diff --git a/src/nix/search.cc b/src/nix/search.cc
index 0fbd3b6c0..5ccf1b7cf 100644
--- a/src/nix/search.cc
+++ b/src/nix/search.cc
@@ -78,6 +78,11 @@ struct CmdSearch : SourceExprCommand, MixJSON
     {
         settings.readOnlyMode = true;
 
+        // Empty search string should match all packages
+        // Use "^" here instead of ".*" due to differences in resulting highlighting
+        // (see #1893 -- libc++ claims empty search string is not in POSIX grammar)
+        if (re.empty()) re = "^";
+
         std::regex regex(re, std::regex::extended | std::regex::icase);
 
         auto state = getEvalState();
@@ -234,7 +239,7 @@ struct CmdSearch : SourceExprCommand, MixJSON
                     throw Error("error writing to %s", tmpFile);
             }
 
-            if (rename(tmpFile.c_str(), jsonCacheFileName.c_str()) == -1)
+            if (writeCache && rename(tmpFile.c_str(), jsonCacheFileName.c_str()) == -1)
                 throw SysError("cannot rename '%s' to '%s'", tmpFile, jsonCacheFileName);
         }
 
diff --git a/tests/local.mk b/tests/local.mk
index ec7ebfb0d..9df0adf1b 100644
--- a/tests/local.mk
+++ b/tests/local.mk
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ nix_tests = \
   brotli.sh \
   pure-eval.sh \
   check.sh \
-  plugins.sh
+  plugins.sh \
+  search.sh
   # parallel.sh
 
 install-tests += $(foreach x, $(nix_tests), tests/$(x))
diff --git a/tests/search.nix b/tests/search.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fea6e7a7a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/search.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+with import ./config.nix;
+
+{
+  hello = mkDerivation rec {
+    name = "hello-${version}";
+    version = "0.1";
+    buildCommand = "touch $out";
+    meta.description = "Empty file";
+  };
+  foo = mkDerivation rec {
+    name = "foo-5";
+    buildCommand = ''
+      mkdir -p $out
+      echo ${name} > $out/${name}
+    '';
+  };
+  bar = mkDerivation rec {
+    name = "bar-3";
+    buildCommand = ''
+      echo "Does not build successfully"
+      exit 1
+    '';
+    meta.description = "broken bar";
+  };
+}
diff --git a/tests/search.sh b/tests/search.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d83427247
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/search.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+source common.sh
+
+clearStore
+clearCache
+
+# No packages
+(( $(NIX_PATH= nix search -u|wc -l) == 0 ))
+
+# Haven't updated cache, still nothing
+(( $(nix search -f search.nix hello|wc -l) == 0 ))
+(( $(nix search -f search.nix |wc -l) == 0 ))
+
+# Update cache, search should work
+(( $(nix search -f search.nix -u hello|wc -l) > 0 ))
+
+# Use cache
+(( $(nix search -f search.nix foo|wc -l) > 0 ))
+(( $(nix search foo|wc -l) > 0 ))
+
+# Test --no-cache works
+# No results from cache
+(( $(nix search --no-cache foo |wc -l) == 0 ))
+# Does find results from file pointed at
+(( $(nix search -f search.nix --no-cache foo |wc -l) > 0 ))
+
+# Check descriptions are searched
+(( $(nix search broken | wc -l) > 0 ))
+
+# Check search that matches nothing
+(( $(nix search nosuchpackageexists | wc -l) == 0 ))
+
+
+## Search expressions
+
+# Check that empty search string matches all
+nix search|grep -q foo
+nix search|grep -q bar
+nix search|grep -q hello