">