<pre>
<b>notmuch</b> <b>count</b> [option ...] <<u>search-term</u>> ...
- <b>notmuch</b> <b>dump</b> [--format=(batch-tag|sup)] [--] [--output=<<u>file</u>>] [--]
+ <b>notmuch</b> <b>dump</b> [--gzip] [--format=(batch-tag|sup)] [--output=<<u>file</u>>] [--]
[<<u>search-term</u>> ...]
+ <b>notmuch</b> <b>reindex</b> [option ...] <<u>search-term</u>> ...
+
<b>notmuch</b> <b>search</b> [option ...] <<u>search-term</u>> ...
<b>notmuch</b> <b>show</b> [option ...] <<u>search-term</u>> ...
terms/phrases in the body, the subject, or any of the sender or recipi‐
ent headers.
- As a special case, a search string consisting of exactly a single
- asterisk ("*") will match all messages.
+ As a special case, a search string consisting of exactly a single as‐
+ terisk ("*") will match all messages.
+</pre>
+<h3> Search prefixes</h3>
+<pre>
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>
-
- · mimetype:<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 <b>from:</b> prefix is used to match the name or address of the sender of
- an email message.
-
- The <b>to:</b> prefix is used to match the names or addresses of any recipient
- of an email message, (whether To, Cc, or Bcc).
-
- Any term prefixed with <b>subject:</b> will match only text from the subject
- of an email. Searching for a phrase in the subject is supported by
- including quotation marks around the phrase, immediately following <b>sub-</b>
- <b>ject:</b>.
-
- The <b>attachment:</b> prefix can be used to search for specific filenames (or
- extensions) of attachments to email messages.
-
- The <b>mimetype:</b> prefix will be used to match text from the content-types
- of MIME parts within email messages (as specified by the sender).
-
- For <b>tag:</b> and <b>is:</b> valid tag values include <b>inbox</b> and <b>unread</b> by default
- for new messages added by <b>notmuch</b> <b>new</b> as well as any other tag values
- added manually with <b>notmuch</b> <b>tag</b>.
-
- For <b>id:</b>, message ID values are the literal contents of the Message-ID:
- header of email messages, but without the '<', '>' delimiters.
-
- The <b>thread:</b> prefix can be used with the thread ID values that are gen‐
- erated internally by notmuch (and do not appear in email messages).
- These thread ID values can be seen in the first column of output from
- <b>notmuch</b> <b>search</b>
-
- The <b>path:</b> prefix searches for email messages that are in particular
- directories within the mail store. The directory must be specified rel‐
- ative to the top-level maildir (and without the leading slash). By
- default, <b>path:</b> matches messages in the specified directory only. The
- "/**" suffix can be used to match messages in the specified directory
- and all its subdirectories recursively. <b>path:""</b> matches messages in
- the root of the mail store and, likewise, <b>path:**</b> matches all messages.
-
- The <b>folder:</b> prefix searches for email messages by maildir or MH folder.
- For MH-style folders, this is equivalent to <b>path:</b>. For maildir, this
- includes messages in the "new" and "cur" subdirectories. The exact syn‐
- tax for maildir folders depends on your mail configuration. For
- maildir++, <b>folder:""</b> matches the inbox folder (which is the root in
- maildir++), other folder names always start with ".", and nested fold‐
- ers are separated by "."s, such as <b>folder:.classes.topology</b>. For "file
- system" maildir, the inbox is typically <b>folder:INBOX</b> and nested folders
- are separated by slashes, such as <b>folder:classes/topology</b>.
-
- Both <b>path:</b> and <b>folder:</b> will find a message if <u>any</u> copy of that message
- is in the specific directory/folder.
-
- The <b>date:</b> 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 <b>DATE</b> <b>AND</b> <b>TIME</b> <b>SEARCH</b> 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.
+ indicate user-supplied values).
+
+ Some of the prefixes with <regex> forms can be also used to restrict
+ the results to those whose value matches a regular expression (see
+ <b>regex</b>(7)) delimited with //, for example:
+
+ notmuch search 'from:"/bob@.*[.]example[.]com/"'
+
+ <b>body:<word-or-quoted-phrase></b>
+ Match terms in the body of messages.
+
+ <b>from:<name-or-address></b> <b>or</b> <b>from:/<regex>/</b>
+ The <b>from:</b> prefix is used to match the name or address of the
+ sender of an email message.
+
+ <b>to:<name-or-address></b>
+ The <b>to:</b> prefix is used to match the names or addresses of any
+ recipient of an email message, (whether To, Cc, or Bcc).
+
+ <b>subject:<word-or-quoted-phrase></b> <b>or</b> <b>subject:/<regex>/</b>
+ Any term prefixed with <b>subject:</b> will match only text from the
+ subject of an email. Searching for a phrase in the subject is
+ supported by including quotation marks around the phrase, imme‐
+ diately following <b>subject:</b>.
+
+ <b>attachment:<word></b>
+ The <b>attachment:</b> prefix can be used to search for specific file‐
+ names (or extensions) of attachments to email messages.
+
+ <b>mimetype:<word></b>
+ The <b>mimetype:</b> prefix will be used to match text from the con‐
+ tent-types of MIME parts within email messages (as specified by
+ the sender).
+
+ <b>tag:<tag></b> <b>or</b> <b>tag:/<regex>/</b> <b>or</b> <b>is:<tag></b> <b>or</b> <b>is:/<regex>/</b>
+ For <b>tag:</b> and <b>is:</b> valid tag values include <b>inbox</b> and <b>unread</b> by
+ default for new messages added by <a href='../notmuch-new-1/'>notmuch-new</a>(1) as well as any
+ other tag values added manually with <a href='../notmuch-tag-1/'>notmuch-tag</a>(1).
+
+ <b>id:<message-id></b> <b>or</b> <b>mid:<message-id></b> <b>or</b> <b>mid:/<regex>/</b>
+ For <b>id:</b> and <b>mid:</b>, message ID values are the literal contents of
+ the Message-ID: header of email messages, but without the '<',
+ '>' delimiters.
+
+ <b>thread:<thread-id></b>
+ The <b>thread:</b> 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 col‐
+ umn of output from <a href='../notmuch-search-1/'>notmuch-search</a>(1)
+
+ <b>thread:{<notmuch</b> <b>query>}</b>
+ Threads may be searched for indirectly by providing an arbitrary
+ notmuch query in <b>{}</b>. For example, the following returns threads
+ containing a message from mallory and one (not necessarily the
+ same message) with Subject containing the word "crypto".
+
+ % notmuch search 'thread:"{from:mallory}" and thread:"{subject:crypto}"'
+
+ The performance of such queries can vary wildly. To understand
+ this, the user should think of the query <b>thread:{<something>}</b> as
+ expanding to all of the thread IDs which match <b><something></b>; not‐
+ much then performs a second search using the expanded query.
+
+ <b>path:<directory-path></b> <b>or</b> <b>path:<directory-path>/**</b> <b>or</b> <b>path:/<regex>/</b>
+ The <b>path:</b> prefix searches for email messages that are in partic‐
+ ular directories within the mail store. The directory must be
+ specified relative to the top-level maildir (and without the
+ leading slash). By default, <b>path:</b> matches messages in the speci‐
+ fied directory only. The "/**" suffix can be used to match mes‐
+ sages in the specified directory and all its subdirectories re‐
+ cursively. <b>path:""</b> matches messages in the root of the mail
+ store and, likewise, <b>path:**</b> matches all messages.
+
+ <b>path:</b> will find a message if <u>any</u> copy of that message is in the
+ specific directory.
+
+ <b>folder:<maildir-folder></b> <b>or</b> <b>folder:/<regex>/</b>
+ The <b>folder:</b> prefix searches for email messages by maildir or MH
+ folder. For MH-style folders, this is equivalent to <b>path:</b>. For
+ maildir, this includes messages in the "new" and "cur" subdirec‐
+ tories. The exact syntax for maildir folders depends on your
+ mail configuration. For maildir++, <b>folder:""</b> matches the inbox
+ folder (which is the root in maildir++), other folder names al‐
+ ways start with ".", and nested folders are separated by "."s,
+ such as <b>folder:.classes.topology</b>. For "file system" maildir, the
+ inbox is typically <b>folder:INBOX</b> and nested folders are separated
+ by slashes, such as <b>folder:classes/topology</b>.
+
+ <b>folder:</b> will find a message if <u>any</u> copy of that message is in
+ the specific folder.
+
+ <b>date:<since>..<until></b> <b>or</b> <b>date:<date></b>
+ The <b>date:</b> prefix can be used to restrict the results to only
+ messages within a particular time range (based on the Date:
+ header).
+
+ See <b>DATE</b> <b>AND</b> <b>TIME</b> <b>SEARCH</b> below for details on the range expres‐
+ sion, and supported syntax for <since> and <until> date and time
+ expressions.
+
+ The time range can also be specified using timestamps without
+ including the date prefix using 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. Specifying a time range this way
+ is considered legacy and predates the date prefix.
+
+ <b>lastmod:<initial-revision>..<final-revision></b>
+ The <b>lastmod:</b> prefix can be used to restrict the result by the
+ database revision number of when messages were last modified
+ (tags were added/removed or filenames changed). This is usually
+ used in conjunction with the <b>--uuid</b> argument to <a href='../notmuch-search-1/'>not‐</a>
+ <a href='../notmuch-search-1/'>much-search</a>(1) to find messages that have changed since an ear‐
+ lier query.
+
+ <b>query:<name></b>
+ The <b>query:</b> prefix allows queries to refer to previously saved
+ queries added with <a href='../notmuch-config-1/'>notmuch-config</a>(1).
+
+ <b>property:<key>=<value></b>
+ The <b>property:</b> prefix searches for messages with a particular
+ <key>=<value> property pair. Properties are used internally by
+ notmuch (and extensions) to add metadata to messages. A given
+ key can be present on a given message with several different
+ values. See <a href='../notmuch-properties-7/'>notmuch-properties</a>(7) for more details.
+
+ User defined prefixes are also supported, see <a href='../notmuch-config-1/'>notmuch-config</a>(1) for de‐
+ tails.
</pre>
<h3> Operators</h3>
<pre>
- In addition to individual terms, multiple terms can be combined with
- Boolean operators (<b>and</b>, <b>or</b>, <b>not</b>, and <b>xor</b>). 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). The shorthand '-<term>' can be used for 'not
+ In addition to individual terms, multiple terms can be combined with
+ Boolean operators (<b>and</b>, <b>or</b>, <b>not</b>, and <b>xor</b>). 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). The shorthand '-<term>' can be used for 'not
<term>' but unfortunately this does not work at the start of an expres‐
- sion. Parentheses can also be used to control the combination of the
+ sion. 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).
- In addition to the standard boolean operators, Xapian provides several
+ In addition to the standard boolean operators, Xapian provides several
operators specific to text searching.
notmuch search term1 NEAR term2
- will return results where term1 is within 10 words of term2. The
+ will return results where term1 is within 10 words of term2. The
threshold can be set like this:
notmuch search term1 NEAR/2 term2
notmuch search term1 ADJ term2
will return results where term1 is within 10 words of term2, but in the
- same order as in the query. The threshold can be set the same as with
+ same order as in the query. The threshold can be set the same as with
NEAR:
notmuch search term1 ADJ/7 term2
notmuch search details
notmuch search detail
- will all return identical results, because Xapian first "reduces" the
+ will all return identical results, because Xapian first "reduces" the
term to the common stem (here 'detail') and then performs the search.
- There are two ways to turn this off: a search for a capitalized word
- will be performed unstemmed, so that one can search for "John" and not
- get results for "Johnson"; phrase searches are also unstemmed (see
- below for details). Stemming is currently only supported for English.
+ There are two ways to turn this off: a search for a capitalized word
+ will be performed unstemmed, so that one can search for "John" and not
+ get results for "Johnson"; phrase searches are also unstemmed (see be‐
+ low for details). Stemming is currently only supported for English.
Searches for words in other languages will be performed unstemmed.
</pre>
<h3> Wildcards</h3>
<pre>
- It is possible to use a trailing '*' as a wildcard. A search for
+ It is possible to use a trailing '*' as a wildcard. A search for
'wildc*' will match 'wildcard', 'wildcat', etc.
</pre>
<h3> Boolean and Probabilistic Prefixes</h3>
<pre>
- Xapian (and hence notmuch) prefixes are either <b>boolean</b>, supporting
- exact matches like "<u>tag:inbox</u>" or <b>probabilistic</b>, supporting a more
- flexible <b>term</b> based searching. The prefixes currently supported by not‐
- much are as follows.
-
- ┌───────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
- │Boolean
- ├───────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
- │
- │
- │ <b>thread:</b> <b>folder:</b> │ <b>subject:</b> <b>attach‐</b> │
- │ <b>path:</b> │ <b>ment:</b> <b>mimetype:</b> │
- └───────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
+ Xapian (and hence notmuch) prefixes are either <b>boolean</b>, supporting ex‐
+ act matches like "<u>tag:inbox</u>" or <b>probabilistic</b>, supporting a more flexi‐
+ ble <b>term</b> based searching. Certain <b>special</b> prefixes are processed by
+ notmuch in a way not strictly fitting either of Xapian's built in
+ styles. The prefixes currently supported by notmuch are as follows.
+
+ <b>Boolean</b>
+ <b>tag:</b>, <b>id:</b>, <b>thread:</b>, <b>folder:</b>, <b>path:</b>, <b>property:</b>
+
+ <b>Probabilistic</b>
+ <b>body:</b>, <b>to:</b>, <b>attachment:</b>, <b>mimetype:</b>
+
+ <b>Special</b>
+ <b>from:</b>, <b>query:</b>, <b>subject:</b>
</pre>
<h3> Terms and phrases</h3>
Phrases are indicated by double quotes (but beware you probably need to
protect those from your shell) and insist that those unstemmed words
occur in that order. One useful, but initially surprising feature is
- that the following are equivalant ways to write the same phrase.
+ that the following are equivalent ways to write the same phrase.
- · "a list of words"
+ • "a list of words"
- · a-list-of-words
+ • a-list-of-words
- · a/list/of/words
+ • a/list/of/words
- · a.list.of.words
+ • a.list.of.words
Both parenthesised lists of terms and quoted phrases are ok with proba‐
- bilisitic prefixes such as <b>to:</b>, <b>from:</b>, and <b>subject:</b>. In particular
+ bilistic prefixes such as <b>to:</b>, <b>from:</b>, and <b>subject:</b>. In particular
subject:(pizza free)
will not.
</pre>
+<h3> Quoting</h3>
+<pre>
+ Double quotes are also used by the notmuch query parser to protect
+ boolean terms, regular expressions, or subqueries containing spaces or
+ other special characters, e.g.
+
+ tag:"a tag"
+
+ folder:"/^.*/(Junk|Spam)$/"
+
+ thread:"{from:mallory and date:2009}"
+
+ As with phrases, you need to protect the double quotes from the shell
+ e.g.
+
+ % notmuch search 'folder:"/^.*/(Junk|Spam)$/"'
+ % notmuch search 'thread:"{from:mallory and date:2009}" and thread:{to:mallory}'
+</pre>
+
<h2>DATE AND TIME SEARCH</h2>
<pre>
- notmuch understands a variety of standard and natural ways of express‐
+ 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
+ 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>
<pre>
date:<since>..<until>
- The above expression restricts the results to only messages from
+ 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
+ <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‐
+ could describe (the end of yesterday). Similarly, date:january..febru‐
ary 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)
+ If specifying a time range using timestamps in conjunction with the
+ date prefix, each timestamp must be preceded by @ (ASCII hex 40). As
+ above, each timestamp is a number representing the number of seconds
+ since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC. For example:
+ date:@<initial-timestamp>..@<final-timestamp>
+
+ Currently, spaces in range expressions are not supported. You can re‐
+ place 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.
+ Open-ended ranges are supported. I.e. it's possible to specify
+ date:..<until> or date:<since>.. to not limit the start or end time,
+ respectively.
+</pre>
- 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 duplicating the expr both sides of ".."
- (for example date:yesterday..yesterday).
+<h3> Single expression</h3>
+<pre>
+ date:<expr> works as a shorthand for date:<expr>..<expr>. For example,
+ date:monday matches from the beginning of Monday until the end of Mon‐
+ day.
</pre>
<h3> Relative date and time</h3>
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
+ Number can also be written out one, two, ..., ten, dozen, hundred. Ad‐
+ ditionally, 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
<h3> Supported absolute time formats</h3>
<pre>
- · H[H]:MM[:SS] [(am|a.m.|pm|p.m.)]
+ • H[H]:MM[:SS] [(am|a.m.|pm|p.m.)]
- · H[H] (am|a.m.|pm|p.m.)
+ • H[H] (am|a.m.|pm|p.m.)
- · HHMMSS
+ • HHMMSS
- · now
+ • now
- · noon
+ • noon
- · midnight
+ • midnight
- · Examples: 17:05, 5pm
+ • Examples: 17:05, 5pm
</pre>
<h3> Supported absolute date formats</h3>
<pre>
- · YYYY-MM[-DD]
+ • YYYY-MM[-DD]
- · DD-MM[-[YY]YY]
+ • DD-MM[-[YY]YY]
- · MM-YYYY
+ • MM-YYYY
- · M[M]/D[D][/[YY]YY]
+ • M[M]/D[D][/[YY]YY]
- · M[M]/YYYY
+ • M[M]/YYYY
- · D[D].M[M][.[YY]YY]
+ • D[D].M[M][.[YY]YY]
- · D[D][(st|nd|rd|th)] Mon[thname] [YYYY]
+ • D[D][(st|nd|rd|th)] Mon[thname] [YYYY]
- · Mon[thname] D[D][(st|nd|rd|th)] [YYYY]
+ • Mon[thname] D[D][(st|nd|rd|th)] [YYYY]
- · Wee[kday]
+ • Wee[kday]
Month names can be abbreviated at three or more characters.
<h3> Time zones</h3>
<pre>
- · (+|-)HH:MM
+ • (+|-)HH:MM
- · (+|-)HH[MM]
+ • (+|-)HH[MM]
Some time zone codes, e.g. UTC, EET.
</pre>
<h2>SEE ALSO</h2>
<pre>
<a href='../notmuch-1/'>notmuch</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-config-1/'>notmuch-config</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-count-1/'>notmuch-count</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-dump-1/'>notmuch-dump</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-hooks-5/'>not‐</a>
- <a href='../notmuch-hooks-5/'>much-hooks</a>(5), <a href='../notmuch-insert-1/'>notmuch-insert</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-new-1/'>notmuch-new</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-reply-1/'>notmuch-reply</a>(1),
- <a href='../notmuch-restore-1/'>notmuch-restore</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-search-1/'>notmuch-search</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-show-1/'>notmuch-show</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-tag-1/'>notmuch-tag</a>(1)
+ <a href='../notmuch-hooks-5/'>much-hooks</a>(5), <a href='../notmuch-insert-1/'>notmuch-insert</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-new-1/'>notmuch-new</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-properties-7/'>notmuch-proper‐</a>
+ <a href='../notmuch-properties-7/'>ties</a>(7), <a href='../notmuch-reindex-1/'>notmuch-reindex</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-reply-1/'>notmuch-reply</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-restore-1/'>notmuch-restore</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-search-1/'>not‐</a>
+ <a href='../notmuch-search-1/'>much-search</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-show-1/'>notmuch-show</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-tag-1/'>notmuch-tag</a>(1)
</pre>
<h2>AUTHOR</h2>
<h2>COPYRIGHT</h2>
<pre>
- 2014, Carl Worth and many others
+ 2009-2022, Carl Worth and many others
</pre>
-<h2>0.20.1</h2>
+<h2>0.35</h2>
projects / notmuch-wiki / blobdiff