On Sun, 18 Jan 2015, David Bremner <david@tethera.net> wrote: > 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. I think this is a good idea. > --- > 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 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. > + While at it, I think it would be useful to incorporate relevant parts of http://notmuchmail.org/searching/ into the man page. BR, Jani. > DATE AND TIME SEARCH > ==================== > > -- > 2.1.4 > > _______________________________________________ > notmuch mailing list > notmuch@notmuchmail.org > http://notmuchmail.org/mailman/listinfo/notmuch