Add --min-len to drop trivially short matches #10

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opened 2026-09-19 16:33:42 +09:00 by natsukium · 0 comments

natsukium commented

2026-09-19 16:33:42 +09:00

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Summary

Add --min-len N: drop matches shorter than N display columns.

Why

A loose pattern is the intended dialect for presets ("permissive and best-effort … the goal is to
surface candidates a human then picks from", src/preset.rs), and the cost of that choice is the
occasional screenful of two-character matches which are never what you wanted — --preset sha on
a hex dump, --preset path on a log full of a/b.

kitty's hints guards this way (docs/research.md: "non-empty + min-len 3") and it is the cheapest
knob that makes a wide pattern usable without making the pattern itself stricter.

Notes

Filter after matching, before label assignment, so labels stay dense over the matches that
remain.
Length in display columns (the cells the match covers), not bytes, since everything else in
spoor is column-based.
Distinct from the zero-width guard in matcher::find_in_logical_row, which is mandatory and
already there; this is a user knob on top.

## Summary Add `--min-len N`: drop matches shorter than `N` display columns. ## Why A loose pattern is the intended dialect for presets ("permissive and best-effort … the goal is to surface candidates a human then picks from", `src/preset.rs`), and the cost of that choice is the occasional screenful of two-character matches which are never what you wanted — `--preset sha` on a hex dump, `--preset path` on a log full of `a/b`. kitty's hints guards this way (`docs/research.md`: "non-empty + min-len 3") and it is the cheapest knob that makes a wide pattern usable without making the pattern itself stricter. ## Notes - Filter after matching, before label assignment, so labels stay dense over the matches that remain. - Length in display columns (the cells the match covers), not bytes, since everything else in `spoor` is column-based. - Distinct from the zero-width guard in `matcher::find_in_logical_row`, which is mandatory and already there; this is a user knob on top.

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2026-09-19 16:34:34 +09:00