diff --git a/test/notmuch-test b/test/notmuch-test
index 29de30d7..adfd589f 100755
--- a/test/notmuch-test
+++ b/test/notmuch-test
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ TESTS="
   search-by-folder
   search-position-overlap-bug
   search-insufficient-from-quoting
+  search-limiting
   tagging
   json
   multipart
diff --git a/test/search-limiting b/test/search-limiting
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..303762cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/search-limiting
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+test_description='"notmuch search" --offset and --limit parameters'
+. ./test-lib.sh
+
+add_email_corpus
+
+for outp in messages threads; do
+    test_begin_subtest "${outp}: limit does the right thing"
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} "*" | head -n 20 >expected
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} --limit=20 "*" >output
+    test_expect_equal_file expected output
+
+    test_begin_subtest "${outp}: concatenation of limited searches"
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} "*" | head -n 20 >expected
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} --limit=10 "*" >output
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} --limit=10 --offset=10 "*" >>output
+    test_expect_equal_file expected output
+
+    test_begin_subtest "${outp}: limit larger than result set"
+    N=`notmuch count --output=${outp} "*"`
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} "*" >expected
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} --limit=$((1 + ${N})) "*" >output
+    test_expect_equal_file expected output
+
+    test_begin_subtest "${outp}: limit = 0"
+    test_expect_equal "`notmuch search --output=${outp} --limit=0 "*"`" ""
+
+    test_begin_subtest "${outp}: offset does the right thing"
+    # note: tail -n +N is 1-based
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} "*" | tail -n +21 >expected
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} --offset=20 "*" >output
+    test_expect_equal_file expected output
+
+    test_begin_subtest "${outp}: offset = 0"
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} "*" >expected
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} --offset=0 "*" >output
+    test_expect_equal_file expected output
+
+    test_begin_subtest "${outp}: negative offset"
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} "*" | tail -n 20 >expected
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} --offset=-20 "*" >output
+    test_expect_equal_file expected output
+
+    test_begin_subtest "${outp}: negative offset"
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} "*" | tail -n 1 >expected
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} --offset=-1 "*" >output
+    test_expect_equal_file expected output
+
+    test_begin_subtest "${outp}: negative offset combined with limit"
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} "*" | tail -n 20 | head -n 10 >expected
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} --offset=-20 --limit=10 "*" >output
+    test_expect_equal_file expected output
+
+    test_begin_subtest "${outp}: negative offset combined with equal limit"
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} "*" | tail -n 20 >expected
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} --offset=-20 --limit=20 "*" >output
+    test_expect_equal_file expected output
+
+    test_begin_subtest "${outp}: negative offset combined with large limit"
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} "*" | tail -n 20 >expected
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} --offset=-20 --limit=50 "*" >output
+    test_expect_equal_file expected output
+
+    test_begin_subtest "${outp}: negative offset larger then results"
+    N=`notmuch count --output=${outp} "*"`
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} "*" >expected
+    notmuch search --output=${outp} --offset=-$((1 + ${N})) "*" >output
+    test_expect_equal_file expected output
+done
+
+test_done