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====================
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notmuch-search-terms
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====================
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SYNOPSIS
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========
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**notmuch** **count** [option ...] <*search-term*> ...
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**notmuch** **dump** [--gzip] [--format=(batch-tag|sup)] [--output=<*file*>] [--] [<*search-term*> ...]
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**notmuch** **reindex** [option ...] <*search-term*> ...
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**notmuch** **search** [option ...] <*search-term*> ...
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**notmuch** **show** [option ...] <*search-term*> ...
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**notmuch** **tag** +<*tag*> ... -<*tag*> [--] <*search-term*> ...
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DESCRIPTION
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===========
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Several notmuch commands accept a common syntax for search terms.
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The search terms can consist of free-form text (and quoted phrases)
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which will match all messages that contain all of the given
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terms/phrases in the body, the subject, or any of the sender or
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recipient headers.
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As a special case, a search string consisting of exactly a single
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asterisk ("\*") will match all messages.
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Search prefixes
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---------------
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In addition to free text, the following prefixes can be used to force
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terms to match against specific portions of an email, (where <brackets>
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indicate user-supplied values).
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If notmuch is built with **Xapian Field Processors** (see below) some
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of the prefixes with <regex> forms can be also used to restrict the
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results to those whose value matches a regular expression (see
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**regex(7)**) delimited with //, for example::
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notmuch search 'from:"/bob@.*[.]example[.]com/"'
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from:<name-or-address> or from:/<regex>/
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The **from:** prefix is used to match the name or address of
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the sender of an email message.
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to:<name-or-address>
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The **to:** prefix is used to match the names or addresses of any
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recipient of an email message, (whether To, Cc, or Bcc).
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subject:<word-or-quoted-phrase> or subject:/<regex>/
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Any term prefixed with **subject:** will match only text from the
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subject of an email. Searching for a phrase in the subject is
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supported by including quotation marks around the phrase,
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immediately following **subject:**.
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attachment:<word>
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The **attachment:** prefix can be used to search for specific
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filenames (or extensions) of attachments to email messages.
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mimetype:<word>
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The **mimetype:** prefix will be used to match text from the
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content-types of MIME parts within email messages (as specified by
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the sender).
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tag:<tag> or tag:/<regex>/ or is:<tag> or is:/<regex>/
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For **tag:** and **is:** valid tag values include **inbox** and
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**unread** by default for new messages added by **notmuch new** as
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well as any other tag values added manually with **notmuch tag**.
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id:<message-id> or mid:<message-id> or mid:/<regex>/
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For **id:** and **mid:**, message ID values are the literal
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contents of the Message-ID: header of email messages, but without
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the '<', '>' delimiters.
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thread:<thread-id>
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The **thread:** prefix can be used with the thread ID values that
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are generated internally by notmuch (and do not appear in email
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messages). These thread ID values can be seen in the first column
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of output from **notmuch search**
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thread:{<notmuch query>}
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If notmuch is built with **Xapian Field Processors** (see below),
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threads may be searched for indirectly by providing an arbitrary
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notmuch query in **{}**. For example, the following returns
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threads containing a message from mallory and one (not necessarily
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the same message) with Subject containing the word "crypto".
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::
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% notmuch search 'thread:"{from:mallory}" and thread:"{subject:crypto}"'
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The performance of such queries can vary wildly. To understand
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this, the user should think of the query **thread:{<something>}**
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as expanding to all of the thread IDs which match **<something>**;
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notmuch then performs a second search using the expanded query.
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path:<directory-path> or path:<directory-path>/** or path:/<regex>/
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The **path:** prefix searches for email messages that are in
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particular directories within the mail store. The directory must
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be specified relative to the top-level maildir (and without the
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leading slash). By default, **path:** matches messages in the
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specified directory only. The "/\*\*" suffix can be used to match
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messages in the specified directory and all its subdirectories
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recursively. **path:""** matches messages in the root of the mail
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store and, likewise, **path:\*\*** matches all messages.
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**path:** will find a message if *any* copy of that message is in
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the specific directory.
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folder:<maildir-folder> or folder:/<regex>/
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The **folder:** prefix searches for email messages by maildir or
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MH folder. For MH-style folders, this is equivalent to
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**path:**. For maildir, this includes messages in the "new" and
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"cur" subdirectories. The exact syntax for maildir folders depends
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on your mail configuration. For maildir++, **folder:""** matches
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the inbox folder (which is the root in maildir++), other folder
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names always start with ".", and nested folders are separated by
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"."s, such as **folder:.classes.topology**. For "file system"
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maildir, the inbox is typically **folder:INBOX** and nested
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folders are separated by slashes, such as
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**folder:classes/topology**.
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**folder:** will find a message if *any* copy of that message is
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in the specific folder.
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date:<since>..<until> or date:<date>
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The **date:** prefix can be used to restrict the results to only
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messages within a particular time range (based on the Date:
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header).
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See **DATE AND TIME SEARCH** below for details on the range
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expression, and supported syntax for <since> and <until> date and
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time expressions.
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The time range can also be specified using timestamps without
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including the date prefix using a syntax of:
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<initial-timestamp>..<final-timestamp>
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Each timestamp is a number representing the number of seconds
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since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC. Specifying a time range this way
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is considered legacy and predates the date prefix.
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lastmod:<initial-revision>..<final-revision>
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The **lastmod:** prefix can be used to restrict the result by the
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database revision number of when messages were last modified (tags
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were added/removed or filenames changed). This is usually used in
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conjunction with the ``--uuid`` argument to **notmuch search** to
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find messages that have changed since an earlier query.
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query:<name>
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The **query:** prefix allows queries to refer to previously saved
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queries added with **notmuch-config(1)**. Named queries are only
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available if notmuch is built with **Xapian Field Processors**
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(see below).
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property:<key>=<value>
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The **property:** prefix searches for messages with a particular
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<key>=<value> property pair. Properties are used internally by
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notmuch (and extensions) to add metadata to messages. A given key
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can be present on a given message with several different values.
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See **notmuch-properties(7)** for more details.
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Operators
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---------
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In addition to individual terms, multiple terms can be combined with
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Boolean operators (**and**, **or**, **not**, and **xor**). Each term
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in the query will be implicitly connected by a logical AND if no
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explicit operator is provided (except that terms with a common prefix
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will be implicitly combined with OR). The shorthand '-<term>' can be
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used for 'not <term>' but unfortunately this does not work at the
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start of an expression. Parentheses can also be used to control the
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combination of the Boolean operators, but will have to be protected
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from interpretation by the shell, (such as by putting quotation marks
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around any parenthesized expression).
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In addition to the standard boolean operators, Xapian provides several
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operators specific to text searching.
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::
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notmuch search term1 NEAR term2
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will return results where term1 is within 10 words of term2. The
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threshold can be set like this:
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::
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notmuch search term1 NEAR/2 term2
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The search
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::
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notmuch search term1 ADJ term2
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will return results where term1 is within 10 words of term2, but in the
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same order as in the query. The threshold can be set the same as with
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NEAR:
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::
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notmuch search term1 ADJ/7 term2
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Stemming
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--------
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**Stemming** in notmuch means that these searches
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::
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notmuch search detailed
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notmuch search details
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notmuch search detail
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will all return identical results, because Xapian first "reduces" the
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term to the common stem (here 'detail') and then performs the search.
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There are two ways to turn this off: a search for a capitalized word
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will be performed unstemmed, so that one can search for "John" and not
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get results for "Johnson"; phrase searches are also unstemmed (see
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below for details). Stemming is currently only supported for
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English. Searches for words in other languages will be performed unstemmed.
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Wildcards
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---------
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It is possible to use a trailing '\*' as a wildcard. A search for
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'wildc\*' will match 'wildcard', 'wildcat', etc.
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Boolean and Probabilistic Prefixes
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----------------------------------
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Xapian (and hence notmuch) prefixes are either **boolean**, supporting
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exact matches like "tag:inbox" or **probabilistic**, supporting a more
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flexible **term** based searching. Certain **special** prefixes are
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processed by notmuch in a way not strictly fitting either of Xapian's
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built in styles. The prefixes currently supported by notmuch are as
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follows.
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Boolean
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**tag:**, **id:**, **thread:**, **folder:**, **path:**, **property:**
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Probabilistic
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**to:**, **attachment:**, **mimetype:**
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Special
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**from:**, **query:**, **subject:**
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Terms and phrases
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-----------------
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In general Xapian distinguishes between lists of terms and
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**phrases**. Phrases are indicated by double quotes (but beware you
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probably need to protect those from your shell) and insist that those
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unstemmed words occur in that order. One useful, but initially
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surprising feature is that the following are equivalent ways to write
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the same phrase.
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- "a list of words"
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- a-list-of-words
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- a/list/of/words
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- a.list.of.words
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Both parenthesised lists of terms and quoted phrases are ok with
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probabilistic prefixes such as **to:**, **from:**, and **subject:**. In particular
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::
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subject:(pizza free)
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is equivalent to
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::
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subject:pizza and subject:free
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Both of these will match a subject "Free Delicious Pizza" while
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::
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subject:"pizza free"
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will not.
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Quoting
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-------
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Double quotes are also used by the notmuch query parser to protect
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boolean terms, regular expressions, or subqueries containing spaces or
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other special characters, e.g.
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::
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tag:"a tag"
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::
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folder:"/^.*/(Junk|Spam)$/"
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::
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thread:"{from:mallory and date:2009}"
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As with phrases, you need to protect the double quotes from the shell
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e.g.
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::
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% notmuch search 'folder:"/^.*/(Junk|Spam)$/"'
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% notmuch search 'thread:"{from:mallory and date:2009}" and thread:{to:mallory}'
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DATE AND TIME SEARCH
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====================
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notmuch understands a variety of standard and natural ways of expressing
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dates and times, both in absolute terms ("2012-10-24") and in relative
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terms ("yesterday"). Any number of relative terms can be combined ("1
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hour 25 minutes") and an absolute date/time can be combined with
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relative terms to further adjust it. A non-exhaustive description of the
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syntax supported for absolute and relative terms is given below.
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The range expression
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--------------------
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date:<since>..<until>
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The above expression restricts the results to only messages from <since>
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to <until>, based on the Date: header.
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<since> and <until> can describe imprecise times, such as "yesterday".
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In this case, <since> is taken as the earliest time it could describe
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(the beginning of yesterday) and <until> is taken as the latest time it
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could describe (the end of yesterday). Similarly, date:january..february
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matches from the beginning of January to the end of February.
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If specifying a time range using timestamps in conjunction with the
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date prefix, each timestamp must be preceded by @ (ASCII hex 40). As
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above, each timestamp is a number representing the number of seconds
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since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC. For example:
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date:@<initial-timestamp>..@<final-timestamp>
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date:<expr>..! can be used as a shorthand for date:<expr>..<expr>. The
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expansion takes place before interpretation, and thus, for example,
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date:monday..! matches from the beginning of Monday until the end of
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Monday.
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With **Xapian Field Processor** support (see below), non-range
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date queries such as date:yesterday will work, but otherwise
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will give unexpected results; if in doubt use date:yesterday..!
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Currently, we do not support spaces in range expressions. You can
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replace the spaces with '\_', or (in most cases) '-', or (in some cases)
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leave the spaces out altogether. Examples in this man page use spaces
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for clarity.
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Open-ended ranges are supported (since Xapian 1.2.1), i.e. it's possible
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to specify date:..<until> or date:<since>.. to not limit the start or
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end time, respectively. Pre-1.2.1 Xapian does not report an error on
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open ended ranges, but it does not work as expected either.
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Relative date and time
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----------------------
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[N\|number]
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(years\|months\|weeks\|days\|hours\|hrs\|minutes\|mins\|seconds\|secs)
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[...]
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All refer to past, can be repeated and will be accumulated.
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Units can be abbreviated to any length, with the otherwise ambiguous
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single m being m for minutes and M for months.
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Number can also be written out one, two, ..., ten, dozen, hundred.
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Additionally, the unit may be preceded by "last" or "this" (e.g., "last
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week" or "this month").
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When combined with absolute date and time, the relative date and time
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specification will be relative from the specified absolute date and
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time.
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Examples: 5M2d, two weeks
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Supported absolute time formats
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-------------------------------
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- H[H]:MM[:SS] [(am\|a.m.\|pm\|p.m.)]
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- H[H] (am\|a.m.\|pm\|p.m.)
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- HHMMSS
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- now
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- noon
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- midnight
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- Examples: 17:05, 5pm
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Supported absolute date formats
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-------------------------------
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- YYYY-MM[-DD]
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- DD-MM[-[YY]YY]
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- MM-YYYY
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- M[M]/D[D][/[YY]YY]
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- M[M]/YYYY
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- D[D].M[M][.[YY]YY]
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- D[D][(st\|nd\|rd\|th)] Mon[thname] [YYYY]
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- Mon[thname] D[D][(st\|nd\|rd\|th)] [YYYY]
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- Wee[kday]
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Month names can be abbreviated at three or more characters.
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Weekday names can be abbreviated at three or more characters.
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Examples: 2012-07-31, 31-07-2012, 7/31/2012, August 3
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Time zones
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----------
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- (+\|-)HH:MM
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- (+\|-)HH[MM]
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Some time zone codes, e.g. UTC, EET.
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XAPIAN FIELD PROCESSORS
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=======================
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Certain optional features of the notmuch query processor rely on the
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presence of the Xapian field processor API. You can determine if your
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notmuch was built against a sufficiently recent version of Xapian by running
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::
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% notmuch config get built_with.field_processor
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Currently the following features require field processor support:
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- non-range date queries, e.g. "date:today"
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- named queries e.g. "query:my_special_query"
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- regular expression searches, e.g. "subject:/^\\[SPAM\\]/"
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- thread subqueries, e.g. "thread:{from:bob}"
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SEE ALSO
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========
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**notmuch(1)**,
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**notmuch-config(1)**,
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**notmuch-count(1)**,
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**notmuch-dump(1)**,
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**notmuch-hooks(5)**,
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**notmuch-insert(1)**,
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**notmuch-new(1)**,
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**notmuch-reindex(1)**,
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**notmuch-properties(1)**,
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***notmuch-reply(1)**,
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**notmuch-restore(1)**,
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**notmuch-search(1)**,
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***notmuch-show(1)**,
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**notmuch-tag(1)**
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