notmuch-sexp-queries - s-expression syntax for notmuch queries

Carl Worth and many others

2009-2025, Carl Worth and many others 0.39 May 01, 2025 NOTMUCH-SEXP-QUERIES(7)

Notmuch supports an alternative query syntax based on S-expressions . It can be selected with the command line --query=sexp or with the appropriate option to the library function notmuch_query_create_with_syntax(). Support for this syntax is currently optional, you can test if your build of notmuch supports it with $ notmuch config get built_with.sexp_queries S-EXPRESSIONS An s-expression is either an atom, or list of whitespace delimited s-expressions inside parentheses. Atoms are either basicvalue A basic value is an unquoted string containing no whitespace, double quotes, or parentheses. quotedstring Double quotes (") delimit strings possibly containing whitespace or parentheses. These can contain double quote characters by escaping with backslash. E.g. "thisisaquote\"". S-EXPRESSIONQUERIES An s-expression query is either an atom, the empty list, or a compoundquery consisting of a prefix atom (first element) defining a field, logicaloperation, 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. (fieldq1 q2 ... qn ) Restrict the queries q1 to qn to field, and combine with and (for most fields) or or. See FIELDS for more information. (operatorq1 q2 ... qn ) Combine queries q1 to qn. Currently supported operators are and, or, and not. (notq1 ... qn ) is equivalent to (and(notq1 )...(notqn )). (modifierq1 q2 ... qn ) Combine queries q1 to qn, and reinterpret the result (e.g. as a regular expression). See MODIFIERS for more information. (macro(p1 ... pn )body) Define saved query with parameter substitution. The syntax is recognized only in saved s-expression queries (see squery.* in notmuch-config). Parameter names in body must be prefixed with , to be expanded (see MACROEXAMPLES). Macros may refer to other macros, but only to their own parameters [1]. FIELDSFields [2] 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 thetablebelow 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 phrasefields [3] (which match sequences of words), or termfields [4] (which match exact strings). Phrasesplitting 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. Range fields take one or two arguments specifying lower and upper bounds. One argument is interpreted as identical upper and lower bounds. Either upper or lower bound may be specified as "" or * to specify the lowest possible lower bound or highest possible upper bound. lastmod ranges support negative arguments, interpreted relative to the most recent database revision (see count--lastmod). Fieldswithsupportedmodifiers ┌────────────┬─────────┬────────┬────────┬──────────┬───────┐ │ 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 │ └────────────┴─────────┴────────┴────────┴──────────┴───────┘ MODIFIERSModifiers refer to any prefixes (first elements of compound queries) that are neither operators nor fields. (infixatom) Interpret atom as an infix notmuch query (see notmuch-search-terms). Not supported inside fields. (matchingq1 q2 ... qn )(ofq1 q2 ... qn ) Match all messages have the same values of the current field as those matching all of q1 ... qn. Supported in most term [7] or phrase fields. Most commonly used in the thread field. (queryatom) 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. (regexatom)(rxatom) Interpret atom as a POSIX.2 regular expression (see regex(7)).Thisappliesintermfieldsandasubset[5]ofphrasefields(seeFieldswithsupportedmodifiers).(starts-withsubword)Matchesanytermstartingwithsubword.Thisappliesineitherphraseortermfields,oroutsideoffields[6].Notethatastarts-withquerycannotbepartofaphrase.Theatom*isasynonymfor(starts-with"").

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. (andBobMarley) Match messages containing words "Bob" and "Marley", or their stems The words need not be adjacent. (notBobMarley) Match messages containing neither "Bob" nor "Marley", nor their stems. "quickfox"quick-foxquick@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(id1234@invalid))) Match any message in the same folder as the one with Message-Id "1234@invalid". (id1234@invalidblah@test) Matches Message-Id "1234@invalid" or Message-Id "blah@test". (and(infix"date:2009-11-18..2009-11-18")(tagunread)) Match messages in the given date range with tag unread. (and(date2009-11-182009-11-18)(tagunread)) Match messages in the given date range with tag unread. (and(date2009-11-18*)(tagunread)) Match messages from 2009-11-18 or later with tag unread. (and(date*2009-11-18)(tagunread)) Match messages from 2009-11-18 or earlier with tag unread. (starts-withprelim) Match any words starting with "prelim". (subjectquick"brownfox") Match messages whose subject contains "quick" (anywhere, stemmed) and the phrase "brown fox". (subject(starts-withprelim)) Matches any word starting with "prelim", inside a message subject. (subject(starts-withquick)"brownfox") Match messages whose subject contains "quick brown fox", but also "brown fox quicksand". (thread(of(id1234@invalid))) Match any message in the same thread as the one with Message-Id "1234@invalid". (thread(matching(frombob@example.com)(tobob@example.com))) Match any (messages in) a thread containing a message from "bob@example.com" and a (possibly distinct) message to "bob@example.com". (to(orbob@example.commallory@example.org))(or(tobob@example.com)(tomallory@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. MACROEXAMPLES A macro that takes two parameters and applies different fields to them. $ notmuch config set squery.TagSubject '(macro (tagname subj) (and (tag ,tagname) (subject ,subj)))' $ notmuch search --query=sexp '(TagSubject inbox maildir)' Nested macros are allowed. $ notmuch config set squery.Inner '(macro (x) (subject ,x))' $ notmuch config set squery.Outer '(macro (x y) (and (tag ,x) (Inner ,y)))' $ notmuch search --query=sexp '(Outer inbox maildir)' Parameters can be re-used to reduce boilerplate. Any field, including user defined fields is permitted within a macro. $ notmuch config set squery.About '(macro (name) (or (subject ,name) (List ,name)))' $ notmuch search --query=sexp '(About notmuch)'

notmuch-sexp-queries - s-expression syntax for notmuch queries

[1] Technically macros implement lazy evaluation and lexical scope. There is one top level scope containing all macro definitions, but all parameter definitions are local to a given macro. [2] a.k.a. prefixes [3] a.k.a. probabilistic prefixes [4] a.k.a. boolean prefixes [5] Due to the implementation of phrase fields in Xapian, regex queries could only match individual words. [6] Due to the way body is implemented in notmuch, this modifier is not supported in the body field. [7] Due to the way recursive path queries are implemented in notmuch, this modifier is not supported in the path field.

notmuchsubcommand--query=sexp [option ...] -- '(and (to santa) (date december))'