Cyrus 2.4 IMAP SEARCH

[David Carter]

We have just finished migrating from Cyrus 2.3 to Cyrus 2.4. One of my 
users (almost the last to be moved!) spotted a small change in behaviour:

  Cyrus 2.3:

    . SEARCH SUBJECT ""
    * SEARCH 1 2 3 ... 3873                  <-- long list of messages
    . OK Completed (3869 msgs in 0.000 secs)


  Cyrus 2.4:

    . SEARCH SUBJECT ""
    * SEARCH                                 <-- empty list of messages
    . OK Completed (0 msgs in 0.030 secs)

The user was just trying to cancel an existing search. I have suggested a 
more efficient approach in their mail client (Mulberry 4.0.8).

RFC 3501, section 6.4.4 "SEARCH Command" says:

    In all search keys that use strings, a message matches the key if
    the string is a substring of the field.  The matching is
    case-insensitive.

and I guess "" is strictly speaking a substring of all other strings.

Was this a deliberate change or just a consequence of the search engine 
being reworked in 2.4? I don't imagine that it is a very common problem.

-- 
David Carter                             Email: David.Carter at ucs.cam.ac.uk
University Computing Service,            Phone: (01223) 334502
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street,       Fax:   (01223) 334679
Cambridge UK. CB2 3QH.