8 **notmuch** **search** [*option* ...] <*search-term*> ...
13 Search for messages matching the given search terms, and display as
14 results the threads containing the matched messages.
16 The output consists of one line per thread, giving a thread ID, the date
17 of the newest (or oldest, depending on the sort option) matched message
18 in the thread, the number of matched messages and total messages in the
19 thread, the names of all participants in the thread, and the subject of
20 the newest (or oldest) message.
22 See **notmuch-search-terms(7)** for details of the supported syntax for
25 Supported options for **search** include
27 ``--format=``\ (**json**\ \|\ **sexp**\ \|\ **text**\ \|\ **text0**)
28 Presents the results in either JSON, S-Expressions, newline
29 character separated plain-text (default), or null character
30 separated plain-text (compatible with **xargs(1)** -0 option
33 ``--format-version=N``
34 Use the specified structured output format version. This is
35 intended for programs that invoke **notmuch(1)** internally. If
36 omitted, the latest supported version will be used.
38 ``--output=(summary|threads|messages|files|tags|sender|recipients)``
41 Output a summary of each thread with any message matching
42 the search terms. The summary includes the thread ID, date,
43 the number of messages in the thread (both the number
44 matched and the total number), the authors of the thread and
48 Output the thread IDs of all threads with any message
49 matching the search terms, either one per line
50 (--format=text), separated by null characters
51 (--format=text0), as a JSON array (--format=json), or an
52 S-Expression list (--format=sexp).
55 Output the message IDs of all messages matching the search
56 terms, either one per line (--format=text), separated by
57 null characters (--format=text0), as a JSON array
58 (--format=json), or as an S-Expression list (--format=sexp).
61 Output the filenames of all messages matching the search
62 terms, either one per line (--format=text), separated by
63 null characters (--format=text0), as a JSON array
64 (--format=json), or as an S-Expression list (--format=sexp).
66 Note that each message may have multiple filenames
67 associated with it. All of them are included in the output
68 (unless limited with the --duplicate=N option). This may
69 be particularly confusing for **folder:** or **path:**
70 searches in a specified directory, as the messages may
71 have duplicates in other directories that are included in
72 the output, although these files alone would not match the
76 Output all tags that appear on any message matching the
77 search terms, either one per line (--format=text), separated
78 by null characters (--format=text0), as a JSON array
79 (--format=json), or as an S-Expression list (--format=sexp).
82 Output all addresses from the *From* header that appear on
83 any message matching the search terms, either one per line
84 (--format=text), separated by null characters
85 (--format=text0), as a JSON array (--format=json), or as
86 an S-Expression list (--format=sexp).
88 Duplicate addresses are filtered out. Filtering can be
89 configured with the --filter-by option.
91 Note: Searching for **sender** should be much faster than
92 searching for **recipients**, because sender addresses are
93 cached directly in the database whereas other addresses
94 need to be fetched from message files.
97 Like **sender** but for addresses from *To*, *Cc* and
100 This option can be given multiple times to combine different
101 outputs. Currently, this is only supported for **sender** and
102 **recipients** outputs.
104 ``--sort=``\ (**newest-first**\ \|\ **oldest-first**)
105 This option can be used to present results in either
106 chronological order (**oldest-first**) or reverse chronological
107 order (**newest-first**).
109 Note: The thread order will be distinct between these two
110 options (beyond being simply reversed). When sorting by
111 **oldest-first** the threads will be sorted by the oldest
112 message in each thread, but when sorting by **newest-first** the
113 threads will be sorted by the newest message in each thread.
115 By default, results will be displayed in reverse chronological
116 order, (that is, the newest results will be displayed first).
119 Skip displaying the first N results. With the leading '-', start
120 at the Nth result from the end.
123 Limit the number of displayed results to N.
125 ``--exclude=(true|false|all|flag)``
126 A message is called "excluded" if it matches at least one tag in
127 search.tag\_exclude that does not appear explicitly in the
128 search terms. This option specifies whether to omit excluded
129 messages in the search process.
131 The default value, **true**, prevents excluded messages from
132 matching the search terms.
134 **all** additionally prevents excluded messages from appearing
135 in displayed results, in effect behaving as though the excluded
136 messages do not exist.
138 **false** allows excluded messages to match search terms and
139 appear in displayed results. Excluded messages are still marked
140 in the relevant outputs.
142 **flag** only has an effect when ``--output=summary``. The
143 output is almost identical to **false**, but the "match count"
144 is the number of matching non-excluded messages in the thread,
145 rather than the number of matching messages.
148 Effective with ``--output=files``, output the Nth filename
149 associated with each message matching the query (N is 1-based).
150 If N is greater than the number of files associated with the
151 message, don't print anything.
153 Note that this option is orthogonal with the **folder:** search
154 prefix. The prefix matches messages based on filenames. This
155 option filters filenames of the matching messages.
157 ``--filter-by=``\ (**nameaddr**\ \|\ **name** \|\ **addr**\ \|\ **addrfold**\ \|\ **nameaddrfold**\)
159 Can be used with ``--output=sender`` or
160 ``--output=recipients`` to filter out duplicate addresses. The
161 filtering algorithm receives a sequence of email addresses and
162 outputs the same sequence without the addresses that are
163 considered a duplicate of a previously output address. What is
164 considered a duplicate depends on how the two addresses are
165 compared and this can be controlled with the follwing flags:
167 **nameaddr** means that both name and address parts are
168 compared in case-sensitive manner. Therefore, all same looking
169 addresses strings are considered duplicate. This is the
172 **name** means that only the name part is compared (in
173 case-sensitive manner). For example, the addresses "John Doe
174 <me@example.com>" and "John Doe <john@doe.name>" will be
175 considered duplicate.
177 **addr** means that only the address part is compared (in
178 case-sensitive manner). For example, the addresses "John Doe
179 <john@example.com>" and "Dr. John Doe <john@example.com>" will
180 be considered duplicate.
182 **addrfold** is like **addr**, but comparison is done in
183 canse-insensitive manner. For example, the addresses "John Doe
184 <john@example.com>" and "Dr. John Doe <JOHN@EXAMPLE.COM>" will
185 be considered duplicate.
187 **nameaddrfold** is like **nameaddr**, but address comparison
188 is done in canse-insensitive manner. For example, the
189 addresses "John Doe <john@example.com>" and "John Doe
190 <JOHN@EXAMPLE.COM>" will be considered duplicate.
195 This command supports the following special exit status codes
198 The requested format version is too old.
201 The requested format version is too new.
206 **notmuch(1)**, **notmuch-config(1)**, **notmuch-count(1)**,
207 **notmuch-dump(1)**, **notmuch-hooks(5)**, **notmuch-insert(1)**,
208 **notmuch-new(1)**, **notmuch-reply(1)**, **notmuch-restore(1)**,
209 **notmuch-search-terms(7)**, **notmuch-show(1)**, **notmuch-tag(1)**