Cannot search all apache.org lists alone

[sebbASF]

There does not seem to be a way to search all @apache.org lists without also searching all @*.apache.org lists.

[Humbedooh]

I wonder if we should change the query at https://github.com/apache/incubator-ponymail-foal/blob/master/server/plugins/defuzzer.py#L125 to use a regex instead? AIUI, they are almost equally good/bad, speed-wise.

[sebbASF]

The problem is that the lid format does not distinguish list name and domain.
In theory a list name could include a '.', which would make it impossible to construct a suitable search, no matter what matching algorithm is used.

Could the search use forum instead?

[Humbedooh]

Forum could eventually be used, but before we attempt that, we would need to make a tool for fixing up already migrated instances, or they would break if they migrated before Sean's forum patch.

In the meantime, we could switch to a regex and just acknowledge the fact that, for the time being, it assumes your lists do not have dots in their list-name.

[sebbASF]

I see.
Yes, let's switch to RE with the option to use forum later.

If RE turns out to be more expensive, it could be used only for searches with a domain that does not have at least N dots in in (where N==2 for the ASF)

[Humbedooh]

From what I've read, both wildcard and regex are "equally bad" at searching, but I bet we can time it and find out.

[sebbASF]

If that is so, then maybe there is a case for adding separate fields for list name and domain.
Searching all lists in a domain is a common use case.