I think we've diverged enough from the Xapian query parser
that we can't rely on that syntax description [1]. As far as I can
tell, [1] also only discusses quotes in the context of phrases.
[1]: https://xapian.org/docs/queryparser.html
Need to be clearer about specifying time ranges using timestamps.
Legacy syntax which predates the date prefix is still supported, but
timestamps used in conjunction with the date prefix require additional
syntax.
Having first a list of prefixes followed by detailed descriptions was
viable when we didn't have all that many prefixes. Now, arranging the
prefix descriptions in a definition list makes more sense.
While at it, include all the supported prefix forms, especially some
missing regex ones.
the idea is that you can run
% notmuch search subject:/<your-favourite-regexp>/
% notmuch search from:/<your-favourite-regexp>/
or
% notmuch search subject:"your usual phrase search"
% notmuch search from:"usual phrase search"
This feature is only available with recent Xapian, specifically
support for field processors is needed.
It should work with bindings, since it extends the query parser.
This is easy to extend for other value slots, but currently the only
value slots are date, message_id, from, subject, and last_mod. Date is
already searchable; message_id is left for a followup commit.
This was originally written by Austin Clements, and ported to Xapian
field processors (from Austin's custom query parser) by yours truly.
We want to be able to query the properties directly, like:
notmuch count property:foo=bar
which should return a count of messages where the property with key
"foo" has value equal to "bar".
sphinx-build emits a minor warning:
[...]doc/man7/notmuch-search-terms.rst:223: WARNING: Block quote ends without a blank line; unexpected unindent.
And the tabular representation of boolean or probabilistic prefixes
currently renders like this when i view it in man:
┌───────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
│Boolean │ Probabilistic │
└───────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
│ tag: id: │ from: to: │
│ │ │
│ thread: folder: │ subject: attach‐ │
│ path: │ ment: mimetype: │
└───────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
This isn't just ugly: it's confusing, because it seems to imply that
some of the prefixes in the left-hand column are somehow related to
specific other prefixes in the right-hand column.
The Definition List representation introduced by this patch should be
simpler for readers to understand, and doesn't have the warning.
<since> and <until> for the lastmod: prefix right below the date:
prefix description give the impression one could use last modified
dates to lastmod: which is not at all the case. Use
<initial-revision>..<final-revision> instead.
It doesn't seem likely we can support simple date:<expr> expanding to
date:<expr>..<expr> any time soon. (This can be done with a future
version of Xapian, or with a custom query query parser.) In the mean
time, provide shorthand date:<expr>..! to mean the same. This is
useful, as the expansion takes place before interpetation, and we can
use, for example, date:yesterday..! to match from beginning of
yesterday to end of yesterday.
Idea from Mark Walters <markwalters1009@gmail.com>.
Questions related to the way that probabilistic prefixes and phrases
are handled come up quite often and it is nicer to have the documentation self contained. Hopefully putting it in subsections prevents it from being overwhelming.
Adds new entry to the NEWS file, and updates the search terms section
of the man page. The search terms section needs to be updated again
once the new section in the documentation covering probablistic terms
has been committed.
This is the output from sphinx-quickstart, massaged a bit, along with
our existing man pages converted to rst.
A skeleton notmuch-emacs manual is also included. It is not suitable
for end user use yet.
