Add reference topic with search and scope info to search page docs
Description
There are 3 search types (basic, advanced, exact code search), 3 search levels (project, group, global) and multiple scopes (code, commits, wiki, issues, merge requests, milestones, users, epics, etc). Multiple settings and feature flags control when things are visible to the user when doing searches but this isn't documented well.
Proposal
create a reference topic in the main Searching in GitLab page
Basic search
| level | commit | code | wiki | notes | other scopes searchable (projects, issues, merge requests, milestones, users) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| global | no | no | no | no |
yes * can be disabled in application settings |
| group | no | no | no | no | yes |
| project | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
Advanced search
| level | limiting enabled |
advanced_global_search_for_limited_indexing feature flag setting |
code scopes searchable? | non-code scopes searchable? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| global | no |
yes * can be disabled in application settings |
yes * can be disabled in application settings |
|
| group | no | yes | yes | |
| project | no | yes | yes | |
| global | yes | disabled | no | yes |
| global | yes | enabled |
yes (in limited namespaces) * can be disabled in application settings |
yes (in limited namespaces) * can be disabled in application settings |
| group | yes | disabled / enabled | yes | yes |
| project | yes | disabled / enabled | yes | yes |
I don't think we should include a table about Zoekt on this page, there are a lot more feature flags and I'm not sure the below table captures them all.
Exact code search
| level |
advanced_global_search_for_limited_indexing feature flag setting |
zoekt_cross_namespace_search feature flag setting |
code searchable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| global | enabled | disabled | no |
| global | disabled | disabled | no |
| global | enabled | enabled |
yes * can be disabled in application settings |
| global | disabled | disabled | no |
| group | enabled/disabled | enabled/disabled | yes |
| project | enabled/disabled | enabled/disabled | yes |
The following discussion from !184946 (merged) should be addressed:
-
@terrichu started a discussion: (+10 comments) This was surprising to me. I traced it back to this check