[WIP] lib: regexp matching in 'subject' and 'from'

David Bremner david at tethera.net
Fri Jan 20 19:27:52 PST 2017


the idea is that you can run

% notmuch search subject:<your-favourite-regexp>
% notmuch search from:<your-favourite-regexp>'

or

% notmuch search subject:"your usual phrase search"
% notmuch search from:"usual phrase search"

The heuristic to decide how to interepret the query is based on a
regex, roughly [a-z -]+

This should also work with bindings, since it extends the query parser.

This is trivial to extend for other value slots, but currently the only
value slots are date, message_id, from, subject, and last_mod. Date is
already searchable, and message_id is not obviously useful to regex
match.

This was originally written by Austin Clements, and ported to Xapian
field processors (from Austin's custom query parser) by yours truly.
---

It turns out to be not as hard as I thought to have the same field
interpreted as a regex search and as a regular xapian phrase search.
I haven't fixed the tests and docs yet because I'm not sure about the
best UI to trigger the regex search. Currently it just guesses based
on the string, but this has some surprising effects for
notmuch-address (hence the test breakage). Maybe from:/regex/ although
the quoting means this would look like from:"/regex/"

 doc/man7/notmuch-search-terms.rst |  17 ++++-
 lib/Makefile.local                |   1 +
 lib/database-private.h            |   2 +
 lib/database.cc                   |  29 +++++++-
 lib/regexp-fields.cc              | 142 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 lib/regexp-fields.h               |  81 ++++++++++++++++++++++
 test/T630-regexp-query.sh         |  82 ++++++++++++++++++++++
 7 files changed, 350 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 lib/regexp-fields.cc
 create mode 100644 lib/regexp-fields.h
 create mode 100755 test/T630-regexp-query.sh

diff --git a/doc/man7/notmuch-search-terms.rst b/doc/man7/notmuch-search-terms.rst
index de93d733..8800039d 100644
--- a/doc/man7/notmuch-search-terms.rst
+++ b/doc/man7/notmuch-search-terms.rst
@@ -60,6 +60,8 @@ indicate user-supplied values):
 
 -  property:<key>=<value>
 
+- re_{subject,from}:<regex>
+
 The **from:** prefix is used to match the name or address of the sender
 of an email message.
 
@@ -146,6 +148,12 @@ The **property:** prefix searches for messages with a particular
 (and extensions) to add metadata to messages. A given key can be
 present on a given message with several different values.
 
+The **re_from:** and **re_subject** prefix can be used to restrict the
+results to those whose from/subject value matches the given regular
+expression (see **regex(7)**). Regular expression searches are only
+available if notmuch is built with **Xapian Field Processors** (see
+below).
+
 Operators
 ---------
 
@@ -220,13 +228,19 @@ Boolean and Probabilistic Prefixes
 ----------------------------------
 
 Xapian (and hence notmuch) prefixes are either **boolean**, supporting
-exact matches like "tag:inbox"  or **probabilistic**, supporting a more flexible **term** based searching. The prefixes currently supported by notmuch are as follows.
+exact matches like "tag:inbox" or **probabilistic**, supporting a more
+flexible **term** based searching. Certain **special** prefixes are
+processed by notmuch in a way not stricly fitting either of Xapian's
+built in styles. The prefixes currently supported by notmuch are as
+follows.
 
 
 Boolean
    **tag:**, **id:**, **thread:**, **folder:**, **path:**, **property:**
 Probabilistic
    **from:**, **to:**, **subject:**, **attachment:**, **mimetype:**
+Special
+   **query:**, **re:<field>**
 
 Terms and phrases
 -----------------
@@ -396,6 +410,7 @@ Currently the following features require field processor support:
 
 - non-range date queries, e.g. "date:today"
 - named queries e.g. "query:my_special_query"
+- regular expression searches, e.g. "re:subject:^\\[SPAM\\]"
 
 SEE ALSO
 ========
diff --git a/lib/Makefile.local b/lib/Makefile.local
index b77e5780..ff812b5f 100644
--- a/lib/Makefile.local
+++ b/lib/Makefile.local
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ libnotmuch_cxx_srcs =		\
 	$(dir)/query.cc		\
 	$(dir)/query-fp.cc      \
 	$(dir)/config.cc	\
+	$(dir)/regexp-fields.cc     \
 	$(dir)/thread.cc
 
 libnotmuch_modules := $(libnotmuch_c_srcs:.c=.o) $(libnotmuch_cxx_srcs:.cc=.o)
diff --git a/lib/database-private.h b/lib/database-private.h
index ccc1e9a1..9f5659a9 100644
--- a/lib/database-private.h
+++ b/lib/database-private.h
@@ -190,6 +190,8 @@ struct _notmuch_database {
 #if HAVE_XAPIAN_FIELD_PROCESSOR
     Xapian::FieldProcessor *date_field_processor;
     Xapian::FieldProcessor *query_field_processor;
+    Xapian::FieldProcessor *from_field_processor;
+    Xapian::FieldProcessor *subject_field_processor;
 #endif
     Xapian::ValueRangeProcessor *last_mod_range_processor;
 };
diff --git a/lib/database.cc b/lib/database.cc
index 2d19f20c..8a9ad251 100644
--- a/lib/database.cc
+++ b/lib/database.cc
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 #include "database-private.h"
 #include "parse-time-vrp.h"
 #include "query-fp.h"
+#include "regexp-fields.h"
 #include "string-util.h"
 
 #include <iostream>
@@ -272,12 +273,16 @@ static prefix_t BOOLEAN_PREFIX_EXTERNAL[] = {
     { "folder",			"XFOLDER:" },
 };
 
-static prefix_t PROBABILISTIC_PREFIX[]= {
+static prefix_t REGEX_PREFIX[]= {
     { "from",			"XFROM" },
+    { "subject",		"XSUBJECT"},
+};
+
+static prefix_t PROBABILISTIC_PREFIX[]= {
+
     { "to",			"XTO" },
     { "attachment",		"XATTACHMENT" },
     { "mimetype",		"XMIMETYPE"},
-    { "subject",		"XSUBJECT"},
 };
 
 const char *
@@ -295,6 +300,11 @@ _find_prefix (const char *name)
 	    return BOOLEAN_PREFIX_EXTERNAL[i].prefix;
     }
 
+    for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE (REGEX_PREFIX); i++) {
+	if (strcmp (name, REGEX_PREFIX[i].name) == 0)
+	    return REGEX_PREFIX[i].prefix;
+    }
+
     for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE (PROBABILISTIC_PREFIX); i++) {
 	if (strcmp (name, PROBABILISTIC_PREFIX[i].name) == 0)
 	    return PROBABILISTIC_PREFIX[i].prefix;
@@ -1042,6 +1052,10 @@ notmuch_database_open_verbose (const char *path,
 	notmuch->query_parser->add_boolean_prefix("date", notmuch->date_field_processor);
 	notmuch->query_field_processor = new QueryFieldProcessor (*notmuch->query_parser, notmuch);
 	notmuch->query_parser->add_boolean_prefix("query", notmuch->query_field_processor);
+	notmuch->from_field_processor = new RegexpFieldProcessor ("from", *notmuch->query_parser, notmuch);
+	notmuch->subject_field_processor = new RegexpFieldProcessor ("subject", *notmuch->query_parser, notmuch);
+	notmuch->query_parser->add_boolean_prefix("from", notmuch->from_field_processor);
+	notmuch->query_parser->add_boolean_prefix("subject", notmuch->subject_field_processor);
 #endif
 	notmuch->last_mod_range_processor = new Xapian::NumberValueRangeProcessor (NOTMUCH_VALUE_LAST_MOD, "lastmod:");
 
@@ -1058,7 +1072,12 @@ notmuch_database_open_verbose (const char *path,
 	    notmuch->query_parser->add_boolean_prefix (prefix->name,
 						       prefix->prefix);
 	}
-
+#if !HAVE_XAPIAN_FIELD_PROCESSOR
+	for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE (REGEX_PREFIX); i++) {
+	    prefix_t *prefix = &REGEX_PREFIX[i];
+	    notmuch->query_parser->add_prefix (prefix->name, prefix->prefix);
+	}
+#endif
 	for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE (PROBABILISTIC_PREFIX); i++) {
 	    prefix_t *prefix = &PROBABILISTIC_PREFIX[i];
 	    notmuch->query_parser->add_prefix (prefix->name, prefix->prefix);
@@ -1138,6 +1157,10 @@ notmuch_database_close (notmuch_database_t *notmuch)
     notmuch->date_field_processor = NULL;
     delete notmuch->query_field_processor;
     notmuch->query_field_processor = NULL;
+    delete notmuch->from_field_processor;
+    notmuch->from_field_processor = NULL;
+    delete notmuch->subject_field_processor;
+    notmuch->subject_field_processor = NULL;
 #endif
 
     return status;
diff --git a/lib/regexp-fields.cc b/lib/regexp-fields.cc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b67daf06
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/regexp-fields.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
+/* regexp-fields.cc - field processor glue for regex supporting fields
+ *
+ * This file is part of notmuch.
+ *
+ * Copyright © 2015 Austin Clements
+ * Copyright © 2016 David Bremner
+ *
+ * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with this program.  If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/ .
+ *
+ * Author: Austin Clements <aclements at csail.mit.edu>
+ *                David Bremner <david at tethera.net>
+ */
+
+#include "regexp-fields.h"
+#include "notmuch-private.h"
+#include "database-private.h"
+
+#if HAVE_XAPIAN_FIELD_PROCESSOR
+static void
+compile_regex (regex_t &regexp, const char *str)
+{
+    int err = regcomp (&regexp, str, REG_EXTENDED | REG_NOSUB);
+
+    if (err != 0) {
+	size_t len = regerror (err, &regexp, NULL, 0);
+	char *buffer = new char[len];
+	std::string msg;
+	(void) regerror (err, &regexp, buffer, len);
+	msg.assign (buffer, len);
+	delete buffer;
+
+	throw Xapian::QueryParserError (msg);
+
+    }
+}
+
+RegexpPostingSource::RegexpPostingSource (Xapian::valueno slot, const std::string &regexp)
+    : slot_ (slot)
+{
+
+    compile_regex (regexp_, regexp.c_str ());
+}
+
+RegexpPostingSource::~RegexpPostingSource ()
+{
+    regfree (&regexp_);
+}
+
+void
+RegexpPostingSource::init (const Xapian::Database &db)
+{
+    db_ = db;
+    it_ = db_.valuestream_begin (slot_);
+    end_ = db.valuestream_end (slot_);
+    started_ = false;
+}
+
+Xapian::doccount
+RegexpPostingSource::get_termfreq_min () const
+{
+    return 0;
+}
+
+Xapian::doccount
+RegexpPostingSource::get_termfreq_est () const
+{
+    return get_termfreq_max () / 2;
+}
+
+Xapian::doccount
+RegexpPostingSource::get_termfreq_max () const
+{
+    return db_.get_value_freq (slot_);
+}
+
+Xapian::docid
+RegexpPostingSource::get_docid () const
+{
+    return it_.get_docid ();
+}
+
+bool
+RegexpPostingSource::at_end () const
+{
+    return it_ == end_;
+}
+
+void
+RegexpPostingSource::next (unused (double min_wt))
+{
+    if (started_ && ! at_end ())
+	++it_;
+    started_ = true;
+
+    for (; ! at_end (); ++it_) {
+	std::string value = *it_;
+	if (regexec (&regexp_, value.c_str (), 0, NULL, 0) == 0)
+	    break;
+    }
+}
+
+static inline Xapian::valueno _find_slot (std::string prefix)
+{
+    if (prefix == "from")
+	return NOTMUCH_VALUE_FROM;
+    else if (prefix == "subject")
+	return NOTMUCH_VALUE_SUBJECT;
+    else
+	throw Xapian::QueryParserError ("unsupported regexp field '" + prefix + "'");
+}
+
+RegexpFieldProcessor::RegexpFieldProcessor (std::string prefix, Xapian::QueryParser &parser_, notmuch_database_t *notmuch_)
+	: slot(_find_slot (prefix)), term_prefix(_find_prefix (prefix.c_str ())), parser(parser_), notmuch(notmuch_)
+{
+    compile_regex (phrase_regex, phrase_regex_str);
+};
+
+Xapian::Query
+RegexpFieldProcessor::operator() (const std::string & str)
+{
+    if (regexec (&phrase_regex, str.c_str (), 0, NULL, 0) == 0){
+	return parser.parse_query (str, NOTMUCH_QUERY_PARSER_FLAGS, term_prefix);
+    } else {
+	if (postings)
+	    delete postings;
+
+	postings = new RegexpPostingSource (slot, str);
+	return Xapian::Query (postings);
+    }
+}
+#endif
diff --git a/lib/regexp-fields.h b/lib/regexp-fields.h
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d58ee7c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/regexp-fields.h
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+/* regex-fields.h - xapian glue for semi-bruteforce regexp search
+ *
+ * This file is part of notmuch.
+ *
+ * Copyright © 2015 Austin Clements
+ * Copyright © 2016 David Bremner
+ *
+ * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with this program.  If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/ .
+ *
+ * Author: Austin Clements <aclements at csail.mit.edu>
+ *                David Bremner <david at tethera.net>
+ */
+
+#ifndef NOTMUCH_REGEXP_FIELDS_H
+#define NOTMUCH_REGEXP_FIELDS_H
+#if HAVE_XAPIAN_FIELD_PROCESSOR
+#include <sys/types.h>
+#include <regex.h>
+#include <xapian.h>
+#include "notmuch-private.h"
+
+/* A posting source that returns documents where a value matches a
+ * regexp.
+ */
+class RegexpPostingSource : public Xapian::PostingSource
+{
+ protected:
+    const Xapian::valueno slot_;
+    regex_t regexp_;
+    Xapian::Database db_;
+    bool started_;
+    Xapian::ValueIterator it_, end_;
+
+/* No copying */
+    RegexpPostingSource (const RegexpPostingSource &);
+    RegexpPostingSource &operator= (const RegexpPostingSource &);
+
+ public:
+    RegexpPostingSource (Xapian::valueno slot, const std::string &regexp);
+    ~RegexpPostingSource ();
+    void init (const Xapian::Database &db);
+    Xapian::doccount get_termfreq_min () const;
+    Xapian::doccount get_termfreq_est () const;
+    Xapian::doccount get_termfreq_max () const;
+    Xapian::docid get_docid () const;
+    bool at_end () const;
+    void next (unused (double min_wt));
+};
+
+
+class RegexpFieldProcessor : public Xapian::FieldProcessor {
+ protected:
+    Xapian::valueno slot;
+    std::string term_prefix;
+    Xapian::QueryParser &parser;
+    notmuch_database_t *notmuch;
+    RegexpPostingSource *postings = NULL;
+
+    const char *phrase_regex_str="^[[:lower:][:digit:][:blank:]-]+$";
+    regex_t phrase_regex;
+
+ public:
+    RegexpFieldProcessor (std::string prefix, Xapian::QueryParser &parser_, notmuch_database_t *notmuch_);
+
+    ~RegexpFieldProcessor () { delete postings; regfree (&phrase_regex); };
+
+    Xapian::Query operator()(const std::string & str);
+};
+#endif
+#endif /* NOTMUCH_REGEXP_FIELDS_H */
diff --git a/test/T630-regexp-query.sh b/test/T630-regexp-query.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..eba4670f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/T630-regexp-query.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+test_description='regular expression searches'
+. ./test-lib.sh || exit 1
+
+add_email_corpus
+
+
+if [ $NOTMUCH_HAVE_XAPIAN_FIELD_PROCESSOR -eq 1 ]; then
+
+    notmuch search --output=messages from:cworth > cworth.msg-ids
+
+    test_begin_subtest "regexp from search, case sensitive"
+    notmuch search --output=messages from::^carl > OUTPUT
+    test_expect_equal_file /dev/null OUTPUT
+
+    test_begin_subtest "empty regexp or query"
+    notmuch search --output=messages from::carl or from:cworth > OUTPUT
+    test_expect_equal_file cworth.msg-ids OUTPUT
+
+    test_begin_subtest "non-empty regexp and query"
+    notmuch search  from:cworth at cworth.org and subject:patch > OUTPUT
+    cat <<EOF > EXPECTED
+thread:0000000000000008   2009-11-18 [1/2] Carl Worth| Alex Botero-Lowry; [notmuch] [PATCH] Error out if no query is supplied to search instead of going into an infinite loop (attachment inbox unread)
+thread:0000000000000007   2009-11-18 [1/2] Carl Worth| Ingmar Vanhassel; [notmuch] [PATCH] Typsos (inbox unread)
+thread:0000000000000018   2009-11-18 [1/2] Carl Worth| Jan Janak; [notmuch] [PATCH] Older versions of install do not support -C. (inbox unread)
+thread:0000000000000017   2009-11-18 [1/2] Carl Worth| Keith Packard; [notmuch] [PATCH] Make notmuch-show 'X' (and 'x') commands remove inbox (and unread) tags (inbox unread)
+thread:0000000000000014   2009-11-18 [2/5] Carl Worth| Mikhail Gusarov, Keith Packard; [notmuch] [PATCH 1/2] Close message file after parsing message headers (inbox unread)
+thread:0000000000000001   2009-11-18 [1/1] Stewart Smith; [notmuch] [PATCH] Fix linking with gcc to use g++ to link in C++ libs. (inbox unread)
+EOF
+    test_expect_equal_file EXPECTED OUTPUT
+
+    test_begin_subtest "regexp from search, duplicate term search"
+    notmuch search --output=messages from:cworth > OUTPUT
+    test_expect_equal_file cworth.msg-ids OUTPUT
+
+    test_begin_subtest "long enough regexp matches only desired senders"
+    notmuch search --output=messages 'from:"C.* Wo"' > OUTPUT
+    test_expect_equal_file cworth.msg-ids OUTPUT
+
+    test_begin_subtest "shorter regexp matches one more sender"
+    notmuch search --output=messages 'from:"C.* W"' > OUTPUT
+    (echo id:1258544095-16616-1-git-send-email-chris at chris-wilson.co.uk ; cat cworth.msg-ids) > EXPECTED
+    test_expect_equal_file EXPECTED OUTPUT
+
+    test_begin_subtest "regexp subject search, non-ASCII"
+    notmuch search --output=messages subject:accentué > OUTPUT
+    echo id:877h1wv7mg.fsf at inf-8657.int-evry.fr > EXPECTED
+    test_expect_equal_file EXPECTED OUTPUT
+
+    test_begin_subtest "regexp subject search, punctuation"
+    notmuch search   subject:\'X\' > OUTPUT
+    cat <<EOF > EXPECTED
+thread:0000000000000017   2009-11-18 [2/2] Keith Packard, Carl Worth; [notmuch] [PATCH] Make notmuch-show 'X' (and 'x') commands remove inbox (and unread) tags (inbox unread)
+EOF
+    test_expect_equal_file EXPECTED OUTPUT
+
+    test_begin_subtest "regexp subject search, no punctuation"
+    notmuch search  subject:X > OUTPUT
+    cat <<EOF > EXPECTED
+thread:0000000000000017   2009-11-18 [2/2] Keith Packard, Carl Worth; [notmuch] [PATCH] Make notmuch-show 'X' (and 'x') commands remove inbox (and unread) tags (inbox unread)
+thread:000000000000000f   2009-11-18 [4/4] Jjgod Jiang, Alexander Botero-Lowry; [notmuch] Mac OS X/Darwin compatibility issues (inbox unread)
+EOF
+    test_expect_equal_file EXPECTED OUTPUT
+
+    test_begin_subtest "combine regexp from and subject"
+    notmuch search  subject:-C and from:.an.k > OUTPUT
+    cat <<EOF > EXPECTED
+thread:0000000000000018   2009-11-17 [1/2] Jan Janak| Carl Worth; [notmuch] [PATCH] Older versions of install do not support -C. (inbox unread)
+EOF
+    test_expect_equal_file EXPECTED OUTPUT
+
+    test_begin_subtest "regexp error reporting"
+    notmuch search 'from:unbalanced[' 1>OUTPUT 2>&1
+    cat <<EOF > EXPECTED
+notmuch search: A Xapian exception occurred
+A Xapian exception occurred performing query: Invalid regular expression
+Query string was: from:unbalanced[
+EOF
+    test_expect_equal_file EXPECTED OUTPUT
+fi
+
+test_done
-- 
2.11.0



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