iCalBuddy omits results which are in range

[porg]

Reproduction

Version: iCalBuddy 1.10.1 on macOS 11.2.1

• My use case for iCalBuddy is: "How many events do I have in calendar X in total?"
• So my query is simply: icalBuddy -ic "calX" eventsFrom:2000 to:2030 | egrep "^• " | wc -l
• Explanation/intent behind my query:
  • Querying from very early in the past to very early in the future as a "catch all" syntax for easy re-use.
  • egrep with a RegEx that matches only event titles by matching a bullet character only at the very line start, and not bullets somewhere else in event attributes.
  • wc -l counts the occurence

Expected

• This by itself should work reliable.
• Enlarging the query range should enlarge the event amount, until your range includes all events, from then on the amount stays the same, regardless how much further you extend the range.

Actual

• Strangely the amount of event results decreases if you enlarge the date range.
• The exact reason for the flaw is unclear to me but it seems that the more gaps (as in "periods without events") are included in your range, i.e. before the first event, the last event, or inbetween, the incorrectness of the results increases.

How I realized the bug

➜  ~ icalBuddy -ic "MyCal" eventsFrom:2019 to:2020 | egrep "^• " | wc -l
      35
➜  ~ icalBuddy -ic "MyCal" eventsFrom:2000 to:2030 | egrep "^• " | wc -l
       0 # How can that be? Maybe because it includes "too much future"?
➜  ~ icalBuddy -ic "MyCal" eventsFrom:2000 to:2020 | egrep "^• " | wc -l
       0 # Another try. No more future. Still zero. Strange…
➜  ~ icalBuddy -ic "MyCal" eventsFrom:2010 to:2020 | egrep "^• " | wc -l
      16 # Another try: Less past. Ok more.
         # But still less than the 35 results for just 2019-2020 
         # which is just a subset of 2010-2020! Very strange!
➜  ~ icalBuddy -ic "MyCal" eventsFrom:2012 to:2020 | egrep "^• " | wc -l
       9 # Ok seems plausible to get less if I narrow the range. (Ignoring the overall flaw ofc)
➜  ~ icalBuddy -ic "MyCal" eventsFrom:2011 to:2020 | egrep "^• " | wc -l
      16 # Let's now step by step go further back into the past with "eventsFrom".
➜  ~ icalBuddy -ic "MyCal" eventsFrom:2010 to:2020 | egrep "^• " | wc -l
      16
➜  ~ icalBuddy -ic "MyCal" eventsFrom:2009 to:2020 | egrep "^• " | wc -l
      30 # Here it reaches it's maximum.
➜  ~ icalBuddy -ic "MyCal" eventsFrom:2008 to:2020 | egrep "^• " | wc -l
      21 # And then it gets less, although I keep widening the range.
➜  ~ icalBuddy -ic "MyCal" eventsFrom:2007 to:2020 | egrep "^• " | wc -l
      14 # Turns out the first event in this calendar was from 2009.
➜  ~ icalBuddy -ic "MyCal" eventsFrom:2006 to:2020 | egrep "^• " | wc -l
      14 # The flawed logic seems to be: The more "emptiness your query range contains, the fewer results.
➜  ~ icalBuddy -ic "MyCal" eventsFrom:2005 to:2020 | egrep "^• " | wc -l
       0 # Until being totally zero.

Turns out to be reproducible with sample calendar

• I did want to reproduce this, so I created a new empty calendar, and filled it with some test events.
• In macOS Calendar in order to get a listing of all events of a particular calendar, there's a workaround:
  • Simply untick all calendars but the one to query and then search for "" (an empty string).
  • See attached sample calendar Test-iCalBuddy.ics.txt and a screenshot of it:

Again: Fewer results for larger ranges, simply not comprehensible.

➜  ~ icalBuddy -ic "Test-iCalBuddy" eventsFrom:2010 to:2011
• Test 2011-04-05 (Test-iCalBuddy)
    05.04.2011 at 10:00 - 11:00
    # 3 events actually in sample calendar, but iCalBuddy lists only 1.
➜  ~ icalBuddy -ic "Test-iCalBuddy" eventsFrom:2010 to:2012
• Test 2011-04-05 (Test-iCalBuddy)
    05.04.2011 at 10:00 - 11:00
   # Extending range. Should yield 3, still only yields 1.
➜  ~ icalBuddy -ic "Test-iCalBuddy" eventsFrom:2010-01-01 to:2012-12-31 # More explicit syntax
• Test 2010-01-06 (Test-iCalBuddy)
    06.01.2010 at 10:00 - 11:00
• Test 2010-03-03 (Test-iCalBuddy)
    03.03.2010 at 11:00 - 12:00
• Test 2011-04-05 (Test-iCalBuddy)
    05.04.2011 at 10:00 - 11:00
   # More explicit syntax, more results. This one is correct for once.
➜  ~ icalBuddy -ic "Test-iCalBuddy" eventsFrom:2010-01-01 to:2020-12-31
• Test 2010-01-06 (Test-iCalBuddy)
    06.01.2010 at 10:00 - 11:00
• Test 2010-03-03 (Test-iCalBuddy)
    03.03.2010 at 11:00 - 12:00
• Test 2011-04-05 (Test-iCalBuddy)
    05.04.2011 at 10:00 - 11:00
• Test 2013-04-09 (Test-iCalBuddy)
    09.04.2013 at 10:00 - 11:00
   # Extended range. Should yield 6 (even with roughest rounding), still only yields 4.
    # Results from 2017 and 2018 are omitted, although in range.

[porg]

Until iCalBuddy works correctly in that regard, you may use this AppleScript workaround: osascript -e 'tell application "Calendar" to count events of calendar "myCal"'

Returned plausible results under macOS 11.2.1 Big Sur.