NOTMUCH-SEARCH-TERMS(7)                      notmuch                      NOTMUCH-SEARCH-TERMS(7)



NAME
       notmuch-search-terms - syntax for notmuch queries

SYNOPSIS
       notmuch count [option ...] <search-term> ...

       notmuch dump [--format=(batch-tag|sup)] [--] [--output=<file>] [--] [<search-term> ...]

       notmuch search [option ...] <search-term> ...

       notmuch show [option ...] <search-term> ...

       notmuch tag +<tag> ... -<tag> [--] <search-term> ...

DESCRIPTION
       Several notmuch commands accept a common syntax for search terms.

       The  search  terms can consist of free-form text (and quoted phrases) which will match all
       messages that contain all of the given terms/phrases in the body, the subject, or  any  of
       the sender or recipient headers.

       As  a  special  case,  a  search string consisting of exactly a single asterisk ("*") will
       match all messages.

       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>

       · tag:<tag> (or is:<tag>)

       · id:<message-id>

       · thread:<thread-id>

       · folder:<maildir-folder>

       · path:<directory-path> or path:<directory-path>/**

       · date:<since>..<until>

       The from: prefix is used to match the name or address of the sender of an email message.

       The  to:  prefix is used to match the names or addresses of any recipient of an email mes‐
       sage, (whether To, Cc, or Bcc).

       Any term prefixed with subject: will match only text from the subject of an email. Search‐
       ing  for  a  phrase  in  the  subject is supported by including quotation marks around the
       phrase, immediately following subject:.

       The attachment: prefix can be used to search for specific  filenames  (or  extensions)  of
       attachments to email messages.

       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.

       For id:, message ID values are the literal contents of the  Message-ID:  header  of  email
       messages, but without the '<', '>' delimiters.

       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 sub‐
       directories  recursively.   path:""  matches  messages  in the root of the mail store and,
       likewise, path:** matches all messages.

       The folder: prefix searches for email messages by maildir or MH folder. For MH-style fold‐
       ers,  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 configura‐
       tion.  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.

       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:

       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.

       The time range can also be specified using timestamps with 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.

       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).

       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).

DATE AND TIME SEARCH
       notmuch  understands a variety of standard and natural ways of expressing dates and times,
       both in absolute terms ("2012-10-24") and in relative terms ("yesterday"). Any  number  of
       relative terms can be combined ("1 hour 25 minutes") and an absolute date/time can be com‐
       bined with relative terms to further adjust it. A non-exhaustive description of the syntax
       supported for absolute and relative terms is given below.

   The range expression
       date:<since>..<until>

       The above expression restricts the results to only messages from <since> to <until>, based
       on the Date: header.

       <since> and <until> can describe imprecise times, such  as  "yesterday".   In  this  case,
       <since>  is  taken as the earliest time it could describe (the beginning of yesterday) and
       <until> is taken as the latest time it 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 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.

       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 duplicat‐
       ing the expr both sides of ".." (for example date:yesterday..yesterday).

   Relative date and time
       [N|number] (years|months|weeks|days|hours|hrs|minutes|mins|seconds|secs) [...]

       All refer to past, can be repeated and will be accumulated.

       Units can be abbreviated to any length, with the otherwise ambiguous single m being m  for
       minutes and M for months.

       Number can also be written out one, two, ..., ten, dozen, hundred.  Additionally, the unit
       may be preceded by "last" or "this" (e.g., "last week" or "this month").

       When combined with absolute date and time, the relative date and time  specification  will
       be relative from the specified absolute date and time.

       Examples: 5M2d, two weeks

   Supported absolute time formats
       · H[H]:MM[:SS] [(am|a.m.|pm|p.m.)]

       · H[H] (am|a.m.|pm|p.m.)

       · HHMMSS

       · now

       · noon

       · midnight

       · Examples: 17:05, 5pm

   Supported absolute date formats
       · YYYY-MM[-DD]

       · DD-MM[-[YY]YY]

       · MM-YYYY

       · M[M]/D[D][/[YY]YY]

       · M[M]/YYYY

       · D[D].M[M][.[YY]YY]

       · D[D][(st|nd|rd|th)] Mon[thname] [YYYY]

       · Mon[thname] D[D][(st|nd|rd|th)] [YYYY]

       · Wee[kday]

       Month names can be abbreviated at three or more characters.

       Weekday names can be abbreviated at three or more characters.

       Examples: 2012-07-31, 31-07-2012, 7/31/2012, August 3

   Time zones
       · (+|-)HH:MM

       · (+|-)HH[MM]

       Some time zone codes, e.g. UTC, EET.

SEE ALSO
       notmuch(1),  notmuch-config(1),  notmuch-count(1), notmuch-dump(1), notmuch-hooks(5), not‐
       much-insert(1), notmuch-new(1), notmuch-reply(1),  notmuch-restore(1),  notmuch-search(1),
       notmuch-show(1), notmuch-tag(1)

AUTHOR
       Carl Worth and many others

COPYRIGHT
       2014, Carl Worth and many others




0.18.2                                   October 25, 2014                 NOTMUCH-SEARCH-TERMS(7)