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* notmuch-search-terms: (notmuch-search-terms.info). syntax for notmuch queries
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     notmuch 0.40, Jul 15, 2026

     Carl Worth and many others

     Copyright (C) 2009-2026, Carl Worth and many others


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: Top,  Next: SYNOPSIS,  Up: (dir)

notmuch-search-terms documentation
**********************************

     notmuch 0.40, Jul 15, 2026

     Carl Worth and many others

     Copyright (C) 2009-2026, Carl Worth and many others

* Menu:

* SYNOPSIS::
* DESCRIPTION::
* DATE AND TIME SEARCH::
* SEE ALSO::


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: SYNOPSIS,  Next: DESCRIPTION,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

1 SYNOPSIS
**********

`notmuch' `count' [option …] <`search-term'> …

`notmuch' `dump' [–gzip] [–format=(batch-tag|sup)]
[–output=<`file'>] [–] [<`search-term'> …]

`notmuch' `reindex' [option …] <`search-term'> …

`notmuch' `search' [option …] <`search-term'> …

`notmuch' `show' [option …] <`search-term'> …

`notmuch' `tag' +<`tag'> … -<`tag'> [–] <`search-term'> …


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: DESCRIPTION,  Next: DATE AND TIME SEARCH,  Prev: SYNOPSIS,  Up: Top

2 DESCRIPTION
*************

Several notmuch commands accept a common syntax for search terms.

The search terms can consist of free-form text (and quoted phrases)
which will match all messages that contain all of the given
terms/phrases in the body, the subject, or any of the sender or
recipient headers.

As a special case, a search string consisting of exactly a single
asterisk (”*”) will match all messages.

* Menu:

* Search prefixes::
* Operators::
* Stemming::
* Wildcards::
* Boolean and Probabilistic Prefixes::
* Terms and phrases::
* Quoting::


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: Search prefixes,  Next: Operators,  Up: DESCRIPTION

2.1 Search prefixes
===================

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).

Some of the prefixes with <regex> forms can be also used to restrict
the results to those whose value matches a regular expression (see
`regex(7)(1)') delimited with //, for example:

    notmuch search 'from:"/bob@.*[.]example[.]com/"'

body:<word-or-quoted-phrase>
     Match terms in the body of messages.

from:<name-or-address> or from:/<regex>/
     The `from:' prefix is used to match the name or address of the
     sender of an email message.

to:<name-or-address>
     The `to:' prefix is used to match the names or addresses of any
     recipient of an email message, (whether To, Cc, or Bcc).

subject:<word-or-quoted-phrase> or subject:/<regex>/
     Any term prefixed with `subject:' 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 `subject:'.

attachment:<word>
     The `attachment:' prefix can be used to search for specific
     filenames (or extensions) of attachments to email messages.

mimetype:<word>
     The `mimetype:' prefix will be used to match text from the
     content-types of MIME parts within email messages (as specified by
     the sender).

tag:<tag> or tag:/<regex>/ or is:<tag> or is:/<regex>/
     For `tag:' and `is:' valid tag values include `inbox' and `unread'
     by default for new messages added by `notmuch-new(1)' as well as
     any other tag values added manually with `notmuch-tag(1)'.

id:<message-id> or mid:<message-id> or mid:/<regex>/
     For `id:' and `mid:', message ID values are the literal contents
     of the Message-ID: header of email messages, but without the
     ‘<’, ‘>’ delimiters.

thread:<thread-id>
     The `thread:' 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 column
     of output from `notmuch-search(1)'

thread:{<notmuch query>}
     Threads may be searched for indirectly by providing an arbitrary
     notmuch query in `{}'. 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 `thread:{<something>}' as
     expanding to all of the thread IDs which match `<something>';
     notmuch then performs a second search using the expanded query.

path:<directory-path> or path:<directory-path>/** or path:/<regex>/
     The `path:' prefix searches for email messages that are in
     particular directories within the mail store. The directory must
     be specified relative to the top-level maildir (and without the
     leading slash). By default, `path:' matches messages in the
     specified directory only. The “/**” suffix can be used to match
     messages in the specified directory and all its subdirectories
     recursively. `path:””' matches messages in the root of the mail
     store and, likewise, `path:**' matches all messages.

     `path:' will find a message if `any' copy of that message is in
     the specific directory.

folder:<maildir-folder> or folder:/<regex>/
     The `folder:' prefix searches for email messages by maildir or MH
     folder. For MH-style folders, this is equivalent to `path:'. For
     maildir, this includes messages in the “new” and “cur”
     subdirectories. The exact syntax for maildir folders depends on
     your mail configuration. For maildir++, `folder:””' matches
     the inbox folder (which is the root in maildir++), other folder
     names always start with “.”, and nested folders are separated
     by “.”s, such as `folder:.classes.topology'. For “file
     system” maildir, the inbox is typically `folder:INBOX' and nested
     folders are separated by slashes, such as
     `folder:classes/topology'.

     `folder:' will find a message if `any' copy of that message is in
     the specific folder.

date:<since>..<until> or date:<date>
     The `date:' prefix can be used to restrict the results to only
     messages within a particular time range (based on the Date:
     header).

     See `DATE AND TIME SEARCH' 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 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.

lastmod:<initial-revision>..<final-revision>
     The `lastmod:' 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). Negative revisions are
     interpreted relative to the most recent database revision (see
     `count --lastmod'). This is usually used in conjunction with the
     `--uuid' argument to `notmuch-search(1)' to find messages that
     have changed since an earlier query.

query:<name>
     The `query:' prefix allows queries to refer to previously saved
     queries added with `notmuch-config(1)'.

property:<key>=<value>
     The `property:' 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 `notmuch-properties(7)' for more details.

sexp:<subquery>
     The `sexp:' prefix allows subqueries in the format documented in
     `notmuch-sexp-queries(7)'. Note that subqueries containing spaces
     must be quoted, and any embedded double quotes must be escaped
     (see *Note Quoting: 6.).

User defined prefixes are also supported, see `notmuch-config(1)' for
details.

---------- Footnotes ----------

(1) https://manpages.debian.org/regex.7.html


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: Operators,  Next: Stemming,  Prev: Search prefixes,  Up: DESCRIPTION

2.2 Operators
=============

In addition to individual terms, multiple terms can be combined with
Boolean operators (`and', `or', `not', and `xor'). 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 expression.  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
operators specific to text searching.

    notmuch search term1 NEAR term2

will return results where term1 is within 10 words of term2. The
threshold can be set like this:

    notmuch search term1 NEAR/2 term2

The search

    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
NEAR:

    notmuch search term1 ADJ/7 term2


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: Stemming,  Next: Wildcards,  Prev: Operators,  Up: DESCRIPTION

2.3 Stemming
============

`Stemming' in notmuch means that these searches

    notmuch search detailed
    notmuch search details
    notmuch search detail

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. Searches for words in other languages will be performed
unstemmed.


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: Wildcards,  Next: Boolean and Probabilistic Prefixes,  Prev: Stemming,  Up: DESCRIPTION

2.4 Wildcards
=============

It is possible to use a trailing ‘*’ as a wildcard. A search for
‘wildc*’ will match ‘wildcard’, ‘wildcat’, etc.


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: Boolean and Probabilistic Prefixes,  Next: Terms and phrases,  Prev: Wildcards,  Up: DESCRIPTION

2.5 Boolean and Probabilistic Prefixes
======================================

Xapian (and hence notmuch) prefixes are either `boolean', supporting
exact matches like “<tag:inbox>” or `probabilistic', supporting a
more flexible `term' based searching. Certain `special' 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.

Boolean
     `tag:', `id:', `thread:', `folder:', `path:', `property:'

Probabilistic
     `body:', `to:', `attachment:', `mimetype:'

Special
     `from:', `query:', `subject:', `sexp:'


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: Terms and phrases,  Next: Quoting,  Prev: Boolean and Probabilistic Prefixes,  Up: DESCRIPTION

2.6 Terms and phrases
=====================

In general Xapian distinguishes between lists of terms and `phrases'.
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 equivalent ways to write the same phrase.

   - “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
probabilistic prefixes such as `to:', `from:', and `subject:'.  For
prefixes supporting regex search, the parenthesised list should be
quoted.  In particular

    subject:"(pizza free)"

is equivalent to

    subject:pizza and subject:free

Both of these will match a subject “Free Delicious Pizza” while

    subject:"pizza free"

will not.


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: Quoting,  Prev: Terms and phrases,  Up: DESCRIPTION

2.7 Quoting
===========

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}'

Double quotes within query strings need to be doubled to escape them.

    % notmuch search 'tag:"""quoted tag"""'
    % notmuch search 'sexp:"(or ""wizard"" ""php"")"'


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: DATE AND TIME SEARCH,  Next: SEE ALSO,  Prev: DESCRIPTION,  Up: Top

3 DATE AND TIME SEARCH
**********************

notmuch understands a variety of standard and natural ways of expressing
dates and times, both in absolute terms (“2012-10-24”) and in
relative 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.

* Menu:

* The range expression::
* Single expression::
* Relative date and time::
* Supported absolute time formats::
* Supported absolute date formats::
* Time zones::


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: The range expression,  Next: Single expression,  Up: DATE AND TIME SEARCH

3.1 The range expression
========================

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..february matches from the beginning of January to the end
of February.

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
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. I.e. it’s possible to specify
date:..<until> or date:<since>.. to not limit the start or end time,
respectively.


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: Single expression,  Next: Relative date and time,  Prev: The range expression,  Up: DATE AND TIME SEARCH

3.2 Single expression
=====================

date:<expr> works as a shorthand for date:<expr>..<expr>.  For example,
date:monday matches from the beginning of Monday until the end of
Monday.


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: Relative date and time,  Next: Supported absolute time formats,  Prev: Single expression,  Up: DATE AND TIME SEARCH

3.3 Relative date and time
==========================

[N|number] (years|months|weeks|days|hours|hrs|minutes|mins|seconds|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


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: Supported absolute time formats,  Next: Supported absolute date formats,  Prev: Relative date and time,  Up: DATE AND TIME SEARCH

3.4 Supported absolute time formats
===================================

   - 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


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: Supported absolute date formats,  Next: Time zones,  Prev: Supported absolute time formats,  Up: DATE AND TIME SEARCH

3.5 Supported absolute date formats
===================================

   - 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


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: Time zones,  Prev: Supported absolute date formats,  Up: DATE AND TIME SEARCH

3.6 Time zones
==============

   - (+|-)HH:MM

   - (+|-)HH[MM]

Some time zone codes, e.g. UTC, EET.


File: notmuch-search-terms.info,  Node: SEE ALSO,  Prev: DATE AND TIME SEARCH,  Up: Top

4 SEE ALSO
**********

`notmuch(1)', `notmuch-config(1)', `notmuch-count(1)',
`notmuch-dump(1)', `notmuch-hooks(5)', `notmuch-insert(1)',
`notmuch-new(1)', `notmuch-properties(7)', `notmuch-reindex(1)',
`notmuch-reply(1)', `notmuch-restore(1)', `notmuch-search(1)',
`notmuch-show(1)', `notmuch-tag(1)'



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