From ac34b9b44bcc8693030be54b09885f51433c6bdd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: David Bremner Date: Sat, 28 May 2022 07:06:40 -0300 Subject: [PATCH] update faq entry about searching for messages without tags --- faq.mdwn | 19 +++++++++++++++++-- 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/faq.mdwn b/faq.mdwn index 9d47f1b..2e7fa10 100644 --- a/faq.mdwn +++ b/faq.mdwn @@ -27,11 +27,26 @@ See [[excluding]]. See help for `message-citation-line-format` for details. +## What are sexp queries + +For the syntax of sexp queries, see [the manual +page](https://notmuchmail.org/doc/latest/man7/notmuch-sexp-queries.html). + +To see if your version of notmuch supports them, run + + $ notmuch config get built_with.sexp_queries + ## How do I search for messages that have no tags? -Unfortunately, there is no way to do this directly. +To do this directly, you need a recent notmuch compiled with sexp +queries (see above). You can then run + + $ notmuch search --query=sexp --output=messages '(not (tag *))' + +The same style of query should work for any prefix, even user defined +prefixes like `List` (see below). -However, it's possible to accomplish this using two searches in shell. First, +Otherwise, it's possible to accomplish this using two searches in shell. First, you need to query all tags in the database, and transform the result into a query that matches messages that have none of those tags: -- 2.43.0