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* [PATCH] doc: add details about Xapian search syntax
@ 2015-01-18  9:33 David Bremner
  2015-01-18 10:29 ` Jani Nikula
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 15+ messages in thread
From: David Bremner @ 2015-01-18  9:33 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: notmuch

Questions related to the way that probabilistic prefixes and phrases
are handled come up quite often and it is nicer to have the documentation self contained.  Hopefully putting it in subsections prevents it from being overwhelming.
---
 doc/man7/notmuch-search-terms.rst | 46 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 46 insertions(+)

diff --git a/doc/man7/notmuch-search-terms.rst b/doc/man7/notmuch-search-terms.rst
index 1acdaa0..5c65938 100644
--- a/doc/man7/notmuch-search-terms.rst
+++ b/doc/man7/notmuch-search-terms.rst
@@ -129,6 +129,52 @@ operators, but will have to be protected from interpretation by the
 shell, (such as by putting quotation marks around any parenthesized
 expression).
 
+Boolean and Probabilistic Prefixes
+----------------------------------
+
+Xapian (and hence notmuch) prefixes are either **boolean**, supporting
+exact matches like "tag:inbox"  or **probabilistic**, supporting a most flexible **term** based searching. The pre
+
++------------------+-----------------------+
+|Boolean           |Probabilistic          |
++------------------+-----------------------+
+| **tag:** **id:** | **from:** **to:**     |
+|**thread:**       |**subject:**           |
+|**folder:**       |**attachment**         |
+|**path:**         |                       |
+|                  |                       |
++------------------+-----------------------+
+
+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 equivalant 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
+probabilisitic prefixes such as **to:**, **from:**, and **subject:**. 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.
+
 DATE AND TIME SEARCH
 ====================
 
-- 
2.1.4

^ permalink raw reply related	[flat|nested] 15+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2015-02-24  7:42 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 15+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2015-01-18  9:33 [PATCH] doc: add details about Xapian search syntax David Bremner
2015-01-18 10:29 ` Jani Nikula
2015-01-18 12:59   ` [PATCH 1/3] " David Bremner
2015-01-18 12:59     ` [PATCH 2/3] doc: add material on stemming and wildcards David Bremner
2015-02-23 18:18       ` Jani Nikula
2015-01-18 12:59     ` [PATCH 3/3] doc: add more information on operators David Bremner
2015-02-23 18:23       ` Jani Nikula
2015-01-25 17:58     ` [PATCH 1/3] doc: add details about Xapian search syntax David Bremner
2015-02-23 20:05       ` David Bremner
2015-02-23 20:05         ` [Patch v2 1/4] doc: add material on stemming and wildcards David Bremner
2015-02-23 20:05         ` [Patch v2 2/4] doc: add more information on operators David Bremner
2015-02-23 20:13           ` W. Trevor King
2015-02-23 20:05         ` [Patch v2 3/4] doc: typo fix for prefix discussion David Bremner
2015-02-23 20:05         ` [Patch v2 4/4] doc: update list of prefixes David Bremner
2015-02-24  7:32         ` David Bremner

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