1 .. _notmuch-sexp-queries(7):
10 **notmuch** *subcommand* ``--query=sexp`` [option ...] ``--`` '(and (to santa) (date december))'
15 Notmuch supports an alternative query syntax based on `S-expressions
16 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-expression>`_ . It can be selected
17 with the command line ``--query=sexp`` or with the appropriate option
18 to the library function :c:func:`notmuch_query_create_with_syntax`.
19 Support for this syntax is currently optional, you can test if your
20 build of notmuch supports it with
24 $ notmuch config get built_with.sexp_queries
30 An *s-expression* is either an atom, or list of whitespace delimited
31 s-expressions inside parentheses. Atoms are either
35 A basic value is an unquoted string containing no whitespace, double quotes, or
40 Double quotes (") delimit strings possibly containing whitespace
41 or parentheses. These can contain double quote characters by
42 escaping with backslash. E.g. ``"this is a quote \""``.
47 An s-expression query is either an atom, the empty list, or a
48 *compound query* consisting of a prefix atom (first element) defining
49 a *field*, *logical operation*, or *modifier*, and 0 or more
54 "*" matches any non-empty string in the current field.
58 The empty list matches all messages
62 Match all messages containing *term*, possibly after stemming or
63 phrase splitting. For discussion of stemming in notmuch see
64 :any:`notmuch-search-terms(7)`. Stemming only applies to unquoted
65 terms (basic values) in s-expression queries. For information on
66 phrase splitting see :any:`fields`.
68 ``(`` *field* |q1| |q2| ... |qn| ``)``
70 Restrict the queries |q1| to |qn| to *field*, and combine with *and*
71 (for most fields) or *or*. See :any:`fields` for more information.
73 ``(`` *operator* |q1| |q2| ... |qn| ``)``
75 Combine queries |q1| to |qn|. Currently supported operators are
76 ``and``, ``or``, and ``not``. ``(not`` |q1| ... |qn| ``)`` is equivalent
77 to ``(and (not`` |q1| ``) ... (not`` |qn| ``))``.
79 ``(`` *modifier* |q1| |q2| ... |qn| ``)``
81 Combine queries |q1| to |qn|, and reinterpret the result (e.g. as a regular expression).
82 See :any:`modifiers` for more information.
84 ``(macro (`` |p1| ... |pn| ``) body)``
86 Define saved query with parameter substitution. The syntax is
87 recognized only in saved s-expression queries (see ``squery.*`` in
88 :any:`notmuch-config(1)`). Parameter names in ``body`` must be
89 prefixed with ``,`` to be expanded (see :any:`macro_examples`).
90 Macros may refer to other macros, but only to their own
91 parameters [#macro-details]_.
99 correspond to attributes of mail messages. Some are inherent (and
100 immutable) like ``subject``, while others ``tag`` and ``property`` are
101 settable by the user. Each concrete field in
102 :any:`the table below <field-table>`
103 is discussed further under "Search prefixes" in
104 :any:`notmuch-search-terms(7)`. The row *user* refers to user defined
105 fields, described in :any:`notmuch-config(1)`.
107 Most fields are either *phrase fields* [#aka-prob]_ (which match
108 sequences of words), or *term fields* [#aka-bool]_ (which match exact
109 strings). *Phrase splitting* breaks the term (basic value or quoted
110 string) into words, ignore punctuation. Phrase splitting is applied to
111 terms in phrase (probabilistic) fields. Both phrase splitting and
112 stemming apply only in phrase fields.
114 Each term or phrase field has an associated combining operator
115 (``and`` or ``or``) used to combine the queries from each element of
116 the tail of the list. This is generally ``or`` for those fields where
117 a message has one such attribute, and ``and`` otherwise.
119 Term or phrase fields can contain arbitrarily complex queries made up
120 from terms, operators, and modifiers, but not other fields.
124 .. table:: Fields with supported modifiers
126 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
127 | field | combine | type | expand | wildcard | regex |
128 +============+===========+===========+===========+===========+==========+
129 | *none* | and | | no | yes | no |
130 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
131 | *user* | and | phrase | no | yes | no |
132 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
133 | attachment | and | phrase | yes | yes | no |
134 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
135 | body | and | phrase | no | no | no |
136 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
137 | date | | range | no | no | no |
138 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
139 | folder | or | phrase | yes | yes | yes |
140 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
141 | from | and | phrase | yes | yes | yes |
142 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
143 | id | or | term | no | yes | yes |
144 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
145 | is | and | term | yes | yes | yes |
146 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
147 | lastmod | | range | no | no | no |
148 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
149 | mid | or | term | no | yes | yes |
150 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
151 | mimetype | or | phrase | yes | yes | no |
152 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
153 | path | or | term | no | yes | yes |
154 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
155 | property | and | term | yes | yes | yes |
156 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
157 | subject | and | phrase | yes | yes | yes |
158 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
159 | tag | and | term | yes | yes | yes |
160 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
161 | thread | or | term | yes | yes | yes |
162 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
163 | to | and | phrase | yes | yes | no |
164 +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
171 *Modifiers* refer to any prefixes (first elements of compound queries)
172 that are neither operators nor fields.
174 ``(infix`` *atom* ``)``
176 Interpret *atom* as an infix notmuch query (see
177 :any:`notmuch-search-terms(7)`). Not supported inside fields.
179 ``(matching`` |q1| |q2| ... |qn| ``)`` ``(of`` |q1| |q2| ... |qn| ``)``
181 Match all messages have the same values of the current field as
182 those matching all of |q1| ... |qn|. Supported in most term [#not-path]_ or
183 phrase fields. Most commonly used in the ``thread`` field.
185 ``(query`` *atom* ``)``
187 Expand to the saved query named by *atom*. See
188 :any:`notmuch-config(1)` for more. Note that the saved query must
189 be in infix syntax (:any:`notmuch-search-terms(7)`). Not supported
192 ``(regex`` *atom* ``)`` ``(rx`` *atom* ``)``
194 Interpret *atom* as a POSIX.2 regular expression (see
195 :manpage:`regex(7)`). This applies in term fields and a subset [#not-phrase]_ of
196 phrase fields (see :any:`field-table`).
198 ``(starts-with`` *subword* ``)``
200 Matches any term starting with *subword*. This applies in either
201 phrase or term :any:`fields <fields>`, or outside of fields [#not-body]_. Note that
202 a ``starts-with`` query cannot be part of a phrase. The
203 atom ``*`` is a synonym for ``(starts-with "")``.
210 Match all messages containing the word "wizard", ignoring case.
214 Match all messages containing "added", but also those containing "add", "additional",
215 "Additional", "adds", etc... via stemming.
219 Match messages containing words "Bob" and "Marley", or their stems
220 The words need not be adjacent.
224 Match messages containing neither "Bob" nor "Marley", nor their stems,
226 ``"quick fox"`` ``quick-fox`` ``quick@fox``
228 Match the *phrase* "quick" followed by "fox" in phrase fields (or
229 outside a field). Match the literal string in a term field.
231 ``(folder (of (id 1234@invalid)))``
233 Match any message in the same folder as the one with Message-Id "1234@invalid"
235 ``(id 1234@invalid blah@test)``
237 Matches Message-Id "1234@invalid" *or* Message-Id "blah@test"
239 ``(and (infix "date:2009-11-18..2009-11-18") (tag unread))``
241 Match messages in the given date range with tag unread.
243 ``(starts-with prelim)``
245 Match any words starting with "prelim".
247 ``(subject quick "brown fox")``
249 Match messages whose subject contains "quick" (anywhere, stemmed) and
250 the phrase "brown fox".
252 ``(subject (starts-with prelim))``
254 Matches any word starting with "prelim", inside a message subject.
256 ``(subject (starts-wih quick) "brown fox")``
258 Match messages whose subject contains "quick brown fox", but also
259 "brown fox quicksand".
261 ``(thread (of (id 1234@invalid)))``
263 Match any message in the same thread as the one with Message-Id "1234@invalid"
265 ``(thread (matching (from bob@example.com) (to bob@example.com)))``
267 Match any (messages in) a thread containing a message from
268 "bob@example.com" and a (possibly distinct) message to "bob at
271 ``(to (or bob@example.com mallory@example.org))`` ``(or (to bob@example.com) (to mallory@example.org))``
273 Match in the "To" or "Cc" headers, "bob@example.com",
274 "mallory@example.org", and also "bob@example.com.au" since it
275 contains the adjacent triple "bob", "example", "com".
279 Match messages with an empty or invalid 'To' and 'Cc' field.
283 Match messages with a non-empty List-Id header, assuming
284 configuration ``index.header.List=List-Id``
291 A macro that takes two parameters and applies different fields to them.
295 $ notmuch config set squery.TagSubject '(macro (tagname subj) (and (tag ,tagname) (subject ,subj)))'
296 $ notmuch search --query=sexp '(TagSubject inbox maildir)'
298 Nested macros are allowed.
302 $ notmuch config set squery.Inner '(macro (x) (subject ,x))'
303 $ notmuch config set squery.Outer '(macro (x y) (and (tag ,x) (Inner ,y)))'
304 $ notmuch search --query=sexp '(Outer inbox maildir)'
306 Parameters can be re-used to reduce boilerplate. Any field, including
307 user defined fields is permitted within a macro.
311 $ notmuch config set squery.About '(macro (name) (or (subject ,name) (List ,name)))'
312 $ notmuch search --query=sexp '(About notmuch)'
318 .. [#macro-details] Technically macros impliment lazy evaluation and
319 lexical scope. There is one top level scope
320 containing all macro definitions, but all
321 parameter definitions are local to a given macro.
323 .. [#aka-pref] a.k.a. prefixes
325 .. [#aka-prob] a.k.a. probabilistic prefixes
327 .. [#aka-bool] a.k.a. boolean prefixes
329 .. [#not-phrase] Due to the implemention of phrase fields in Xapian,
330 regex queries could only match individual words.
332 .. [#not-body] Due the the way ``body`` is implemented in notmuch,
333 this modifier is not supported in the ``body`` field.
335 .. [#not-path] Due to the way recursive ``path`` queries are implemented
336 in notmuch, this modifier is not supported in the
339 .. |q1| replace:: `q`\ :sub:`1`
340 .. |q2| replace:: `q`\ :sub:`2`
341 .. |qn| replace:: `q`\ :sub:`n`
343 .. |p1| replace:: `p`\ :sub:`1`
344 .. |p2| replace:: `p`\ :sub:`2`
345 .. |pn| replace:: `p`\ :sub:`n`
projects / notmuch / blob