[Xapian-discuss] Random results for the same query

[Olly Betts]

On Mon, Aug 13, 2007 at 02:57:17PM +0200, Steije van Schelt wrote:
> I'm experiencing weird behaviour with the search results from Xapian.
> 
> For example, when I search for 'php' in the database I made (about
> 4.000.000 documents, 12 gb in size) I get about 562 results. When I
> change the offset in the TOPDOC argument in Omega to 20, I get 592
> results (and so on and so on...).
> 
> I've been searching the mailing list, the only post I found about it was:
> 
> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.search.xapian.general/2329
> 
> The weird thing is that if I disable all extra boolean terms (as stated
> in the discussion above) I get the same behaviour.

That sounds wrong.  A single term query should give an exact number of
results.  If the term "php" occurs in 562 documents, then exactly 562
documents will match a query for "php".

> I've never experienced this before, it just occured today. Is my
> database corrupt or is there something weird going on in Xapian?

It's hard to say what's happening from the information given.

What are the CGI parameters for the two searches you mention above?

If you add $querydescription to your query template, what does it show
the query to be?

Cheers,
    Olly