* mu-find.1: update the manpage

This commit is contained in:
Dirk-Jan C. Binnema 2010-11-25 23:14:20 +02:00
parent 864041a64a
commit e4bac48343
1 changed files with 49 additions and 39 deletions

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@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
.SH NAME
mu find \- search for e-mails in the
mu find \- find e-mail messages in the
.B mu
database
@ -12,26 +12,32 @@ database
.SH DESCRIPTION
\fBmu find\fR is the \fBmu\fR sub-command for searching e-mails that were
stored earlier using
.BR mu-index(1)
\.
\fBmu find\fR is the \fBmu\fR sub-command for searching e-mail message that
were stored earlier using
\fBmu index(1)\bR.
.SH SEARCHING MAIL
The \fBfind\fR command starts a search for messages in the database that match
the search pattern.
\fBmu find\fR starts a search for messages in the database that match some
search pattern. For example:
.nf
$ mu find subject:snow from:john
.fi
would find all messages from John with 'snow' in the subject field.
The search pattern is taken as a command-line parameter. If the search
parameter consists of multiple parts (multiple command line parameters) they
are treated as if there were a logical \fBAND\fR between them.
parameter consists of multiple parts (as in the example) they are treated as
if there were a logical \fBAND\fR between them.
If you want to make your own constructions (using \fBAND\fR, \fBOR\fR,
\fBNOT\fR etc., you have to put quotes around them so \fBmu\fR can consider
them as a unit; for example to find mails with oranges OR mandarins in the
subject-field, you can use:
.nf
less mu find 'subject:orange OR subject:mandarin'
$ mu find 'subject:orange OR subject:mandarin'
.fi
@ -47,13 +53,13 @@ as filtering out unwanted results is usually preferrable over non matching
messages.
In older versions of mu, queries were logged in \fI<mu-home>/mu.log\fR;
however, since version 0.9 mu no longer does this.
however, since version 0.9, mu no longer does this.
The basic way to search a message is to type some words matching it, as you
would do in an internet search engine. For example,
.nf
mu find monkey banana
$ mu find monkey banana
.fi
will find all messages that contain both 'monkey' and 'banana' in either body
@ -65,21 +71,22 @@ seen in e-mail addresses) in a special way. However, you can match those still
if you an explicit search prefix; in other words, if, for example:
.nf
mu find foo@example.com
$ mu find foo@example.com
.fi
might not work, while
.nf
mu find f:foo@example.com
$ mu find f:foo@example.com
.fi
does.
As mentioned, matching is case-insensitive and accent-insensitive;
thus
.nf
mu find Mönkey BÄNAÑå
$ mu find Mönkey BÄNAÑå
.fi
yields the same results as the example above.
@ -88,7 +95,7 @@ yields the same results as the example above.
example:
.nf
mu find subject:penguin
$ mu find subject:penguin
.fi
to find messages with have the word \fBpenguin\fR in the subject field. You
@ -115,22 +122,23 @@ extra discusion.
First, the message flags field describes certain properties of the message, as
listed in the following table:
.nf
d,draft Draft Message
f,flagged Flagged
n,new New message (in new/ Maildir)
p,passed Passed ('Handled')
r,replied Replied
s,seen Seen
t,thrashed Marked for deletion
a,attach Has attachment
z,signed Signed message
x,encrypted Encrypted message
d,draft Draft Message
f,flagged Flagged
n,new New message (in new/ Maildir)
p,passed Passed ('Handled')
r,replied Replied
s,seen Seen
t,thrashed Marked for deletion
a,attach Has attachment
z,signed Signed message
x,encrypted Encrypted message
.fi
Using this, we can search e.g. for all signed messages that have an
attachment:
.nf
$ mu find flag:signed flag:attach
$ mu find flag:signed flag:attach
.fi
The message-priority has three possible values: low, normal or high. We can
@ -138,7 +146,7 @@ match them using 'prio' - for example, to get all high-priority messages with
a subject containing some bird:
.nf
$ mu find prio:high subject:nightingale
$ mu find prio:high subject:nightingale
.fi
The Maildir field describes the directory path starting \fBafter\fR the
@ -148,14 +156,14 @@ example, if there's a message with the file name
other messages in the same maildir) with:
.nf
$ mu find maildir:/lists/running
$ mu find maildir:/lists/running
.fi
Note the starting '/'. If you want to match mails in the 'root' maildir, you
can do with a single '/':
.nf
mu find maildir:/
$ mu find maildir:/
.fi
(and of course you can use the \fBm:\fR shortcut instead of \fBmaildir:\fR)
@ -171,17 +179,17 @@ as "20101231122359", or December 31, 2010 at 23:59.
To get all messages between (inclusive) the 5th of May 2009 and the 2nd of
June 2010, you could use:
.nf
mu find date:20090505..20100602
$ mu find date:20090505..20100602
.fi
Characters like ':', '/', '-' and single '.' are ignore, so the following is
equivalent but more readable:
.nf
mu find date:2009-05-05..2010-06-02
$ mu find date:2009-05-05..2010-06-02
.fi
Precision is up to the minute and 24-hour notation for times is used, so
another example would be:
.nf
mu find date:2009-05-05/12:23..2010-06-02/17:18
$ mu find date:2009-05-05/12:23..2010-06-02/17:18
.fi
An important point here is that the date matches are against local the local
@ -191,16 +199,18 @@ index\fR).
\fBmu\fR also understand relative dates, in the form of a posiive number
followed by h (hour), d (day), w (week), m (30 days) or y (365 days). Some
examples will explain this:
.nf
5h five hours in the past
2w one week in the past
3m three times 30 days in the past
5h five hours in the past
2w one week in the past
3m three times 30 days in the past
1y 365 days in the past
.fi
Using this notation, you can for example match messages between two and three
weeks old:
.nf
mu find date:3w..2w
$ mu find date:3w..2w
.fi
Finally, there are some special keywords for dates, namely 'now', meaning the
@ -208,7 +218,7 @@ prsent moment and 'today' for the beginning of today. So to get all messages
sent or received today, you could use:
.nf
mu find date:today..now
$ mu find date:today..now
.fi
.SH OPTIONS
@ -229,7 +239,7 @@ not known will be output as-is, allowing for some simple formatting.
For example:
.nf
mu find subject:snow --fields "d f s"
$ mu find subject:snow --fields "d f s"
.fi
would list the date, subject and sender of all messages with 'snow' in the
their subject.