GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 340089
Beagle doesn't find file with particular substring search term
Last modified: 2006-06-07 18:49:20 UTC
Please describe the problem: I have a file that I need to find often called AJ-HD1700E.pdf. When I start up beagle I like to see if it can find this file. If I search for "hd1700" it does not find the file. There's some bug in the substring search method that is blind to this particular arrangement of numbers, letters, and hyphens. Steps to reproduce: 1. Create an (optionally empty) file called AJ-HD1700E.pdf 2. Open beagle-search, search for "hd1700" Actual results: I don't see that file. Expected results: I should see that file. Does this happen every time? This bug happens every time, and beagle has never found this file correctly. Other information: The following search terms _do_ reveal the file: 1700, aj-hd1700, 1700e However, I'm used to thinking of the product as the "hd1700" so that's what I type in.
Searching for the complete filename should find the file - that is the expected behaviour. Searching for arbitrart parts of the file may or may not find the file. In this particular case, searching for aj-hd1700e should find it; if not, its a bug. But searching for 1700, d17, hd1700, 170 etc. may or may not find the file. In addition to these, beagle tries to be a little smarter and tries to guess (possible) meaningful parts from the filename - which causes 1700e, 1700, aj-hd1700 to return the file. The guessing algorithm could be tweaked to pass this particular case, but it wouldnt solve all such possible cases. I'd suggest you change the filename to contain hd1700 as an unit e.g. aj-hd1700 which would be in sync with 'I'm used to thinking of the product as the "hd1700"'.
This still seems to be a bug to me. If beagle is supposed to be a desktop search infrastructure, substring search seems like a basic requirement. If I can't rely on beagle to perform a correct substring search of my filenames it's not useful to me. Changing filenames to suit the guessing algorithm is not an option -- how am I to know what other results I'm not getting?
Of course its a bug. An enhancement request, to be more precise. There is actually a bug already opened on that. Marking duplicate. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 332673 ***