+ notmuch understands a variety of standard and natural ways of express‐
+ ing dates and times, both in absolute terms ("2012-10-24") and in rela‐
+ tive terms ("yesterday"). Any number of relative terms can be combined
+ ("1 hour 25 minutes") and an absolute date/time can be combined with
+ relative terms to further adjust it. A non-exhaustive description of
+ the syntax supported for absolute and relative terms is given below.
+</pre>
+
+<h3> The range expression</h3>
+<pre>
+ 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..febru‐
+ ary matches from the beginning of January to the end of February.
+
+ date:<expr>..! can be used as a shorthand for date:<expr>..<expr>. The
+ expansion takes place before interpretation, and thus, for example,
+ date:monday..! matches from the beginning of Monday until the end of
+ Monday. With <b>Xapian</b> <b>Field</b> <b>Processor</b> support (see below), non-range
+ date queries such as date:yesterday will work, but otherwise will give
+ unexpected results; if in doubt use date:yesterday..!
+
+ 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 possi‐
+ ble 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.
+</pre>
+
+<h3> Relative date and time</h3>
+<pre>
+ [N|number] (years|months|weeks|days|hours|hrs|minutes|mins|sec‐
+ onds|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
+</pre>
+
+<h3> Supported absolute time formats</h3>
+<pre>
+ · 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
+</pre>
+
+<h3> Supported absolute date formats</h3>
+<pre>
+ · 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
+</pre>
+
+<h3> Time zones</h3>
+<pre>
+ · (+|-)HH:MM
+
+ · (+|-)HH[MM]
+
+ Some time zone codes, e.g. UTC, EET.
+</pre>
+
+<h2>XAPIAN FIELD PROCESSORS</h2>
+<pre>
+ Certain optional features of the notmuch query processor rely on the
+ presence of the Xapian field processor API. You can determine if your
+ notmuch was built against a sufficiently recent version of Xapian by
+ running
+
+ % notmuch config get built_with.field_processor
+
+ Currently the following features require field processor support:
+
+ · non-range date queries, e.g. "date:today"
+
+ · named queries e.g. "query:my_special_query"