complete sentence

[notmuch-wiki] / faq.mdwn

diff --git a/faq.mdwn b/faq.mdwn
index b1588fb4b55d19e0aade98a00c0bdfcc19e9c697..652d33015b4afe427bec0784d36a43c6a3b1b306 100644 (file)
--- a/faq.mdwn
+++ b/faq.mdwn
@@ -12,6 +12,19 @@ with the same message (i.e. the files have identical Message-ID). A
 `folder:` search will match the folder of any of the files. The
 `--output=files` option outputs all the files of all matching messages.
 
+## How come this query does not list all the emails on the file system? `notmuch search --output=files -- folder:inbox`
+
+You may have emails that only have some of the excluded tags.
+
+Notmuch can be configured to exclude some tags while searching. You can list excluded tags with
+
+       $ notmuch config get search.exclude_tags
+       deleted
+
+To verify this is the reason of the discrepancy, add the excluded tags explicitly to your query.
+
+       $ notmuch search --output=files -- folder:inbox tag:deleted
+
 ## Shouldn't notmuch support inline PGP?
 
 [Why it might not be a good idea](https://dkg.fifthhorseman.net/notes/inline-pgp-harmful/)
@@ -29,7 +42,8 @@ See help for `message-citation-line-format` for details.
 
 ## What are sexp queries?
 
-For the syntax of sexp queries, see [[the man page|manpages/notmuch-sexp-queries-7]].
+For the syntax of sexp queries, see [the manual
+page](https://notmuchmail.org/doc/latest/man7/notmuch-sexp-queries.html).
 
 To see if your version of notmuch supports them, run
 
@@ -58,8 +72,8 @@ Next, use that to query the messages:
 
 ## How do I search for punctuation, specific special characters, or regexp?
 
-Please see the [[notmuch-search-terms manual
-page|manpages/notmuch-search-terms-7]] first.
+Please see the [notmuch-search-terms manual
+page](https://notmuchmail.org/doc/latest/man7/notmuch-search-terms.html) first.
 
 The main thing to understand is that Xapian, and therefore Notmuch, searches are
 closer to natural language searches than regular expression
@@ -68,6 +82,17 @@ searches. Punctuation is mostly ignored.
 The boolean prefix searches (see Boolean and Probabilistic Prefixes in the man
 page), such as tag: or path: searches, need an exact match.
 
+For [specific
+fields](https://notmuchmail.org/doc/latest/man7/notmuch-search-terms.html#search-prefixes)
+it is possible to use regex searches (although these are often
+noticeably slower than native Xapian queries). The limited set of
+fields is a quirk of implementation which requires a Xapian "value
+slot" in the database schema. Adding regex support for more fields to
+would require of adding more value slots to the schema. The
+performance impact of that needs to be experimentally evaluated, and
+assuming it is not too bad, some database upgrade code would need to
+be written.
+
 ## How do I search for folders or paths with spaces?
 
 The spaces in the names must be escaped. For example if you use bash or zsh,
@@ -94,8 +119,8 @@ This is required in order to run the `pre-new` and `post-new` hooks.
 No. Tagging is message based.
 
 It is possible, however, to make tags propagate to all messages in a thread
-using a little bit of scripting in the [[post-new
-hook|manpages/notmuch-hooks-5]]. For example, to add the muted tag to all
+using a little bit of scripting in the [post-new
+hook](https://notmuchmail.org/doc/latest/man5/notmuch-hooks.html). For example, to add the muted tag to all
 messages in threads that have at least one message with the muted tag:
 
         THREAD_TAGS="muted"