On Thu, 13 Jun 2002 16:07:13 +0300, Lefteris Chatzibarbas wrote: > What would be the recommended format of the SEARCH command that > would be generated from the user's filter in order for it to scale > and be able to handle 50,100 or 500 searching criteria?
In a worst-case situation, you can always break it up into multiple SEARCH commands and collect the results. OR type searching is, after all, cumulative. I would draw the line at some level where the search is complex, but not ridiculously so (e.g. depth of 10 or 20), and would take enough time that the RTT cost of doing multiple SEARCH commands isn't that much of a concern. The problem with sending an arbitrarily complex SEARCH is just that; it is arbitrarily complex, and the chances of encountering a bug or server limitation increases with complexity. Quite frankly, when I set the nesting depth limit to 50, I thought "this is much more than any sane person would ever use"! :-) UW imapd is capable of handling something much more complex than that, but I had to establish a limit to prevent abuse/hack/denial of service type activity. I could set the limit higher, but it seems to me that any limit is likely to run up against a problem (the 50,100 criteria problem) and no limit is likely to open a abuse/hack/denial of service.
