NOTMUCH-SEXP-QUERIES(7)

NAME

       notmuch-sexp-queries - s-expression syntax for notmuch queries

SYNOPSIS

       notmuch subcommand --query=sexp [option ...]  -- '(and (to santa) (date
       december))'

DESCRIPTION

       Notmuch supports an alternative query syntax based on  S-expressions  .
       It  can  be selected with the command line --query=sexp or with the ap‐
       propriate option to the library function notmuch_query_create_with_syn-
       tax().   Support for this syntax is currently optional, you can test if
       your build of notmuch supports it with

          $ notmuch config get built_with.sexp_queries

  S-EXPRESSIONS

       An s-expression is either an atom,  or  list  of  whitespace  delimited
       s-expressions inside parentheses. Atoms are either

       basic value
          A basic value is an unquoted string containing no whitespace, double
          quotes, or parentheses.

       quoted string
          Double quotes (") delimit strings possibly containing whitespace  or
          parentheses.  These  can contain double quote characters by escaping
          with backslash. E.g. "this is a quote \"".

  S-EXPRESSION QUERIES

       An s-expression query is either an atom, the empty list, or a  compound
       query  consisting  of  a  prefix atom (first element) defining a field,
       logical operation, or modifier, and 0 or more subqueries.

       *
          "*" matches any non-empty string in the current field.

       ()
          The empty list matches all messages

       term
          Match all messages  containing  term,  possibly  after  stemming  or
          phrase  splitting.  For  discussion  of stemming in notmuch see not‐
          much-search-terms(7). Stemming only applies to unquoted terms (basic
          values)  in  s-expression queries.  For information on phrase split‐
          ting see FIELDS.

       ( field q1 q2 ... qn )
          Restrict the queries q1 to qn to field, and combine  with  and  (for
          most fields) or or. See FIELDS for more information.

       ( operator q1 q2 ... qn )
          Combine queries q1 to qn. Currently supported operators are and, or,
          and not. (not q1 ... qn ) is equivalent to (and (not q1 )  ...  (not
          qn )).

       ( modifier q1 q2 ... qn )
          Combine queries q1 to qn, and reinterpret the result (e.g. as a reg‐
          ular expression).  See MODIFIERS for more information.

       (macro ( p1 ... pn ) body)
          Define saved query with parameter substitution. The syntax is recog‐
          nized  only  in  saved  s-expression  queries  (see squery.* in not‐
          much-config(1)). Parameter names in body must be prefixed with ,  to
          be expanded (see MACRO EXAMPLES).  Macros may refer to other macros,
          but only to their own parameters [1].

  FIELDS

       Fields [2] correspond to attributes of mail messages. Some are inherent
       (and  immutable)  like  subject, while others tag and property are set‐
       table by the user.  Each concrete field in the table below is discussed
       further  under  "Search  prefixes"  in notmuch-search-terms(7). The row
       user refers to user defined fields, described in notmuch-config(1).

       Most fields are either phrase fields  [3]  (which  match  sequences  of
       words),  or  term fields [4] (which match exact strings). Phrase split‐
       ting breaks the term (basic value or quoted string) into words,  ignore
       punctuation.  Phrase  splitting  is  applied to terms in phrase (proba‐
       bilistic) fields. Both phrase splitting  and  stemming  apply  only  in
       phrase fields.

       Each  term or phrase field has an associated combining operator (and or
       or) used to combine the queries from each element of the  tail  of  the
       list.  This  is  generally  or for those fields where a message has one
       such attribute, and and otherwise.

       Term or phrase fields can contain arbitrarily complex queries  made  up
       from terms, operators, and modifiers, but not other fields.

  Fields with supported modifiers

             ┌───────────┬─────────┬────────┬────────┬──────────┬───────┐
             │field      │ combine │ type   │ expand │ wildcard │ regex │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │none       │ and     │        │ no     │ yes      │ no    │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │user       │ and     │ phrase │ no     │ yes      │ no    │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │attachment │ and     │ phrase │ yes    │ yes      │ no    │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │body       │ and     │ phrase │ no     │ no       │ no    │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │date       │         │ range  │ no     │ no       │ no    │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │folder     │ or      │ phrase │ yes    │ yes      │ yes   │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │from       │ and     │ phrase │ yes    │ yes      │ yes   │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │id         │ or      │ term   │ no     │ yes      │ yes   │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │is         │ and     │ term   │ yes    │ yes      │ yes   │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │lastmod    │         │ range  │ no     │ no       │ no    │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │mid        │ or      │ term   │ no     │ yes      │ yes   │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │mimetype   │ or      │ phrase │ yes    │ yes      │ no    │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │path       │ or      │ term   │ no     │ yes      │ yes   │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │property   │ and     │ term   │ yes    │ yes      │ yes   │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │subject    │ and     │ phrase │ yes    │ yes      │ yes   │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │tag        │ and     │ term   │ yes    │ yes      │ yes   │
             ├───────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────┤
             │thread     │ or      │ term   │ yes    │ yes      │ yes   │
             └───────────┴─────────┴────────┴────────┴──────────┴───────┘

             │to         │ and     │ phrase │ yes    │ yes      │ no    │
             └───────────┴─────────┴────────┴────────┴──────────┴───────┘

  MODIFIERS

       Modifiers  refer  to  any prefixes (first elements of compound queries)
       that are neither operators nor fields.

       (infix atom )
          Interpret   atom   as   an   infix   notmuch   query    (see    not‐
          much-search-terms(7)). Not supported inside fields.

       (matching q1 q2 ... qn ) (of q1 q2 ... qn  )
          Match  all  messages  have  the  same values of the current field as
          those matching all of q1 ... qn.  Supported  in  most  term  [7]  or
          phrase fields. Most commonly used in the thread field.

       (query atom )
          Expand  to  the saved query named by atom. See notmuch-config(1) for
          more. Note that the saved  query  must  be  in  infix  syntax  (not‐
          much-search-terms(7)). Not supported inside fields.

       (regex atom ) (rx atom )
          Interpret  atom as a POSIX.2 regular expression (see regex(7)). This
          applies in term fields and a subset [5] of phrase fields (see Fields
          with supported modifiers).

       (starts-with subword )
          Matches  any  term  starting  with  subword.  This applies in either
          phrase or term fields,  or  outside  of  fields  [6].  Note  that  a
          starts-with  query  cannot be part of a phrase. The atom * is a syn‐
          onym for (starts-with "").

EXAMPLES

       Wizard
          Match all messages containing the word "wizard", ignoring case.

       added
          Match all messages containing "added",  but  also  those  containing
          "add", "additional", "Additional", "adds", etc... via stemming.

       (and Bob Marley)
          Match  messages  containing words "Bob" and "Marley", or their stems
          The words need not be adjacent.

       (not Bob Marley)
          Match messages containing neither  "Bob"  nor  "Marley",  nor  their
          stems,

       "quick fox" quick-fox quick@fox
          Match the phrase "quick" followed by "fox" in phrase fields (or out‐
          side a field). Match the literal string in a term field.

       (folder (of (id 1234@invalid)))
          Match any message in the same folder as the one with  Message-Id  "‐
          1234@invalid"

       (id 1234@invalid blah@test)
          Matches Message-Id "1234@invalid" or Message-Id "blah@test"

       (and (infix "date:2009-11-18..2009-11-18") (tag unread))
          Match messages in the given date range with tag unread.

       (starts-with prelim)
          Match any words starting with "prelim".

       (subject quick "brown fox")
          Match  messages  whose  subject contains "quick" (anywhere, stemmed)
          and the phrase "brown fox".

       (subject (starts-with prelim))
          Matches any word starting with "prelim", inside a message subject.

       (subject (starts-wih quick) "brown fox")
          Match messages whose subject contains "quick brown  fox",  but  also
          "brown fox quicksand".

       (thread (of (id 1234@invalid)))
          Match  any  message in the same thread as the one with Message-Id "‐
          1234@invalid"

       (thread (matching (from bob@example.com) (to bob@example.com)))
          Match any (messages in)  a  thread  containing  a  message  from  "‐
          bob@example.com"  and a (possibly distinct) message to "bob at exam‐
          ple.com")

       (to (or bob@example.com mallory@example.org)) (or (to  bob@example.com)
       (to mallory@example.org))
          Match   in   the   "To"   or  "Cc"  headers,  "bob@example.com",  "‐
          mallory@example.org", and also "bob@example.com.au"  since  it  con‐
          tains the adjacent triple "bob", "example", "com".

       (not (to *))
          Match messages with an empty or invalid 'To' and 'Cc' field.

       (List *)
          Match  messages with a non-empty List-Id header, assuming configura‐
          tion index.header.List=List-Id

  MACRO EXAMPLES

       A macro that takes two parameters and applies different fields to them.

          $ notmuch config set squery.TagSubject '(macro (tagname subj) (and (tag ,tagname) (subject ,subj)))'
          $ notmuch search --query=sexp '(TagSubject inbox maildir)'

       Nested macros are allowed.

          $ notmuch config set squery.Inner '(macro (x) (subject ,x))'
          $ notmuch config set squery.Outer  '(macro (x y) (and (tag ,x) (Inner ,y)))'
          $ notmuch search --query=sexp '(Outer inbox maildir)'

       Parameters can be re-used to reduce boilerplate. Any  field,  including
       user defined fields is permitted within a macro.

          $ notmuch config set squery.About '(macro (name) (or (subject ,name) (List ,name)))'
          $ notmuch search --query=sexp '(About notmuch)'

NOTES

       [1]  Technically  macros  impliment  lazy evaluation and lexical scope.
            There is one top level scope containing all macro definitions, but
            all parameter definitions are local to a given macro.

       [2]  a.k.a. prefixes

       [3]  a.k.a. probabilistic prefixes

       [4]  a.k.a. boolean prefixes

       [5]  Due  to the implemention of phrase fields in Xapian, regex queries
            could only match individual words.

       [6]  Due the the way body is implemented in notmuch, this  modifier  is
            not supported in the body field.

       [7]  Due  to the way recursive path queries are implemented in notmuch,
            this modifier is not supported in the path field.

AUTHOR

       Carl Worth and many others

COPYRIGHT

       2009-2022, Carl Worth and many others

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