"Exact search" under syntax options can be confusing to users without zoekt

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Background

We have a View syntax options drawer that expands and shows some syntax options for advanced search. One of the options is exact search which can easily be conflated with the capabilities of Zoekt enabled instances. This is especially true for SM and dedicated customers. A user might use this syntax expecting one thing, but get limited use because of the current ES limitations. In our documentation we also call out:

Advanced search uses simple_query_string, which supports both exact and fuzzy queries.

This is a bit confusing from the exact code search capabilities, so maybe we can differentiate and clarify not only in our UI, but in the docs what one can expect. We don't list the limitations under known issues but maybe we should also add that some exact matching is limited to zoekt blob search only.

Proposal

  • Update the UI view syntax options to add more clarity on exact search limitations
  • Update our docs to add more clarity on exact search limitations
Edited by 🤖 GitLab Bot 🤖