Code Change Report

File: PDFsearch.py Function: search(), phrase-mode ("literal") branch Line: 334 (pre-fix) Change type: One-line logic fix, no structural/interface change

Diff

--- PDFsearch.py (before)
+++ PDFsearch.py (after)
@@ -331,7 +331,7 @@
                 if _is_wildcard(pw):
                     matched_keys = _matching_words(pw, word_index)
                 else:
-                    matched_keys = [pw] if pw in word_index else []
+                    matched_keys = folded_index.get(pw.lower(), [])
                 pages = set()
                 for w in matched_keys:
                     pages.update(tuple(m) for m in word_index.get(w, []))

What changed

Phrase-mode's plain-word (non-wildcard) lookup now folds through the same case-insensitive folded_index mechanism that word-mode search already uses, instead of doing a raw case-sensitive exact-key check against word_index directly.

What did NOT change

• Wildcard handling inside phrase mode (_matching_words(pw, word_index)) — untouched, already case-insensitive via fnmatch/.lower().
• Word-mode search — untouched, was already correct.
• _build_folded_index(), tokenise(), _matching_words(), _is_wildcard() — untouched.
• Index files (word_index_pdf.json, pdf_store.json) — untouched; this is a query-side fix only, no re-indexing required.
• No change to function signatures, return types, or any external interface. Safe to hot-swap the file without a Package Manager reinstall (per existing project convention: pure logic changes inside an already-registered function can be overwritten directly; only hook registration changes need reinstall — not applicable here since this is a standalone Python script, not an SMF mod).

Behavioral consequence worth flagging

This makes phrase-mode search case-insensitive across the board, matching word-mode's existing behavior. True case-sensitive phrase matching was not actually possible against this index even before this fix's intent — the index itself has been lowercase-only since PDFIndexer.py's case-folding was introduced; the old code's apparent case-sensitivity was a non-functional artifact (it could only ever match an already-lowercase quoted phrase), not a real, working feature being removed.

Verification performed

See Problem & Resolution Report for full test detail (test_phrase_bug.py). Patched file confirmed to compile cleanly (python3 -m py_compile) with no syntax errors introduced.

Deployment status

• [x] Fix written and verified in isolated test harness
• [x] Fix applied to a patched copy of the uploaded file
• [x] Patched file compiles cleanly
• [ ] Not yet deployed to Dev
• [ ] Not yet deployed to Live
• [ ] MiscSearch.py / posts-search not yet checked for the same pattern (see Risk Analysis Report)