manpages updates for release 0.32

[notmuch-wiki] / manpages / notmuch-search-terms-7.mdwn

<h1>NOTMUCH-SEARCH-TERMS(7)</h1>

<h2>NAME</h2>
<pre>
       notmuch-search-terms - syntax for notmuch queries
</pre>

<h2>SYNOPSIS</h2>
<pre>
       <b>notmuch</b> <b>count</b> [option ...] &lt;<u>search-term</u>&gt; ...

       <b>notmuch</b> <b>dump</b> [--gzip] [--format=(batch-tag|sup)] [--output=&lt;<u>file</u>&gt;] [--]
       [&lt;<u>search-term</u>&gt; ...]

       <b>notmuch</b> <b>reindex</b> [option ...] &lt;<u>search-term</u>&gt; ...

       <b>notmuch</b> <b>search</b> [option ...] &lt;<u>search-term</u>&gt; ...

       <b>notmuch</b> <b>show</b> [option ...] &lt;<u>search-term</u>&gt; ...

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

<h2>DESCRIPTION</h2>
<pre>
       Several notmuch commands accept a common syntax for search terms.

       The search terms can consist of free-form  text  (and  quoted  phrases)
       which   will   match  all  messages  that  contain  all  of  the  given
       terms/phrases in the body, the subject, or any of the sender or recipi‐
       ent headers.

       As  a  special case, a search string consisting of exactly a single as‐
       terisk (&quot;*&quot;) will match all messages.
</pre>

<h3> &nbsp; Search prefixes</h3>
<pre>
       In addition to free text, the following prefixes can be used  to  force
       terms to match against specific portions of an email, (where &lt;brackets&gt;
       indicate user-supplied values).

       Some of the prefixes with &lt;regex&gt; forms can be also  used  to  restrict
       the  results  to  those  whose  value matches a regular expression (see
       <b>regex</b>(7)) delimited with //, for example:

          notmuch search &apos;from:&quot;/bob@.*[.]example[.]com/&quot;&apos;

       <b>body:&lt;word-or-quoted-phrase&gt;</b>
              Match terms in the body of messages.

       <b>from:&lt;name-or-address&gt;</b> <b>or</b> <b>from:/&lt;regex&gt;/</b>
              The <b>from:</b> prefix is used to match the name  or  address  of  the
              sender of an email message.

       <b>to:&lt;name-or-address&gt;</b>
              The  <b>to:</b>  prefix  is used to match the names or addresses of any
              recipient of an email message, (whether To, Cc, or Bcc).

       <b>subject:&lt;word-or-quoted-phrase&gt;</b> <b>or</b> <b>subject:/&lt;regex&gt;/</b>
              Any term prefixed with <b>subject:</b> will match only  text  from  the
              subject  of  an  email. Searching for a phrase in the subject is
              supported by including quotation marks around the phrase,  imme‐
              diately following <b>subject:</b>.

       <b>attachment:&lt;word&gt;</b>
              The  <b>attachment:</b> prefix can be used to search for specific file‐
              names (or extensions) of attachments to email messages.

       <b>mimetype:&lt;word&gt;</b>
              The <b>mimetype:</b> prefix will be used to match text  from  the  con‐
              tent-types  of MIME parts within email messages (as specified by
              the sender).

       <b>tag:&lt;tag&gt;</b> <b>or</b> <b>tag:/&lt;regex&gt;/</b> <b>or</b> <b>is:&lt;tag&gt;</b> <b>or</b> <b>is:/&lt;regex&gt;/</b>
              For <b>tag:</b> and <b>is:</b> valid tag values include <b>inbox</b>  and  <b>unread</b>  by
              default  for  new  messages  added by <b>notmuch</b> <b>new</b> as well as any
              other tag values added manually with <b>notmuch</b> <b>tag</b>.

       <b>id:&lt;message-id&gt;</b> <b>or</b> <b>mid:&lt;message-id&gt;</b> <b>or</b> <b>mid:/&lt;regex&gt;/</b>
              For <b>id:</b> and <b>mid:</b>, message ID values are the literal contents  of
              the  Message-ID:  header of email messages, but without the &apos;&lt;&apos;,
              &apos;&gt;&apos; delimiters.

       <b>thread:&lt;thread-id&gt;</b>
              The <b>thread:</b> prefix can be used with the thread  ID  values  that
              are  generated internally by notmuch (and do not appear in email
              messages). These thread ID values can be seen in the first  col‐
              umn of output from <b>notmuch</b> <b>search</b>

       <b>thread:{&lt;notmuch</b> <b>query&gt;}</b>
              Threads may be searched for indirectly by providing an arbitrary
              notmuch query in <b>{}</b>. For example, the following returns  threads
              containing  a  message from mallory and one (not necessarily the
              same message) with Subject containing the word &quot;crypto&quot;.

                 % notmuch search &apos;thread:&quot;{from:mallory}&quot; and thread:&quot;{subject:crypto}&quot;&apos;

              The performance of such queries can vary wildly.  To  understand
              this, the user should think of the query <b>thread:{&lt;something&gt;}</b> as
              expanding to all of the thread IDs which match <b>&lt;something&gt;</b>; not‐
              much then performs a second search using the expanded query.

       <b>path:&lt;directory-path&gt;</b> <b>or</b> <b>path:&lt;directory-path&gt;/**</b> <b>or</b> <b>path:/&lt;regex&gt;/</b>
              The <b>path:</b> prefix searches for email messages that are in partic‐
              ular directories within the mail store. The  directory  must  be
              specified  relative  to  the  top-level maildir (and without the
              leading slash). By default, <b>path:</b> matches messages in the speci‐
              fied  directory only. The &quot;/**&quot; suffix can be used to match mes‐
              sages in the specified directory and all its subdirectories  re‐
              cursively.  <b>path:&quot;&quot;</b>  matches  messages  in  the root of the mail
              store and, likewise, <b>path:**</b> matches all messages.

              <b>path:</b> will find a message if <u>any</u> copy of that message is in  the
              specific directory.

       <b>folder:&lt;maildir-folder&gt;</b> <b>or</b> <b>folder:/&lt;regex&gt;/</b>
              The  <b>folder:</b> prefix searches for email messages by maildir or MH
              folder. For MH-style folders, this is equivalent to  <b>path:</b>.  For
              maildir, this includes messages in the &quot;new&quot; and &quot;cur&quot; subdirec‐
              tories. The exact syntax for maildir  folders  depends  on  your
              mail  configuration.  For maildir++, <b>folder:&quot;&quot;</b> matches the inbox
              folder (which is the root in maildir++), other folder names  al‐
              ways  start  with &quot;.&quot;, and nested folders are separated by &quot;.&quot;s,
              such as <b>folder:.classes.topology</b>. For &quot;file system&quot; maildir, the
              inbox is typically <b>folder:INBOX</b> and nested folders are separated
              by slashes, such as <b>folder:classes/topology</b>.

              <b>folder:</b> will find a message if <u>any</u> copy of that  message  is  in
              the specific folder.

       <b>date:&lt;since&gt;..&lt;until&gt;</b> <b>or</b> <b>date:&lt;date&gt;</b>
              The  <b>date:</b>  prefix  can  be used to restrict the results to only
              messages within a particular time  range  (based  on  the  Date:
              header).

              See  <b>DATE</b> <b>AND</b> <b>TIME</b> <b>SEARCH</b> below for details on the range expres‐
              sion, and supported syntax for &lt;since&gt; and &lt;until&gt; date and time
              expressions.

              The  time  range  can also be specified using timestamps without
              including the date prefix using a syntax of:

              &lt;initial-timestamp&gt;..&lt;final-timestamp&gt;

              Each timestamp is a number representing the  number  of  seconds
              since  1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC. Specifying a time range this way
              is considered legacy and predates the date prefix.

       <b>lastmod:&lt;initial-revision&gt;..&lt;final-revision&gt;</b>
              The <b>lastmod:</b> prefix can be used to restrict the  result  by  the
              database  revision  number  of  when messages were last modified
              (tags were added/removed or filenames changed). This is  usually
              used  in  conjunction with the <b>--uuid</b> argument to <b>notmuch</b> <b>search</b>
              to find messages that have changed since an earlier query.

       <b>query:&lt;name&gt;</b>
              The <b>query:</b> prefix allows queries to refer  to  previously  saved
              queries added with <a href='../notmuch-config-1/'>notmuch-config</a>(1).

       <b>property:&lt;key&gt;=&lt;value&gt;</b>
              The  <b>property:</b>  prefix  searches  for messages with a particular
              &lt;key&gt;=&lt;value&gt; property pair. Properties are used  internally  by
              notmuch  (and  extensions)  to add metadata to messages. A given
              key can be present on a given  message  with  several  different
              values.  See <a href='../notmuch-properties-7/'>notmuch-properties</a>(7) for more details.

       User defined prefixes are also supported, see <a href='../notmuch-config-1/'>notmuch-config</a>(1) for de‐
       tails.
</pre>

<h3> &nbsp; Operators</h3>
<pre>
       In addition to individual terms, multiple terms can  be  combined  with
       Boolean  operators (<b>and</b>, <b>or</b>, <b>not</b>, and <b>xor</b>). Each term in the query will
       be implicitly connected by a logical AND if  no  explicit  operator  is
       provided  (except  that  terms  with a common prefix will be implicitly
       combined with OR).  The  shorthand  &apos;-&lt;term&gt;&apos;  can  be  used  for  &apos;not
       &lt;term&gt;&apos; but unfortunately this does not work at the start of an expres‐
       sion.  Parentheses can also be used to control the combination  of  the
       Boolean operators, but will have to be protected from interpretation by
       the shell, (such as by putting quotation marks around any parenthesized
       expression).

       In  addition to the standard boolean operators, Xapian provides several
       operators specific to text searching.

          notmuch search term1 NEAR term2

       will return results where term1  is  within  10  words  of  term2.  The
       threshold can be set like this:

          notmuch search term1 NEAR/2 term2

       The search

          notmuch search term1 ADJ term2

       will return results where term1 is within 10 words of term2, but in the
       same order as in the query. The threshold can be set the same  as  with
       NEAR:

          notmuch search term1 ADJ/7 term2
</pre>

<h3> &nbsp; Stemming</h3>
<pre>
       <b>Stemming</b> in notmuch means that these searches

          notmuch search detailed
          notmuch search details
          notmuch search detail

       will  all  return identical results, because Xapian first &quot;reduces&quot; the
       term to the common stem (here &apos;detail&apos;) and then performs the search.

       There are two ways to turn this off: a search for  a  capitalized  word
       will  be performed unstemmed, so that one can search for &quot;John&quot; and not
       get results for &quot;Johnson&quot;; phrase searches are also unstemmed (see  be‐
       low  for  details).   Stemming is currently only supported for English.
       Searches for words in other languages will be performed unstemmed.
</pre>

<h3> &nbsp; Wildcards</h3>
<pre>
       It is possible to use a trailing  &apos;*&apos;  as  a  wildcard.  A  search  for
       &apos;wildc*&apos; will match &apos;wildcard&apos;, &apos;wildcat&apos;, etc.
</pre>

<h3> &nbsp; Boolean and Probabilistic Prefixes</h3>
<pre>
       Xapian  (and hence notmuch) prefixes are either <b>boolean</b>, supporting ex‐
       act matches like &quot;<u>tag:inbox</u>&quot; or <b>probabilistic</b>, supporting a more flexi‐
       ble  <b>term</b>  based  searching.  Certain <b>special</b> prefixes are processed by
       notmuch in a way not strictly  fitting  either  of  Xapian&apos;s  built  in
       styles. The prefixes currently supported by notmuch are as follows.

       <b>Boolean</b>
              <b>tag:</b>, <b>id:</b>, <b>thread:</b>, <b>folder:</b>, <b>path:</b>, <b>property:</b>

       <b>Probabilistic</b>
              <b>body:</b>, <b>to:</b>, <b>attachment:</b>, <b>mimetype:</b>

       <b>Special</b>
              <b>from:</b>, <b>query:</b>, <b>subject:</b>
</pre>

<h3> &nbsp; Terms and phrases</h3>
<pre>
       In  general  Xapian  distinguishes  between lists of terms and <b>phrases</b>.
       Phrases are indicated by double quotes (but beware you probably need to
       protect  those  from  your shell) and insist that those unstemmed words
       occur in that order. One useful, but initially  surprising  feature  is
       that the following are equivalent ways to write the same phrase.

       • &quot;a list of words&quot;

       • a-list-of-words

       • a/list/of/words

       • a.list.of.words

       Both parenthesised lists of terms and quoted phrases are ok with proba‐
       bilistic prefixes such as <b>to:</b>, <b>from:</b>, and <b>subject:</b>. In particular

          subject:(pizza free)

       is equivalent to

          subject:pizza and subject:free

       Both of these will match a subject &quot;Free Delicious Pizza&quot; while

          subject:&quot;pizza free&quot;

       will not.
</pre>

<h3> &nbsp; Quoting</h3>
<pre>
       Double quotes are also used by the  notmuch  query  parser  to  protect
       boolean  terms, regular expressions, or subqueries containing spaces or
       other special characters, e.g.

          tag:&quot;a tag&quot;

          folder:&quot;/^.*/(Junk|Spam)$/&quot;

          thread:&quot;{from:mallory and date:2009}&quot;

       As with phrases, you need to protect the double quotes from  the  shell
       e.g.

          % notmuch search &apos;folder:&quot;/^.*/(Junk|Spam)$/&quot;&apos;
          % notmuch search &apos;thread:&quot;{from:mallory and date:2009}&quot; and thread:{to:mallory}&apos;
</pre>

<h2>DATE AND TIME SEARCH</h2>
<pre>
       notmuch  understands a variety of standard and natural ways of express‐
       ing dates and times, both in absolute terms (&quot;2012-10-24&quot;) and in rela‐
       tive  terms (&quot;yesterday&quot;). Any number of relative terms can be combined
       (&quot;1 hour 25 minutes&quot;) and an absolute date/time can  be  combined  with
       relative  terms  to  further adjust it. A non-exhaustive description of
       the syntax supported for absolute and relative terms is given below.
</pre>

<h3> &nbsp; The range expression</h3>
<pre>
       date:&lt;since&gt;..&lt;until&gt;

       The above expression  restricts  the  results  to  only  messages  from
       &lt;since&gt; to &lt;until&gt;, based on the Date: header.

       &lt;since&gt;  and &lt;until&gt; can describe imprecise times, such as &quot;yesterday&quot;.
       In this case, &lt;since&gt; is taken as the earliest time it  could  describe
       (the beginning of yesterday) and &lt;until&gt; is taken as the latest time it
       could describe (the end of yesterday). Similarly,  date:january..febru‐
       ary matches from the beginning of January to the end of February.

       If  specifying  a  time  range using timestamps in conjunction with the
       date prefix, each timestamp must be preceded by @ (ASCII  hex  40).  As
       above,  each  timestamp  is a number representing the number of seconds
       since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC. For example:
          date:@&lt;initial-timestamp&gt;..@&lt;final-timestamp&gt;

       Currently, spaces in range expressions are not supported. You  can  re‐
       place  the  spaces with &apos;_&apos;, or (in most cases) &apos;-&apos;, or (in some cases)
       leave the spaces out altogether. Examples in this man page  use  spaces
       for clarity.

       Open-ended   ranges  are  supported.  I.e.  it&apos;s  possible  to  specify
       date:..&lt;until&gt; or date:&lt;since&gt;.. to not limit the start  or  end  time,
       respectively.
</pre>

<h3> &nbsp; Single expression</h3>
<pre>
       date:&lt;expr&gt; works as a shorthand for date:&lt;expr&gt;..&lt;expr&gt;.  For example,
       date:monday matches from the beginning of Monday until the end of  Mon‐
       day.
</pre>

<h3> &nbsp; Relative date and time</h3>
<pre>
       [N|number]         (years|months|weeks|days|hours|hrs|minutes|mins|sec‐
       onds|secs) [...]

       All refer to past, can be repeated and will be accumulated.

       Units can be abbreviated to any length, with  the  otherwise  ambiguous
       single m being m for minutes and M for months.

       Number can also be written out one, two, ..., ten, dozen, hundred.  Ad‐
       ditionally, the unit may be preceded by &quot;last&quot; or &quot;this&quot;  (e.g.,  &quot;last
       week&quot; or &quot;this month&quot;).

       When  combined  with absolute date and time, the relative date and time
       specification will be relative from the  specified  absolute  date  and
       time.

       Examples: 5M2d, two weeks
</pre>

<h3> &nbsp; Supported absolute time formats</h3>
<pre>
       • H[H]:MM[:SS] [(am|a.m.|pm|p.m.)]

       • H[H] (am|a.m.|pm|p.m.)

       • HHMMSS

       • now

       • noon

       • midnight

       • Examples: 17:05, 5pm
</pre>

<h3> &nbsp; Supported absolute date formats</h3>
<pre>
       • YYYY-MM[-DD]

       • DD-MM[-[YY]YY]

       • MM-YYYY

       • M[M]/D[D][/[YY]YY]

       • M[M]/YYYY

       • D[D].M[M][.[YY]YY]

       • D[D][(st|nd|rd|th)] Mon[thname] [YYYY]

       • Mon[thname] D[D][(st|nd|rd|th)] [YYYY]

       • Wee[kday]

       Month names can be abbreviated at three or more characters.

       Weekday names can be abbreviated at three or more characters.

       Examples: 2012-07-31, 31-07-2012, 7/31/2012, August 3
</pre>

<h3> &nbsp; Time zones</h3>
<pre>
       • (+|-)HH:MM

       • (+|-)HH[MM]

       Some time zone codes, e.g. UTC, EET.
</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-reindex-1/'>notmuch-reindex</a>(1),
       <b>notmuch-properties</b>(1),   <b>*notmuch-reply</b>(1),   <a href='../notmuch-restore-1/'>notmuch-restore</a>(1),  <a href='../notmuch-search-1/'>not‐</a>
       <a href='../notmuch-search-1/'>much-search</a>(1), <b>*notmuch-show</b>(1), <a href='../notmuch-tag-1/'>notmuch-tag</a>(1)
</pre>

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

<h2>COPYRIGHT</h2>
<pre>
       2009-2021, Carl Worth and many others
</pre>

<h2>0.32</h2>