.TH MU-QUERY 7 "28 December 2017" "User Manuals" .SH NAME mu_query language \- a language for finding messages in \fBmu\fR databases. .SH DESCRIPTION The mu query language is a language used by \fBmu find\fR and \fBmu4e\fR to find messages in \fBmu\fR's Xapian databases. The language is quite similar to Xapian's default query-parser, but is an independent implementation that is customized for the mu/mu4e use-case. In this article, we give a structured but informal overview of the query language and provide examples. \fBNOTE:\fR t if you use queries on the command-line (say, for \fBmu find\fR), you need to quote any characters that would otherwise be interpreted by the shell, such as \fB""\fR, \fB(\fR and \fB)\fR and whitespace. .de EX1 .nf .RS .. .de EX2 .RE .fi .. .SH TERMS The basic building blocks of a query are \fBterms\fR; these are just normal words like 'banana' or 'hello', or words prefixed with a field-name which make them apply to just that field. See .BR mu find for all the available fields. Some example queries: .EX1 vacation subject:capybara maildir:/inbox .EX2 Terms without an explicit field-prefix, (like 'vacation' above) are interpreted like: .EX1 to:vacation or subject:vacation or body:vacation or ... .EX2 The language is case-insensitive for terms and attempts to 'flatten' any diacritics, so \fIangtrom\fR matches \fIÅngström\fR. .PP If terms contain whitespace, they need to be quoted: .EX1 subject:"hi there" .EX2 This is a so-called \fIphrase query\fR, which means that we match against subjects that contain the literal phrase "hi there". Remember that you need to escape those quotes when using this from the command-line: .EX1 mu find subject:\\"hi there\\" .EX2 .SH LOGICAL OPERATORS We can combine terms with logical operators -- binary ones: \fBand\fR, \fBor\fR, \fBxor\fR and the unary \fBnot\fR, with the conventional rules for precedence and association, and are case-insensitive. .PP You can also group things with \fB(\fR and \fB)\fR, so you can do things like: .EX1 (subject:beethoven or subject:bach) and not body:elvis .EX2 If you do not explicitly specify an operator between terms, \fBand\fR is implied, so the queries .EX1 subject:chip subject:dale .EX2 .EX1 subject:chip AND subject:dale .EX2 are equivalent. For readability, we recommend the second version. Note that a \fIpure not\fR - e.g. searching for \fBnot apples\fR is quite a 'heavy' query. .SH REGULAR EXPRESSIONS AND WILDCARDS The language supports matching regular expressions that follow ECMAScript; for details, see .BR http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/regex/ECMAScript/ Regular expressions must be enclosed in \fB//\fR. Some examples: .EX1 subject:/h.llo/ # match hallo, hello, ... subject:/ .EX2 Note the difference between 'maildir:/foo' and 'maildir:/foo/'; the former matches messages in the '/foo' maildir, while the latter matches all messages in all maildirs that match 'foo', such as '/foo', '/bar/cuux/foo', '/fooishbar' etc. Wildcards are an older mechanism for matching where a term with a rightmost \fB*\fR (and \fIonly\fR in that position) matches any term that starts with the part before the \fB*\fR; they are supported for backward compatibility and \fBmu\fR translates them to regular expressions internally: .EX1 foo* .EX2 is equivalent to .EX1 /foo.*/ .EX2 As a note of caution, certain wild-cards and regular expression can take quite a bit longer than 'normal' queries. .SH FIELDS We already saw a number of search fields, such as \fBsubject:\fR and \fBbody:\fR. Here is the full table, a shortcut character and a description. .EX1 cc,c Cc (carbon-copy) recipient(s) bcc,h Bcc (blind-carbon-copy) recipient(s) from,f Message sender to,t To: recipient(s) subject,s Message subject body,b Message body maildir,m Maildir msgid,i Message-ID prio,p Message priority (\fIlow\fR, \fInormal\fR or \fIhigh\fR) flag,g Message Flags date,d Date range size,z Message size range embed,e Search inside embedded text parts file,j Attachment filename mime,y MIME-type of one or more message parts tag,x Tags for the message list,v Mailing list (e.g. the List-Id value) .EX2 The shortcut character can be used instead of the full name: .EX1 f:foo@bar .EX2 is the same as .EX1 from:foo@bar .EX2 For queries that are not one-off, we would recommend the longer name for readability. There are also the special fields \fBcontact:\fR, which matches all contact-fields (\fIfrom\fR, \fIto\fR, \fIcc\fR and \fIbcc\fR), and \fBrecip\fR, which matches all recipient-fields (\fIto\fR, \fIcc\fR and \fIbcc\fR). Hence, for instance, .EX1 contact:fnorb@example.com .EX2 is equivalent to .EX1 (from:fnorb@example.com or to:fnorb@example.com or cc:from:fnorb@example.com or bcc:fnorb@example.com) .EX2 .SH DATE RANGES The \fBdate:\fR field takes a date-range, expressed as the lower and upper bound, separated by \fB..\fR. Either lower or upper (but not both) can be omitted to create an open range. Dates are expressed in local time and using ISO-8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS); you can leave out the right part, and \fBmu\fR adds the rest, depending on whether this is the beginning or end of the range (e.g., as a lower bound, '2015' would be interpreted as the start of that year; as an upper bound as the end of the year). You can use '/' , '.', '-' and 'T' to make dates more human readable. Some examples: .EX1 date:20170505..20170602 date:2017-05-05..2017-06-02 date:..2017-10-01T12:00 date:2015-06-01.. date:2016..2016 .EX2 You can also use the special 'dates' \fBnow\fR and \fBtoday\fR: .EX1 date:20170505..now date:today.. .EX2 Finally, you can use relative 'ago' times which express some time before now and consist of a number followed by a unit, with units \fBs\fR for seconds, \fBM\fR for minutes, \fBh\fR for hours, \fBd\fR for days, \fBw\fR for week, \fBm\fR for months and \fBy\fR for years. Some examples: .EX1 date:3m.. date:2017.01.01..5w .EX2 .SH SIZE RANGES The \fBsize\fR or \fBz\fR field allows you to match \fIsize ranges\fR -- that is, match messages that have a byte-size within a certain range. Units (b (for bytes), K (for 1000 bytes) and M (for 1000 * 1000 bytes) are supported). Some examples: .EX1 size:10k..2m size:10m.. .EX2 .SH FLAG FIELDS The \fBflag\fR/\fBg\fR field allows you to match message flags. The following fields are available: .EX1 a,attach Message with attachment d,draft Draft Message f,flagged Flagged l,list Mailing-list message n,new New message (in new/ Maildir) p,passed Passed ('Handled') r,replied Replied s,seen Seen t,trashed Marked for deletion u,unread new OR NOT seen x,encrypted Encrypted message z,signed Signed message .EX2 Some examples: .EX1 flag:attach flag:replied g:x .EX2 Encrypted messages may be signed as well, but this is only visible after decrypting and thus, invisible to \fBmu\fR. .SH PRIORITY FIELD The message priority field (\fBprio:\fR) has three possible values: \fBlow\fR, \fBnormal\fR or \fBhigh\fR. For instance, to match high-priority messages: .EX1 prio:high .EX2 .SH MAILDIR The Maildir field describes the directory path starting \fBafter\fR the Maildir-base path, and before the \fI/cur/\fR or \fI/new/\fR part. So for example, if there's a message with the file name \fI~/Maildir/lists/running/cur/1234.213:2,\fR, you could find it (and all the other messages in the same maildir) with: .EX1 maildir:/lists/running .EX2 Note the starting '/'. If you want to match mails in the 'root' maildir, you can do with a single '/': .EX1 maildir:/ .EX2 If you have maildirs (or any fields) that include spaces, you need to quote them, ie. .EX1 maildir:"/Sent Items" .EX2 Note that from the command-line, such queries must be quoted: .EX1 mu find 'maildir:"/Sent Items"' .EX2 .SH MORE EXAMPLES Here are some simple examples of \fBmu\fR queries; you can make many more complicated queries using various logical operators, parentheses and so on, but in the author's experience, it's usually faster to find a message with a simple query just searching for some words. Find all messages with both 'bee' and 'bird' (in any field) .EX1 bee AND bird .EX2 Find all messages with either Frodo or Sam: .EX1 Frodo OR Sam .EX2 Find all messages with the 'wombat' as subject, and 'capibara' anywhere: .EX1 subject:wombat and capibara .EX2 Find all messages in the 'Archive' folder from Fred: .EX1 from:fred and maildir:/Archive .EX2 Find all unread messages with attachments: .EX1 flag:attach and flag:unread .EX2 Find all messages with PDF-attachments: .EX1 mime:application/pdf .EX2 Find all messages with attached images: .EX1 mime:image/* .EX2 .SH CAVEATS With current Xapian versions, the apostroph character is considered part of a word. Thus, you cannot find \fID'Artagnan\fR by searching for \fIArtagnan\fR. So, include the apostroph in search or use a regexp search. Matching on spaces has changed compared to the old query-parser; this applies e.g. to Maildirs that have spaces in their name, such as \fISent Items\fR. See \fBMAILDIR\fR above. .SH AUTHOR Dirk-Jan C. Binnema .SH "SEE ALSO" .BR mu-find (1)