+.. _notmuch-search-terms(7):
+
====================
notmuch-search-terms
====================
**notmuch** **count** [option ...] <*search-term*> ...
-**notmuch** **dump** [--format=(batch-tag|sup)] [--] [--output=<*file*>] [--] [<*search-term*> ...]
+**notmuch** **dump** [--gzip] [--format=(batch-tag|sup)] [--output=<*file*>] [--] [<*search-term*> ...]
+
+**notmuch** **reindex** [option ...] <*search-term*> ...
**notmuch** **search** [option ...] <*search-term*> ...
As a special case, a search string consisting of exactly a single
asterisk ("\*") will match all messages.
+Search prefixes
+---------------
+
In addition to free text, the following prefixes can be used to force
terms to match against specific portions of an email, (where <brackets>
-indicate user-supplied values):
-
-- from:<name-or-address>
-
-- to:<name-or-address>
-
-- subject:<word-or-quoted-phrase>
-
-- attachment:<word>
-
-- mimetype:<word>
-
-- tag:<tag> (or is:<tag>)
-
-- id:<message-id>
-
-- thread:<thread-id>
+indicate user-supplied values).
+
+Some of the prefixes with <regex> forms can be also used to restrict
+the results to those whose value matches a regular expression (see
+:manpage:`regex(7)`) delimited with //, for example::
+
+ notmuch search 'from:"/bob@.*[.]example[.]com/"'
+
+body:<word-or-quoted-phrase>
+ Match terms in the body of messages.
+
+from:<name-or-address> or from:/<regex>/
+ The **from:** prefix is used to match the name or address of
+ the sender of an email message.
+
+to:<name-or-address>
+ The **to:** prefix is used to match the names or addresses of any
+ recipient of an email message, (whether To, Cc, or Bcc).
+
+subject:<word-or-quoted-phrase> or subject:/<regex>/
+ Any term prefixed with **subject:** 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,
+ immediately following **subject:**.
+
+attachment:<word>
+ The **attachment:** prefix can be used to search for specific
+ filenames (or extensions) of attachments to email messages.
+
+mimetype:<word>
+ The **mimetype:** prefix will be used to match text from the
+ content-types of MIME parts within email messages (as specified by
+ the sender).
+
+tag:<tag> or tag:/<regex>/ or is:<tag> or is:/<regex>/
+ For **tag:** and **is:** valid tag values include **inbox** and
+ **unread** by default for new messages added by
+ :any:`notmuch-new(1)` as well as any other tag values added
+ manually with :any:`notmuch-tag(1)`.
+
+id:<message-id> or mid:<message-id> or mid:/<regex>/
+ For **id:** and **mid:**, message ID values are the literal
+ contents of the Message-ID: header of email messages, but without
+ the '<', '>' delimiters.
+
+thread:<thread-id>
+ The **thread:** 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 column
+ of output from :any:`notmuch-search(1)`
+
+thread:{<notmuch query>}
+ Threads may be searched for indirectly by providing an arbitrary
+ notmuch query in **{}**. For example, the following returns
+ threads containing a message from mallory and one (not necessarily
+ the same message) with Subject containing the word "crypto".
+
+ ::
+
+ % notmuch search 'thread:"{from:mallory}" and thread:"{subject:crypto}"'
+
+ The performance of such queries can vary wildly. To understand
+ this, the user should think of the query **thread:{<something>}**
+ as expanding to all of the thread IDs which match **<something>**;
+ notmuch then performs a second search using the expanded query.
+
+path:<directory-path> or path:<directory-path>/** or path:/<regex>/
+ The **path:** prefix searches for email messages that are in
+ particular directories within the mail store. The directory must
+ be specified relative to the top-level maildir (and without the
+ leading slash). By default, **path:** matches messages in the
+ specified directory only. The "/\*\*" suffix can be used to match
+ messages in the specified directory and all its subdirectories
+ recursively. **path:""** matches messages in the root of the mail
+ store and, likewise, **path:\*\*** matches all messages.
+
+ **path:** will find a message if *any* copy of that message is in
+ the specific directory.
+
+folder:<maildir-folder> or folder:/<regex>/
+ The **folder:** prefix searches for email messages by maildir or
+ MH folder. For MH-style folders, this is equivalent to
+ **path:**. For maildir, this includes messages in the "new" and
+ "cur" subdirectories. The exact syntax for maildir folders depends
+ on your mail configuration. For maildir++, **folder:""** matches
+ the inbox folder (which is the root in maildir++), other folder
+ names always start with ".", and nested folders are separated by
+ "."s, such as **folder:.classes.topology**. For "file system"
+ maildir, the inbox is typically **folder:INBOX** and nested
+ folders are separated by slashes, such as
+ **folder:classes/topology**.
+
+ **folder:** will find a message if *any* copy of that message is
+ in the specific folder.
+
+date:<since>..<until> or date:<date>
+ The **date:** prefix can be used to restrict the results to only
+ messages within a particular time range (based on the Date:
+ header).
+
+ See **DATE AND TIME SEARCH** below for details on the range
+ expression, and supported syntax for <since> and <until> date and
+ time expressions.
+
+ The time range can also be specified using timestamps without
+ including the date prefix using a syntax of:
+
+ <initial-timestamp>..<final-timestamp>
+
+ 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.
+
+lastmod:<initial-revision>..<final-revision>
+ The **lastmod:** 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). Negative revisions are
+ interpreted relative to the most recent database revision (see
+ :option:`count --lastmod`). This is usually used in conjunction
+ with the ``--uuid`` argument to :any:`notmuch-search(1)` to find
+ messages that have changed since an earlier query.
+
+query:<name>
+ The **query:** prefix allows queries to refer to previously saved
+ queries added with :any:`notmuch-config(1)`.
+
+property:<key>=<value>
+ The **property:** prefix searches for messages with a particular
+ <key>=<value> 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 :any:`notmuch-properties(7)` for more details.
+
+sexp:<subquery>
+ The **sexp:** prefix allows subqueries in the format
+ documented in :any:`notmuch-sexp-queries(7)`. Note that subqueries containing
+ spaces must be quoted, and any embedded double quotes must be escaped
+ (see :any:`quoting`).
+
+User defined prefixes are also supported, see :any:`notmuch-config(1)` for
+details.
+
+Operators
+---------
-- folder:<maildir-folder>
+In addition to individual terms, multiple terms can be combined with
+Boolean operators (**and**, **or**, **not**, and **xor**). 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 '-<term>' can be
+used for 'not <term>' but unfortunately this does not work at the
+start of an expression. 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.
-- path:<directory-path> or path:<directory-path>/**
+::
-- date:<since>..<until>
+ notmuch search term1 NEAR term2
-The **from:** prefix is used to match the name or address of the sender
-of an email message.
+will return results where term1 is within 10 words of term2. The
+threshold can be set like this:
-The **to:** prefix is used to match the names or addresses of any
-recipient of an email message, (whether To, Cc, or Bcc).
+::
-Any term prefixed with **subject:** 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, immediately following
-**subject:**.
+ notmuch search term1 NEAR/2 term2
-The **attachment:** prefix can be used to search for specific filenames
-(or extensions) of attachments to email messages.
+The search
-The **mimetype:** prefix will be used to match text from the
-content-types of MIME parts within email messages (as specified by the
-sender).
+::
-For **tag:** and **is:** valid tag values include **inbox** and
-**unread** by default for new messages added by **notmuch new** as well
-as any other tag values added manually with **notmuch tag**.
+ notmuch search term1 ADJ term2
-For **id:**, message ID values are the literal contents of the
-Message-ID: header of email messages, but without the '<', '>'
-delimiters.
+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:
-The **thread:** 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 column of output from
-**notmuch search**
+::
-The **path:** prefix searches for email messages that are in
-particular directories within the mail store. The directory must be
-specified relative to the top-level maildir (and without the leading
-slash). By default, **path:** matches messages in the specified
-directory only. The "/\*\*" suffix can be used to match messages in
-the specified directory and all its subdirectories recursively.
-**path:""** matches messages in the root of the mail store and,
-likewise, **path:\*\*** matches all messages.
+ notmuch search term1 ADJ/7 term2
-The **folder:** prefix searches for email messages by maildir or MH
-folder. For MH-style folders, this is equivalent to **path:**. For
-maildir, this includes messages in the "new" and "cur"
-subdirectories. The exact syntax for maildir folders depends on your
-mail configuration. For maildir++, **folder:""** matches the inbox
-folder (which is the root in maildir++), other folder names always
-start with ".", and nested folders are separated by "."s, such as
-**folder:.classes.topology**. For "file system" maildir, the inbox is
-typically **folder:INBOX** and nested folders are separated by
-slashes, such as **folder:classes/topology**.
-Both **path:** and **folder:** will find a message if *any* copy of
-that message is in the specific directory/folder.
+Stemming
+--------
-The **date:** prefix can be used to restrict the results to only
-messages within a particular time range (based on the Date: header) with
-a range syntax of:
+**Stemming** in notmuch means that these searches
-date:<since>..<until>
+::
-See **DATE AND TIME SEARCH** below for details on the range expression,
-and supported syntax for <since> and <until> date and time expressions.
+ notmuch search detailed
+ notmuch search details
+ notmuch search detail
-The time range can also be specified using timestamps with a syntax of:
+will all return identical results, because Xapian first "reduces" the
+term to the common stem (here 'detail') and then performs the search.
-<initial-timestamp>..<final-timestamp>
+There are two ways to turn this off: a search for a capitalized word
+will be performed unstemmed, so that one can search for "John" and not
+get results for "Johnson"; phrase searches are also unstemmed (see
+below for details). Stemming is currently only supported for
+English. Searches for words in other languages will be performed unstemmed.
-Each timestamp is a number representing the number of seconds since
-1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC.
+Wildcards
+---------
-In addition to individual terms, multiple terms can be combined with
-Boolean operators ( **and**, **or**, **not** , etc.). 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 until we get Xapian defect #402 fixed).
+It is possible to use a trailing '\*' as a wildcard. A search for
+'wildc\*' will match 'wildcard', 'wildcat', etc.
-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).
Boolean and Probabilistic Prefixes
----------------------------------
Xapian (and hence notmuch) prefixes are either **boolean**, supporting
-exact matches like "tag:inbox" or **probabilistic**, supporting a most flexible **term** based searching. The prefixes currently supported by notmuch are as follows.
-
-+------------------+-----------------------+
-|Boolean |Probabilistic |
-+------------------+-----------------------+
-| **tag:** **id:** | **from:** **to:** |
-|**thread:** |**subject:** |
-|**folder:** |**attachment** |
-|**path:** | |
-| | |
-+------------------+-----------------------+
+exact matches like "tag:inbox" or **probabilistic**, supporting a more
+flexible **term** based searching. Certain **special** prefixes are
+processed by notmuch in a way not strictly fitting either of Xapian's
+built in styles. The prefixes currently supported by notmuch are as
+follows.
+
+Boolean
+ **tag:**, **id:**, **thread:**, **folder:**, **path:**, **property:**
+Probabilistic
+ **body:**, **to:**, **attachment:**, **mimetype:**
+Special
+ **from:**, **query:**, **subject:**, **sexp:**
Terms and phrases
-----------------
**phrases**. 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 equivalant ways to write
+surprising feature is that the following are equivalent ways to write
the same phrase.
- "a list of words"
- a.list.of.words
Both parenthesised lists of terms and quoted phrases are ok with
-probabilisitic prefixes such as **to:**, **from:**, and **subject:**. In particular
+probabilistic prefixes such as **to:**, **from:**, and **subject:**.
+For prefixes supporting regex search, the parenthesised list should be
+quoted. In particular
::
- subject:(pizza free)
+ subject:"(pizza free)"
is equivalent to
will not.
+.. _quoting:
+
+Quoting
+-------
+
+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:"a tag"
+
+::
+
+ folder:"/^.*/(Junk|Spam)$/"
+
+::
+
+ thread:"{from:mallory and date:2009}"
+
+As with phrases, you need to protect the double quotes from the shell
+e.g.
+
+::
+
+ % notmuch search 'folder:"/^.*/(Junk|Spam)$/"'
+ % notmuch search 'thread:"{from:mallory and date:2009}" and thread:{to:mallory}'
+
+Double quotes within query strings need to be doubled to escape them.
+
+::
+
+ % notmuch search 'tag:"""quoted tag"""'
+ % notmuch search 'sexp:"(or ""wizard"" ""php"")"'
+
DATE AND TIME SEARCH
====================
could describe (the end of yesterday). Similarly, date:january..february
matches from the beginning of January to the end of February.
-Currently, we do not support spaces in range expressions. You can
+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:@<initial-timestamp>..@<final-timestamp>
+
+Currently, spaces in range expressions are not supported. You can
replace the spaces with '\_', or (in most cases) '-', or (in some cases)
leave the spaces out altogether. Examples in this man page use spaces
for clarity.
-Open-ended ranges are supported (since Xapian 1.2.1), i.e. it's possible
-to specify date:..<until> or date:<since>.. to not limit the start or
-end time, respectively. Pre-1.2.1 Xapian does not report an error on
-open ended ranges, but it does not work as expected either.
+Open-ended ranges are supported. I.e. it's possible to specify
+date:..<until> or date:<since>.. to not limit the start or
+end time, respectively.
+
+Single expression
+-----------------
-Entering date:expr without ".." (for example date:yesterday) won't work,
-as it's not interpreted as a range expression at all. You can achieve
-the expected result by duplicating the expr both sides of ".." (for
-example date:yesterday..yesterday).
+date:<expr> works as a shorthand for date:<expr>..<expr>.
+For example, date:monday matches from the beginning of Monday until
+the end of Monday.
Relative date and time
----------------------
SEE ALSO
========
-**notmuch(1)**, **notmuch-config(1)**, **notmuch-count(1)**,
-**notmuch-dump(1)**, **notmuch-hooks(5)**, **notmuch-insert(1)**,
-**notmuch-new(1)**, **notmuch-reply(1)**, **notmuch-restore(1)**,
-**notmuch-search(1)**, **notmuch-show(1)**, **notmuch-tag(1)**
+:any:`notmuch(1)`,
+:any:`notmuch-config(1)`,
+:any:`notmuch-count(1)`,
+:any:`notmuch-dump(1)`,
+:any:`notmuch-hooks(5)`,
+:any:`notmuch-insert(1)`,
+:any:`notmuch-new(1)`,
+:any:`notmuch-properties(7)`,
+:any:`notmuch-reindex(1)`,
+:any:`notmuch-reply(1)`,
+:any:`notmuch-restore(1)`,
+:any:`notmuch-search(1)`,
+:any:`notmuch-show(1)`,
+:any:`notmuch-tag(1)`
projects / notmuch / blobdiff