dovecot - Feb 2013 - doveadm search not showing expected results

i'm running doveadm search:
>doveadm search -A mailbox sent savedbefore 365d
>
and it's returning no results.

a similar command does return some results:
>doveadm search -A mailbox sent savedbefore 120d | grep -iF 'jdoe'
jdoe 7b9a8b0b7d37504fe72c000055e4fe9a 65
jdoe 7b9a8b0b7d37504fe72c000055e4fe9a 66
jdoe 7b9a8b0b7d37504fe72c000055e4fe9a 67
jdoe 7b9a8b0b7d37504fe72c000055e4fe9a 68
jdoe 7b9a8b0b7d37504fe72c000055e4fe9a 69
jdoe 7b9a8b0b7d37504fe72c000055e4fe9a 70
jdoe 7b9a8b0b7d37504fe72c000055e4fe9a 71
jdoe 7b9a8b0b7d37504fe72c000055e4fe9a 72
jdoe 7b9a8b0b7d37504fe72c000055e4fe9a 73
jdoe 7b9a8b0b7d37504fe72c000055e4fe9a 74
[...]

however, i see many messages in the sent mailbox much older than 365 days:
>l ~jdoe/mail/Maildir/.sent/cur/
total 82M
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  411 Jul 12  2011
1310503747.M652859P14078.flip,S=411,W=423:2,S
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  515 Jul 12  2011
1310523810.M800998P5307.flip,S=515,W=530:2,Sgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 1.4K Jul 17  2011
1310922140.M604706P14587.flip,S=1339,W=1378:2,Sgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 2.7K Jul 17  2011
1310955899.M58727P3373.flip,S=2731,W=2814:2,Sgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 4.1K Jul 18  2011
1311032789.M471208P19367.flip,S=4162,W=4284:2,Sgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  451 Jul 22  2011
1311363858.M21157P19993.flip,S=451,W=464:2,Sgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  461 Jul 23  2011
1311436347.M315008P29267.flip,S=461,W=474:2,Sgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 1.6K Jul 26  2011
1311731312.M902135P25749.flip,S=1607,W=1655:2,Sgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  888 Jul 31  2011
1312161704.M81319P3943.flip,S=888,W=911:2,Sgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  676 Aug  4  2011
1312512384.M809375P3684.flip,S=676,W=692:2,Sgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  556 Aug  6  2011
1312669537.M999983P18243.flip,S=556,W=571:2,Sgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 1.8K Aug  7  2011
1312737844.M921026P22678.flip,S=1769,W=1817:2,RSgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 2.5K Aug  8  2011
1312842718.M632088P24434.flip,S=2489,W=2559:2,Sgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 2.3K Aug 10  2011
1312997501.M29900P8705.flip,S=2254,W=2306:2,RSghi
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 1.2K Aug 10  2011
1312998375.M806199P8705.flip,S=1200,W=1223:2,S
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 2.8K Aug 10  2011
1312998687.M179687P8705.flip,S=2857,W=2931:2,S
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 1.9K Aug 10  2011
1313017076.M909199P8264.flip,S=1889,W=1941:2,Sgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 2.8K Aug 12  2011
1313172631.M470122P23201.flip,S=2822,W=2895:2,RSgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 3.3K Aug 16  2011
1313502988.M870415P19669.flip,S=3333,W=3413:2,RSghi
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 3.4K Aug 16  2011
1313523978.M484997P19669.flip,S=3447,W=3534:2,S
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  939 Aug 16  2011
1313545488.M796759P21368.flip,S=939,W=968:2,Sgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 3.9K Aug 17  2011
1313600016.M183385P25953.flip,S=3989,W=4092:2,S
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 1.3K Aug 22  2011
1314028430.M280232P10201.flip,S=1291,W=1326:2,S
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  943 Aug 22  2011
1314067361.M643189P1408.flip,S=943,W=967:2,Sgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 1.1K Aug 23  2011
1314114645.M26643P14083.flip,S=1108,W=1142:2,S
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  932 Aug 24  2011
1314237640.M473097P22476.flip,S=932,W=954:2,Sgh
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 5.8K Sep  1  2011
1314900538.M22534P26553.flip,S=5851,W=5976:2,Sgh
[...]
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  423 Feb 17 13:00
1361124040.M492223P13245.xenon,S=423,W=436:2,Sab
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  423 Feb 17 13:02
1361124143.M127879P13245.xenon,S=423,W=436:2,Sab
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  412 Feb 17 14:13
1361128391.M812807P13644.xenon,S=412,W=425:2,Sab
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 1.6K Feb 18 21:12
1361239930.M525334P20966.xenon,S=1621,W=1660:2,Sab
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  422 Feb 19 20:53
1361325222.M901235P32184.xenon,S=422,W=435:2,Sab
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 1.8K Feb 19 21:06
1361325990.M129075P32180.xenon,S=1818,W=1864:2,Sab
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  424 Feb 19 21:13
1361326428.M381244P32180.xenon,S=424,W=437:2,Sab
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  424 Feb 19 21:22
1361326968.M84809P32180.xenon,S=424,W=437:2,Sab
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  424 Feb 19 21:24
1361327050.M328090P32180.xenon,S=424,W=437:2,Sab
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe  424 Feb 19 21:25
1361327139.M963578P32180.xenon,S=424,W=437:2,Sab
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 1.3K Feb 20 08:23
1361366627.M318860P22786.xenon,S=1230,W=1260:2,S
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 3.0K Feb 20 10:44
1361375042.M340353P5202.xenon,S=3019,W=3082:2,S
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 1.1K Feb 21 09:09
1361455754.M925454P13135.xenon,S=1025,W=1048:2,S
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 1.4K Feb 21 11:18
1361463526.M927071P13133.xenon,S=1344,W=1376:2,S
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 1.6K Feb 23 11:14
1361636078.M972572P18385.xenon,S=1636,W=1672:2,Sab
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 1.5K Feb 23 11:26
1361636803.M56491P18385.xenon,S=1490,W=1524:2,Sab
-rw------- 1 jdoe jdoe 2.2K Feb 24 14:25
1361733929.M725648P18385.xenon,S=2178,W=2229:2,Sab
>
i do see these older messages properly listed and viewable in my imap client. 
how can i figure out what i'm doing wrong, and troubleshoot why doveadm
doesn't seem to consider these message as matching?

thanks
-ben

On 25.2.2013, at 4.50, btb at bitrate.net wrote:
> i'm running doveadm search:
> 
>> doveadm search -A mailbox sent savedbefore 365d
>> 
> 
> and it's returning no results.
> 
> a similar command does return some results:
> 
>> doveadm search -A mailbox sent savedbefore 120d | grep -iF
'jdoe'
> jdoe 7b9a8b0b7d37504fe72c000055e4fe9a 65
> jdoe 7b9a8b0b7d37504fe72c000055e4fe9a 66
..
> 
> however, i see many messages in the sent mailbox much older than 365 days:
Note that Dovecot has 3 timestamps:

 * sent date : The Date: header
 * received date : In maildir the file's mtime
 * save date : In maildir either in dovecot.index.cache or the file's ctime

The idea behind save date is that it gets reset when message is copied to
another mailbox. (So e.g. if you want to delete all mails in Trash that were
saved there over one week ago, you wouldn't want them to be deleted
immediately because the message was received 2 years ago.)
> i do see these older messages properly listed and viewable in my imap
client.  how can i figure out what i'm doing wrong, and troubleshoot why
doveadm doesn't seem to consider these message as matching?
Look at their save dates:

doveadm fetch -u jdoe 'date.save' all

If you want to search by received date, use "before" instead of
"savedbefore".