notmuch-sexp-queries

SYNOPSIS

notmuch search --query-syntax=sexp ‘(and (to santa) (date december))’

DESCRIPTION

S-EXPRESSIONS

An s-expression is either an atom, or list of whitespace delimited s-expressions inside parentheses. Atoms are either

basic value

A basic value is an unquoted string containing no whitespace, double quotes, or parentheses.

quoted string

Double quotes (“) delimit strings possibly containing whitespace or parentheses. These can contain double quote characters by escaping with backslash. E.g. "this is a quote \"".

S-EXPRESSION QUERIES

An s-expression query is either an atom, the empty list, or a compound query consisting of a prefix atom (first element) defining a field, logical operation, or modifier, and 0 or more subqueries.

*

“*” matches any non-empty string in the current field.

()

The empty list matches all messages

term

Match all messages containing term, possibly after stemming or phrase splitting. For discussion of stemming in notmuch see notmuch-search-terms. Stemming only applies to unquoted terms (basic values) in s-expression queries. For information on phrase splitting see FIELDS.

( field \(q_1\) \(q_2\) … \(q_n\) )

Restrict the queries \(q_1\) to \(q_n\) to field, and combine with and (for most fields) or or. See FIELDS for more information.

( operator \(q_1\) \(q_2\) … \(q_n\) )

Combine queries \(q_1\) to \(q_n\). Currently supported operators are and, or, and not. (not \(q_1\) … \(q_n\) ) is equivalent to (and (not \(q_1\) ) ... (not \(q_n\) )).

( modifier \(q_1\) \(q_2\) … \(q_n\) )

Combine queries \(q_1\) to \(q_n\), and reinterpret the result (e.g. as a regular expression). See MODIFIERS for more information.

FIELDS

Fields 1 correspond to attributes of mail messages. Some are inherent (and immutable) like subject, while others tag and property are settable by the user. Each concrete field in the table below is discussed further under “Search prefixes” in notmuch-search-terms. The row user refers to user defined fields, described in notmuch-config.

Most fields are either phrase fields 2 (which match sequences of words), or term fields 3 (which match exact strings). Phrase splitting breaks the term (basic value or quoted string) into words, ignore punctuation. Phrase splitting is applied to terms in phrase (probabilistic) fields. Both phrase splitting and stemming apply only in phrase fields.

Each term or phrase field has an associated combining operator (and or or) used to combine the queries from each element of the tail of the list. This is generally or for those fields where a message has one such attribute, and and otherwise.

Term or phrase fields can contain arbitrarily complex queries made up from terms, operators, and modifiers, but not other fields.

Fields with supported modifiers

field	combine	type	expand	wildcard	regex
none	and		no	yes	no
user	and	phrase	no	yes	no
attachment	and	phrase	yes	yes	no
body	and	phrase	no	no	no
date		range	no	no	no
folder	or	phrase	yes	yes	yes
from	and	phrase	yes	yes	yes
id	or	term	no	yes	yes
is	and	term	yes	yes	yes
lastmod		range	no	no	no
mid	or	term	no	yes	yes
mimetype	or	phrase	yes	yes	no
path	or	term	no	yes	yes
property	and	term	yes	yes	yes
subject	and	phrase	yes	yes	yes
tag	and	term	yes	yes	yes
thread	or	term	yes	yes	yes
to	and	phrase	yes	yes	no

MODIFIERS

Modifiers refer to any prefixes (first elements of compound queries) that are neither operators nor fields.

(infix atom )

Interpret atom as an infix notmuch query (see notmuch-search-terms). Not supported inside fields.

(matching \(q_1\) \(q_2\) … \(q_n\) ) (of \(q_1\) \(q_2\) … \(q_n\) )

Match all messages have the same values of the current field as those matching all of \(q_1\) … \(q_n\). Supported in most term 6 or phrase fields. Most commonly used in the thread field.

(query atom )

Expand to the saved query named by atom. See notmuch-config for more. Note that the saved query must be in infix syntax (notmuch-search-terms). Not supported inside fields.

(regex atom ) (rx atom )

Interpret atom as a POSIX.2 regular expression (see regex(7)). This applies in term fields and a subset 4 of phrase fields (see Fields with supported modifiers).

(starts-with subword )

Matches any term starting with subword. This applies in either phrase or term fields, or outside of fields 5. Note that a starts-with query cannot be part of a phrase. The atom * is a synonym for (starts-with "").

EXAMPLES

Wizard

Match all messages containing the word “wizard”, ignoring case.

added

Match all messages containing “added”, but also those containing “add”, “additional”, “Additional”, “adds”, etc… via stemming.

(and Bob Marley)

Match messages containing words “Bob” and “Marley”, or their stems The words need not be adjacent.

(not Bob Marley)

Match messages containing neither “Bob” nor “Marley”, nor their stems,

"quick fox" quick-fox quick@fox

Match the phrase “quick” followed by “fox” in phrase fields (or outside a field). Match the literal string in a term field.

(folder (of (id 1234@invalid)))

Match any message in the same folder as the one with Message-Id “1234@invalid”

(id 1234@invalid blah@test)

Matches Message-Id “1234@invalid” or Message-Id “blah@test”

(and (infix "date:2009-11-18..2009-11-18") (tag unread))

Match messages in the given date range with tag unread.

(starts-with prelim)

Match any words starting with “prelim”.

(subject quick "brown fox")

Match messages whose subject contains “quick” (anywhere, stemmed) and the phrase “brown fox”.

(subject (starts-with prelim))

Matches any word starting with “prelim”, inside a message subject.

(subject (starts-wih quick) "brown fox")

Match messages whose subject contains “quick brown fox”, but also “brown fox quicksand”.

(thread (of (id 1234@invalid)))

Match any message in the same thread as the one with Message-Id “1234@invalid”

(thread (matching (from bob@example.com) (to bob@example.com)))

Match any (messages in) a thread containing a message from “bob@example.com” and a (possibly distinct) message to “bob at example.com”)

(to (or bob@example.com mallory@example.org)) (or (to bob@example.com) (to mallory@example.org))

Match in the “To” or “Cc” headers, “bob@example.com”, “mallory@example.org”, and also “bob@example.com.au” since it contains the adjacent triple “bob”, “example”, “com”.

(not (to *))

Match messages with an empty or invalid ‘To’ and ‘Cc’ field.

(List *)

Match messages with a non-empty List-Id header, assuming configuration index.header.List=List-Id

NOTES

1

a.k.a. prefixes

2

a.k.a. probabilistic prefixes

3

a.k.a. boolean prefixes

4

Due to the implemention of phrase fields in Xapian, regex queries could only match individual words.

5

Due the the way body is implemented in notmuch, this modifier is not supported in the body field.

6

Due to the way recursive path queries are implemented in notmuch, this modifier is not supported in the path field.