.TH NOTMUCH-SEARCH 1 2012-08-20 "Notmuch 0.14"
.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 <search-terms>.

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)

Specify whether to omit messages matching search.tag_exclude from the
search results (the default) or not. The extra option
.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-insert\fR(1), \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)