skim exact-search modifier has no effect in TUI

[nh2]

In https://atuin.sh/docs/config/#search_mode it says that search_mode = skim enables skim search syntax.

According to that table, 'wild should do an exact-match search (similar to how exact-match for atuin's own fuzzy search).

But it does not work in the interactive TUI window:

• When search_mode = skim is on, searching for 'wild in the interactive GUI will search for commands that contain a single quote '.

I observed:

• This issue is specific to search_mode = skim; it works as expected in search_mode = fuzzy.
• The non-TUI search, atuin search "'sshfs", returns the expected results for search_mode = skim.
• On atuin 14.0.1.

Screenshot of the issue, showing that atuin search finds something that the interactive search does not find, when search_mode = skim is used:

Screenshot showing absence of the issue with search_mode = fuzzy:

So I suspect that when the interactive TUI window is open, the entered string is passed verbatim to skim, instead of treating ' as the exact-match modifier.

[conradludgate]

The table is documentation for the fuzzy search only. For non interactive, we fallback to fuzzy on the skim setting. I'm not sure if we're keeping skim search mode yet, so it's expected to not be 100% good

[nh2]

The table is documentation for the fuzzy search only

What I'm referring to is that the docs say:

"skim" applies the skim search syntax.

If one clicks that link, one gets skim's own table, which says that 'wild has a specific meaning; so one would expect that meaning to show up.

---

For non interactive, we fallback to fuzzy on the skim setting.

Ah, so you're saying that for CLI atuin search, skim is not involved at all, not matter what setting. That would be very useful to explain in the docs.

[LeoniePhiline]

For me, with atuin 16.0.0, skim mode also does not work at all. In the TUI, the skim search syntax has no effect on the search results; special chars like ' and ^ are searched verbatim.

[injust]

I'm testing search_mode = "skim" on version 18.3.0. I'm not sure what it's doing, but it doesn't seem to follow the skim search syntax at all:

• ^git gives me git diff HEAD^ and other commands that have a literal ^
• git | ls gives me git config -l | grep alias and other commands with a literal |, instead of everything that has git or ls
• Previous posts in this issue mention that 'wild doesn't work either.

Unless we're all using it incorrectly, it seems like the skim search mode just...doesn't work.

Given https://forum.atuin.sh/t/is-skim-just-bad/279/8:

One of the biggest issues with Skim is that it cannot work incrementally on our history DB and has to index the whole thing on startup. Due to this, it really is unlikely to see any more development or focus, and is likely to be deprecated soon.

I’d really just suggest that you stick with fuzzy.

Maybe it ought to be deprecated?