8 **notmuch** **count** [option ...] <*search-term*> ...
10 **notmuch** **dump** [--format=(batch-tag|sup)] [--] [--output=<*file*>] [--] [<*search-term*> ...]
12 **notmuch** **search** [option ...] <*search-term*> ...
14 **notmuch** **show** [option ...] <*search-term*> ...
16 **notmuch** **tag** +<*tag*> ... -<*tag*> [--] <*search-term*> ...
21 Several notmuch commands accept a common syntax for search terms.
23 The search terms can consist of free-form text (and quoted phrases)
24 which will match all messages that contain all of the given
25 terms/phrases in the body, the subject, or any of the sender or
28 As a special case, a search string consisting of exactly a single
29 asterisk ("\*") will match all messages.
31 In addition to free text, the following prefixes can be used to force
32 terms to match against specific portions of an email, (where <brackets>
33 indicate user-supplied values):
35 - from:<name-or-address>
37 - to:<name-or-address>
39 - subject:<word-or-quoted-phrase>
45 - tag:<tag> (or is:<tag>)
51 - folder:<maildir-folder>
53 - path:<directory-path> or path:<directory-path>/**
55 - date:<since>..<until>
57 The **from:** prefix is used to match the name or address of the sender
60 The **to:** prefix is used to match the names or addresses of any
61 recipient of an email message, (whether To, Cc, or Bcc).
63 Any term prefixed with **subject:** will match only text from the
64 subject of an email. Searching for a phrase in the subject is supported
65 by including quotation marks around the phrase, immediately following
68 The **attachment:** prefix can be used to search for specific filenames
69 (or extensions) of attachments to email messages.
71 The **mimetype:** prefix will be used to match text from the
72 content-types of MIME parts within email messages (as specified by the
75 For **tag:** and **is:** valid tag values include **inbox** and
76 **unread** by default for new messages added by **notmuch new** as well
77 as any other tag values added manually with **notmuch tag**.
79 For **id:**, message ID values are the literal contents of the
80 Message-ID: header of email messages, but without the '<', '>'
83 The **thread:** prefix can be used with the thread ID values that are
84 generated internally by notmuch (and do not appear in email messages).
85 These thread ID values can be seen in the first column of output from
88 The **path:** prefix searches for email messages that are in
89 particular directories within the mail store. The directory must be
90 specified relative to the top-level maildir (and without the leading
91 slash). By default, **path:** matches messages in the specified
92 directory only. The "/\*\*" suffix can be used to match messages in
93 the specified directory and all its subdirectories recursively.
94 **path:""** matches messages in the root of the mail store and,
95 likewise, **path:\*\*** matches all messages.
97 The **folder:** prefix searches for email messages by maildir or MH
98 folder. For MH-style folders, this is equivalent to **path:**. For
99 maildir, this includes messages in the "new" and "cur"
100 subdirectories. The exact syntax for maildir folders depends on your
101 mail configuration. For maildir++, **folder:""** matches the inbox
102 folder (which is the root in maildir++), other folder names always
103 start with ".", and nested folders are separated by "."s, such as
104 **folder:.classes.topology**. For "file system" maildir, the inbox is
105 typically **folder:INBOX** and nested folders are separated by
106 slashes, such as **folder:classes/topology**.
108 Both **path:** and **folder:** will find a message if *any* copy of
109 that message is in the specific directory/folder.
111 The **date:** prefix can be used to restrict the results to only
112 messages within a particular time range (based on the Date: header) with
115 date:<since>..<until>
117 See **DATE AND TIME SEARCH** below for details on the range expression,
118 and supported syntax for <since> and <until> date and time expressions.
120 The time range can also be specified using timestamps with a syntax of:
122 <initial-timestamp>..<final-timestamp>
124 Each timestamp is a number representing the number of seconds since
125 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC.
127 In addition to individual terms, multiple terms can be combined with
128 Boolean operators ( **and**, **or**, **not** , etc.). Each term in the
129 query will be implicitly connected by a logical AND if no explicit
130 operator is provided, (except that terms with a common prefix will be
131 implicitly combined with OR until we get Xapian defect #402 fixed).
133 Parentheses can also be used to control the combination of the Boolean
134 operators, but will have to be protected from interpretation by the
135 shell, (such as by putting quotation marks around any parenthesized
141 notmuch understands a variety of standard and natural ways of expressing
142 dates and times, both in absolute terms ("2012-10-24") and in relative
143 terms ("yesterday"). Any number of relative terms can be combined ("1
144 hour 25 minutes") and an absolute date/time can be combined with
145 relative terms to further adjust it. A non-exhaustive description of the
146 syntax supported for absolute and relative terms is given below.
151 date:<since>..<until>
153 The above expression restricts the results to only messages from <since>
154 to <until>, based on the Date: header.
156 <since> and <until> can describe imprecise times, such as "yesterday".
157 In this case, <since> is taken as the earliest time it could describe
158 (the beginning of yesterday) and <until> is taken as the latest time it
159 could describe (the end of yesterday). Similarly, date:january..february
160 matches from the beginning of January to the end of February.
162 Currently, we do not support spaces in range expressions. You can
163 replace the spaces with '\_', or (in most cases) '-', or (in some cases)
164 leave the spaces out altogether. Examples in this man page use spaces
167 Open-ended ranges are supported (since Xapian 1.2.1), i.e. it's possible
168 to specify date:..<until> or date:<since>.. to not limit the start or
169 end time, respectively. Pre-1.2.1 Xapian does not report an error on
170 open ended ranges, but it does not work as expected either.
172 Entering date:expr without ".." (for example date:yesterday) won't work,
173 as it's not interpreted as a range expression at all. You can achieve
174 the expected result by duplicating the expr both sides of ".." (for
175 example date:yesterday..yesterday).
177 Relative date and time
178 ----------------------
181 (years\|months\|weeks\|days\|hours\|hrs\|minutes\|mins\|seconds\|secs)
184 All refer to past, can be repeated and will be accumulated.
186 Units can be abbreviated to any length, with the otherwise ambiguous
187 single m being m for minutes and M for months.
189 Number can also be written out one, two, ..., ten, dozen, hundred.
190 Additionally, the unit may be preceded by "last" or "this" (e.g., "last
191 week" or "this month").
193 When combined with absolute date and time, the relative date and time
194 specification will be relative from the specified absolute date and
197 Examples: 5M2d, two weeks
199 Supported absolute time formats
200 -------------------------------
202 - H[H]:MM[:SS] [(am\|a.m.\|pm\|p.m.)]
204 - H[H] (am\|a.m.\|pm\|p.m.)
214 - Examples: 17:05, 5pm
216 Supported absolute date formats
217 -------------------------------
231 - D[D][(st\|nd\|rd\|th)] Mon[thname] [YYYY]
233 - Mon[thname] D[D][(st\|nd\|rd\|th)] [YYYY]
237 Month names can be abbreviated at three or more characters.
239 Weekday names can be abbreviated at three or more characters.
241 Examples: 2012-07-31, 31-07-2012, 7/31/2012, August 3
250 Some time zone codes, e.g. UTC, EET.
255 **notmuch(1)**, **notmuch-config(1)**, **notmuch-count(1)**,
256 **notmuch-dump(1)**, **notmuch-hooks(5)**, **notmuch-insert(1)**,
257 **notmuch-new(1)**, **notmuch-reply(1)**, **notmuch-restore(1)**,
258 **notmuch-search(1)**, **notmuch-show(1)**, **notmuch-tag(1)**