.TH NOTMUCH-SEARCH 1 2012-06-01 "Notmuch 0.13.2" .SH NAME notmuch-search \- Search for messages matching the given search terms. .SH SYNOPSIS .B notmuch search .RI [ options "...] <" search-term ">..." .SH DESCRIPTION Search for messages matching the given search terms, and display as results the threads containing the matched messages. The output consists of one line per thread, giving a thread ID, the date of the newest (or oldest, depending on the sort option) matched message in the thread, the number of matched messages and total messages in the thread, the names of all participants in the thread, and the subject of the newest (or oldest) message. See \fBnotmuch-search-terms\fR(7) for details of the supported syntax for . Supported options for .B search include .RS 4 .TP 4 .BR \-\-format= ( json | text ) Presents the results in either JSON or plain-text (default). .RE .RS 4 .TP 4 .B \-\-output=(summary|threads|messages|files|tags) .RS 4 .TP 4 .B summary Output a summary of each thread with any message matching the search terms. The summary includes the thread ID, date, the number of messages in the thread (both the number matched and the total number), the authors of the thread and the subject. .RE .RS 4 .TP 4 .B threads Output the thread IDs of all threads with any message matching the search terms, either one per line (\-\-format=text) or as a JSON array (\-\-format=json). .RE .RS 4 .TP 4 .B messages Output the message IDs of all messages matching the search terms, either one per line (\-\-format=text) or as a JSON array (\-\-format=json). .RE .RS 4 .TP 4 .B files Output the filenames of all messages matching the search terms, either one per line (\-\-format=text) or as a JSON array (\-\-format=json). .RE .RS 4 .TP 4 .B tags Output all tags that appear on any message matching the search terms, either one per line (\-\-format=text) or as a JSON array (\-\-format=json). .RE .RE .RS 4 .TP 4 .BR \-\-sort= ( newest\-first | oldest\-first ) This option can be used to present results in either chronological order .RB ( oldest\-first ) or reverse chronological order .RB ( newest\-first ). Note: The thread order will be distinct between these two options (beyond being simply reversed). When sorting by .B oldest\-first the threads will be sorted by the oldest message in each thread, but when sorting by .B newest\-first the threads will be sorted by the newest message in each thread. By default, results will be displayed in reverse chronological order, (that is, the newest results will be displayed first). .RE .RS 4 .TP 4 .BR \-\-offset=[\-]N Skip displaying the first N results. With the leading '\-', start at the Nth result from the end. .RE .RS 4 .TP 4 .BR \-\-limit=N Limit the number of displayed results to N. .RE .RS 4 .TP 4 .BR \-\-exclude=(true|false|flag) A message is called "excluded" if it matches at least one tag in search.tag_exclude that does not appear explicitly in the search terms. This option specifies whether to omit excluded messages in the search process. The default value, .BR true , prevents excluded messages from matching the search terms. .B false allows excluded messages to match search terms and appear in displayed results. Excluded messages are still marked in the relevant outputs. .B flag only has an effect when .B --output=summary In this case all matching threads are returned but the "match count" is the number of matching non-excluded messages in the thread. .RE .SH SEE ALSO \fBnotmuch\fR(1), \fBnotmuch-config\fR(1), \fBnotmuch-count\fR(1), \fBnotmuch-dump\fR(1), \fBnotmuch-hooks\fR(5), \fBnotmuch-new\fR(1), \fBnotmuch-reply\fR(1), \fBnotmuch-restore\fR(1), \fBnotmuch-search-terms\fR(7), \fBnotmuch-show\fR(1), \fBnotmuch-tag\fR(1)