Notmuch uses word-based indexing, not a sub-string indexing (think Google, not grep), which is why your prefix searches didn't return anything. Based on your search results, it looks like the emails you found were from "Demiurg HG <demiurghg@...>". from:demiurg returned these results because it matched the name part of the from address, not the email address itself (from:demiurghg would also have returned these results, but by matching the email address). On Mon, 27 Jan 2014, Paul Melis <paul.melis@surfsara.nl> wrote: > Hi, > > How exactly does the search function work when it comes to things like > searching in the from or subject field? See the below queries and (lack > of) results: > > paulmlocal@sara11006:/data$ notmuch search from:dem > paulmlocal@sara11006:/data$ notmuch search from:demi > paulmlocal@sara11006:/data$ notmuch search from:demiu > paulmlocal@sara11006:/data$ notmuch search from:demiur > paulmlocal@sara11006:/data$ notmuch search from:demiurg > thread:0000000000012d53 January 18 [1/5] Demiurg HG| Paul Melis, XXXXX > thread:0000000000011b82 November 14 [3/6] Demiurg HG| Paul Melis; XXXXX > > Only the last queries returns the mails I was looking for, while > prefixes of the query don't return anything. Even stranger is that the > actual from e-mail address is demiurghg@...., so why does "from:demiurg" > match (which is also a prefix of the mail address), but all the other > don't match? > > Thanks for a great tool, btw! > > Regards, > Paul > > > -- > ** SURFsara heeft een nieuw algemeen telefoonnummer: 020 800 1300 ** > > Paul Melis > | Groepsleider & Adviseur Visualisatie | SURFsara | > | Science Park 140 | 1098 XG Amsterdam | > | T 020 592 30 59 | paul.melis@surfsara.nl | www.surfsara.nl | > _______________________________________________ > notmuch mailing list > notmuch@notmuchmail.org > http://notmuchmail.org/mailman/listinfo/notmuch