Site Search: sitesearch_audit.path varchar(500) overflows with long exclude/include path lists, silently breaking incremental indexing

Describe the bug

The sitesearch_audit.path column is defined as varchar(500). When a Site Search job is configured with a long list of Include/Exclude paths (combined string longer than 500 characters), the audit insert fails, the exception is caught and only logged (SiteSearchJobImpl: can't save audit data), and the job otherwise reports success.

Because the audit row is the checkpoint for incremental runs (SiteSearchJobImpl only runs incrementally when a recent audit row exists, and uses its fire_date as the delta start date), the next scheduled run finds no audit record and silently falls back to a full index rebuild instead of an incremental update.

To Reproduce

1. Site Search → Job Scheduler → Paths → Include or Exclude
2. Enter path patterns whose combined length exceeds 500 characters
3. Schedule and run the job
4. Check the dotCMS log:

ERROR job.SiteSearchJobImpl: can't save audit data
com.dotmarketing.exception.DotDataException: ERROR: value too long for type character varying(500)
"SQL": ["insert into sitesearch_audit (job_id,job_name,fire_date,incremental,start_date,end_date,host_list,all_hosts, lang_list,path,path_include,files_count,pages_count,urlmaps_count,index_name) values (?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?)"]

5. Run the job again — it performs a full rebuild rather than an incremental update, because no audit row was persisted.

Expected behavior

Long include/exclude path lists should not break audit persistence or incremental indexing. Suggested fix:

• Change sitesearch_audit.path to text (consider host_list and lang_list too — both are also varchar(500))
• Additionally, surface the audit-save failure (job error/warning) instead of only logging it, and/or validate the path string length in the Job Scheduler UI

Affected versions

Confirmed by a customer on 26.6.1. The column definition is unchanged in current main (dotCMS/src/main/resources/postgres.sql, create table sitesearch_audit ... path varchar(500) not null).

Known workaround

Manually widen the column (e.g. alter table sitesearch_audit alter column path type text;) — this was the workaround suggested by engineering in #19706. Note that a fresh database created from the stock schema regresses to varchar(500).

Prior reports

• #8518 (2019 — proposed changing the column to text; closed by the stale bot without a fix)
• #19706 (2022 — identical symptom and stack trace; closed by the stale bot without a fix)
• Related feature request: #19707

Related Freshdesk ticket

https://dotcms.freshdesk.com/a/tickets/38328

Start with dotCMS/src/main/resources/postgres.sql and SiteSearchJobImpl, then reproduce the long Include/Exclude path case and inspect the audit-save failure. Confirm that audit persistence supports long path lists and that a failed save is surfaced or validated as specified; verify that a subsequent scheduled run retains incremental behavior.