On Mon, May 28 2012, Peter Wang <novalazy@gmail.com> wrote:
> % ./notmuch search --format=json --exclude=true -- thread:0000000000009598 tag:unread
> [{"thread": "0000000000009598",
> "timestamp": 1338231998,
> "date_relative": "Today 05:06",
> "matched": 1,
> "total": 15,
> "authors": "Mark Walters| Peter Wang",
> "subject": "[PATCH v6 3/6] cli: make --entire-thread=false work for format=json.",
> "tags": ["deleted", "draft", "replied", "sent", "unread"]}]
>
> Here is a thread I participated in.  From this, my MUA displays "1/15",
> suggesting that there is 1 unread message out of a total of 15.  But
> upon opening the thread, there are only 11 messages visible: 4 were
> drafts (possibly deleted) which have been excluded.  To the user, it
> looks like some messages went missing.
>
> Therefore I would like search --output=summary --exclude=true
> to report the total number of non-excluded messages.  It doesn't need to
> be via the "total" field; a new field would be fine.

What you have pasted above is --output=json, not --output=summary.  The
formats are quite different.  What are you asking for a change in?

But regardless, I don't think I would like to see the changes you
suggest.  I would like for the thread total to list the total number of
messages in the thread, regardless whether they're excluded or not.
Same for the tags.  I think I want to continue to see if excluded
messages are in a returned thread.  The desire to hide the excluded
messages in the output is why they're marked as hidden/not visible.

Think about the excludes as acting on the search itself, and less on the
output.  We exclude messages from search, but if they show up in a
returned thread we at least acknowledge that they're there.

jamie.