Re: [PATCH v3 0/2] docs: advanced search with benchmark harness

[Randy Dunlap]

On 4/9/26 2:04 AM, Rito Rhymes wrote:
>> I like it. I think it's useful -- the old search could give a bit too
>> much output. The search result tabs (groups) are helpful.
> 
> Thanks for taking the time to test it out again and give feedback.
> I'm glad you see potential utility for it.
> 
>> I mostly use 'grep' for searching Documentation/ and I expect lots
>> of other developers also do that (if they bother to look).
> 
> That's definitely what I expect kernel hackers to default to.
> 
> I'd like to get a clearer sense of your perspective, it may represent
> others too, and I can weigh it against my own assumptions here.
> 
> So my question framed for you is:
> 
> You know a particular concept you want to look up, but you do not know
> the exact file, and related words repeat a lot across the source.
> 
> Could you imagine yourself going through grep results, not quickly
> finding what you need, burning mental bandwidth and then deciding:
> "let me just go on docs.kernel.org real quick, hit the advanced search,
> and see what I find"?
> 
> Is that something you could actually see ever happening?

It would take a while for me to give up on grep, but eventually
I could see using Advanced Search - but not quickly.

> Maybe even, in that type of situation, eventually defaulting to that
> mode first to avoid spending time scanning through noisy grep results.

That would only come after several cases where Adv. Search proved to
be more useful than grep.

> Or is grep and staying in the terminal a comfortable enough place to
> remain even when the results are not very fruitful and the time spent
> there is not especially efficient?

Nice characterization :)
But yes, grep + terminal will remain the default for now.

> Or does that situation just not come up often enough to justify a
> separate mental workflow for it outside the grep norm?

For me it probably does not.

>> I do notice under the Pages tab that all of the pages listed say
>> "Summary unavailable." I don't know what should be there instead of
>> that message.
> 
> It's supposed to be populated with an excerpt from the page related
> to the search criterion; 2-3 lines of text or so.
> 
> I encountered that same issue after an incremental rebuild, doing a
> full rebuild fixed it.
> 
> Could you please confirm if it works after a full rebuild?

Same result for me - Summary unavailable.

-- 
~Randy