[chef] Knife search recipe and recipes results

[Alfredo Palhares < >]

Hello Chefs,

$ knife search node "recipe:nagios\:\:server"
0 items found

$ knife search node "recipes:nagios\:\:server"
1 items found

Node Name:   nagios-new.sbni.com
Environment: production
FQDN:        nagios-new.sbni.com
IP:          10.0.0.65
Run List:    role[monitoring], role[munin_server], recipe[sshd::default], 
recipe[monit::nagios]
Roles:       monitoring, munin_server, base, nagios_client
Recipes:     apache2::default, network::default, nagios::server, 
nagios::campfire, nagios::pagerduty, monit::default, bashfire::default, 
monit::nagios, graphite_handler::default, ubuntu::default, 
build-essential::default, base_packages::default, openssl::default, 
chef::client, chef::notifiers, chef::delete_validation, users::sysadmins, 
users::root_users, sudo::default, git::default, munin::client, 
monit::chef_client, logrotate::default, resolver::default, sshd::default, 
tmux, vox_motd, static_routes::to_vpc, monit, monit::nrpe, nagios::client, 
munin::server, munin::f5, sbn_monitoring, nagios::check_latency_from_graphite
Platform:    ubuntu 10.04
Tags:        

$ knife search node "recipe:icinga\:\:server"
1 items found

Node Name:   icinga.vm
Environment: _default
FQDN:        icinga.vm
IP:          10.0.2.15
Run List:    recipe[apt], recipe[apache2], recipe[icinga::client], 
recipe[icinga::server]
Roles:       
Recipes:     apt, apache2, icinga::client, icinga::server
Platform:    ubuntu 12.04
Tags:        

$ knife search node "recipes:icinga\:\:server"

I was aware that the recipe tag would only return recipes that are explicit 
in the run list. 
But i was not aware that recipes would not return recipes that are in the run 
list. I always assumed 
recipes would return all the recipes, since knife node show shows the recipes 
that are explicit in
the run list in the recipes tag.
The obvious fix is use using recipe*:recipename.

My question is. Why does this behave like this ? In an design perspective. I 
dont see any advantages.
Only confusion to what may lead to bad results. Specially if its in 3am and 
you are waked up by
pagerduty and you run run a knife ssh that does not cover all the machines 
you need.

PS: Does this apply to role and roles tag too ?

--
Regards,
Alfredo Palhares