manpages/notmuch-tag-1.mdwn



<h1>NOTMUCH-TAG(1)</h1>

<h2>NAME</h2>
<pre>
       notmuch-tag  -  add/remove  tags  for  all messages matching the search
       terms
</pre>

<h2>SYNOPSIS</h2>
<pre>
       <b>notmuch</b> <b>tag</b> [options ...] +&lt;<u>tag</u>&gt;|-&lt;<u>tag</u>&gt; [--] &lt;<u>search-term</u>&gt; ...

       <b>notmuch</b> <b>tag</b> <b>--batch</b> [--input=&lt;<u>filename</u>&gt;]
</pre>

<h2>DESCRIPTION</h2>
<pre>
       Add/remove tags for all messages matching the search terms.

       See <a href='../notmuch-search-terms-7/'>notmuch-search-terms</a>(7) for details of  the  supported  syntax  for
       &lt;<u>search-term</u>&gt;.

       Tags prefixed by &apos;+&apos; are added while those prefixed by &apos;-&apos; are removed.
       For each message, tag changes are applied in the order they  appear  on
       the command line.

       The  beginning  of the search terms is recognized by the first argument
       that begins with neither &apos;+&apos; nor &apos;-&apos;. Support  for  an  initial  search
       term  beginning  with  &apos;+&apos;  or  &apos;-&apos; is provided by allowing the user to
       specify a &quot;--&quot; argument to separate the tags from the search terms.

       <b>notmuch</b> <b>tag</b> updates the maildir flags according to tag changes  if  the
       <b>maildir.synchronize</b>_<b>flags</b>  configuration  option  is  enabled. See <a href='../notmuch-config-1/'>not‐</a>
       <a href='../notmuch-config-1/'>much-config</a>(1) for details.

       Supported options for <b>tag</b> include

       <b>--remove-all</b>
              Remove all tags from each message matching the search terms  be‐
              fore  applying  the  tag  changes appearing on the command line.
              This means setting the tags of each message to the  tags  to  be
              added.  If there are no tags to be added, the messages will have
              no tags.

       <b>--batch</b>
              Read batch tagging operations from a file  (stdin  by  default).
              This  is  more  efficient than repeated <b>notmuch</b> <b>tag</b> invocations.
              See <u>TAG</u> <u>FILE</u> <u>FORMAT</u> below for the input format. This  option  is
              not compatible with specifying tagging on the command line.

       <b>--input=&lt;filename&gt;</b>
              Read  input  from  given  file,  instead  of from stdin. Implies
              <b>--batch</b>.
</pre>

<h2>TAG FILE FORMAT</h2>
<pre>
       The input must consist of lines of the format:

       +&lt;<u>tag</u>&gt;|-&lt;<u>tag</u>&gt; [...] [--] &lt;<u>query</u>&gt;

       Each line is interpreted similarly to <b>notmuch</b> <b>tag</b>  command  line  argu‐
       ments. The delimiter is one or more spaces &apos; &apos;. Any characters in &lt;<u>tag</u>&gt;
       <b>may</b> be hex-encoded with %NN where NN is the hexadecimal  value  of  the
       character.  To hex-encode a character with a multi-byte UTF-8 encoding,
       hex-encode each byte. Any spaces in &lt;tag&gt; <b>must</b> be hex-encoded  as  %20.
       Any characters that are not part of &lt;<u>tag</u>&gt; <b>must</b> <b>not</b> be hex-encoded.

       In  the future tag:&quot;tag with spaces&quot; style quoting may be supported for
       &lt;<u>tag</u>&gt; as well; for this reason all double  quote  characters  in  &lt;<u>tag</u>&gt;
       <b>should</b> be hex-encoded.

       The  &lt;<u>query</u>&gt;  should be quoted using Xapian boolean term quoting rules:
       if a term contains whitespace or a close paren or starts with a  double
       quote,  it must be enclosed in double quotes (not including any prefix)
       and double quotes inside the term must be doubled (see below for  exam‐
       ples).

       Leading and trailing space &apos; &apos; is ignored. Empty lines and lines begin‐
       ning with &apos;#&apos; are ignored.
</pre>

<h3> &nbsp; EXAMPLE</h3>
<pre>
       The following shows a valid input to batch tagging. Note that only  the
       isolated  &apos;*&apos;  acts as a wildcard. Also note the two different quotings
       of the tag <b>space</b> <b>in</b> <b>tags</b>

          +winner *
          +foo::bar%25 -- (One and Two) or (One and tag:winner)
          +found::it -- tag:foo::bar%
          # ignore this line and the next

          +space%20in%20tags -- Two
          # add tag &apos;(tags)&apos;, among other stunts.
          +crazy{ +(tags) +&amp;are +#possible\ -- tag:&quot;space in tags&quot;
          +match*crazy -- tag:crazy{
          +some_tag -- id:&quot;this is &quot;&quot;nauty)&quot;&quot;&quot;
</pre>

<h2>SEE ALSO</h2>
<pre>
       <a href='../notmuch-1/'>notmuch</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-config-1/'>notmuch-config</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-count-1/'>notmuch-count</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-dump-1/'>notmuch-dump</a>(1),  <a href='../notmuch-hooks-5/'>not‐</a>
       <a href='../notmuch-hooks-5/'>much-hooks</a>(5),   <a href='../notmuch-insert-1/'>notmuch-insert</a>(1),  <a href='../notmuch-new-1/'>notmuch-new</a>(1),  <a href='../notmuch-reply-1/'>notmuch-reply</a>(1),
       <a href='../notmuch-restore-1/'>notmuch-restore</a>(1),  <a href='../notmuch-search-1/'>notmuch-search</a>(1),  <a href='../notmuch-search-terms-7/'>notmuch-search-terms</a>(7),  <a href='../notmuch-show-1/'>not‐</a>
       <a href='../notmuch-show-1/'>much-show</a>(1),
</pre>

<h2>AUTHOR</h2>
<pre>
       Carl Worth and many others
</pre>

<h2>COPYRIGHT</h2>
<pre>
       2009-2022, Carl Worth and many others
</pre>

<h2>0.35</h2>