From: Dirk Hohndel <hohndel@infradead.org>
To: Sebastian Spaeth <Sebastian@SSpaeth.de>, Mike Kelly <pioto@pioto.org>,
	notmuch@notmuchmail.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Have notmuch count default to showing the total.
In-Reply-To: <87bpdsu6ds.fsf@SSpaeth.de>
References: <1270755578-23725-1-git-send-email-pioto@pioto.org>
	<87bpdsu6ds.fsf@SSpaeth.de>
Date: Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:19:47 -0700
Message-ID: <m31veoh7bg.fsf@x200.gr8dns.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Precedence: list

On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:01:35 +0200, "Sebastian Spaeth" <Sebastian@SSpaeth.de> wrote:
> On 2010-04-08, Mike Kelly wrote:
> > If no parameters are given to notmuch-count, or just '' or '*' are
> > given, return the total number of messages in the database.
> 
> I know that cworth was concerned about this syntax on IRC as that would
> mean that "notmuch show" would have to spew out all your emails in order
> to remain consistent with the search term (he rather wanted to output a
> help text if no search term was given).
> 
> But let me express support (It's notmuch worth, I know (haha)) for this
> patch. I think it makes lots of sense:
>
> 1) I often want to know how many mails are in my db. "notmuch count" or
> "notmuch count *" is the intuitive syntax I would use for that. Right
> now there is no way as far as I can see.

I use "notmuch count To" - not very intuitive, though.
 
> 2) Search terms filter out things. The empty search term stands
> therefore for all my mails. It is consistent to have the search term ''
> represent all my mail.

Actually, I'd like to disagree. A search argument of '' should get you a
help text. A search argument of '*' should give you all email.
 
> 3) I don't expect a help text for "notmuch count" just as I don't expect
> a help text for "notmuch log", we are very explicit about "notmuch help"
> and "notmuch help count" in many parts of our documentation.

My main concern here is that once you have a gazzillion emails, typing
notmuch search with no argument over a slow link (or using it from
within a gui by mistake) could really cause a lot of unnecessary compute
/ data transfer. So I'd rather have a special character be the one that
triggers that behavior.

/D

-- 
Dirk Hohndel
Intel Open Source Technology Center