mu/man/mu-query.7.org

#+title:  MU QUERY

* NAME

mu query language -- a language for finding messages in *mu* databases.

* DESCRIPTION

The mu query language is a language used by *mu find* and *mu4e* to find messages in
*mu*'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.

As a companion to this, we recommend the *mu fields* and *mu flags* commands to get
an up-to-date list of the available fields and flags.
*NOTE:* if you use queries on the command-line (say, for *mu find*), you need to
quote any characters that would otherwise be interpreted by the shell, such as
*""*, *(* and *)* and whitespace.

* TERMS

The basic building blocks of a query are *terms*; 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 *mu find* for all the available fields.

Some example queries:
#+begin_example
vacation
subject:capybara
maildir:/inbox
#+end_example

Terms without an explicit field-prefix, (like 'vacation' above) are interpreted
like:
#+begin_example
to:vacation or subject:vacation or body:vacation or ...
#+end_example

The language is case-insensitive for terms and attempts to 'flatten' any
diacritics, so =angtrom= matches =Ångström=.

If terms contain whitespace, they need to be quoted:
#+begin_example
subject:"hi there"
#+end_example
This is a so-called =phrase query=, 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:
#+begin_example
mu find subject:\\"hi there\\"
#+end_example

* LOGICAL OPERATORS

We can combine terms with logical operators -- binary ones: *and*, *or*, *xor* and the
unary *not*, with the conventional rules for precedence and association, and are
case-insensitive.


You can also group things with *(* and *)*, so you can do things like:
#+begin_example
(subject:beethoven or subject:bach) and not body:elvis
#+end_example

If you do not explicitly specify an operator between terms, *and* is implied, so
the queries
#+begin_example
subject:chip subject:dale
#+end_example
#+begin_example
subject:chip AND subject:dale
#+end_example
are equivalent. For readability, we recommend the second version.

Note that a =pure not= - e.g. searching for *not apples* is quite a 'heavy' query.

* REGULAR EXPRESSIONS AND WILDCARDS

The language supports matching regular expressions that follow ECMAScript; for
details, see http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/regex/ECMAScript/

Regular expressions are enclosed in *//*. Some examples:
#+begin_example
subject:/h.llo/		# match hallo, hello, ...
subject:/
#+end_example

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 ***
(and =only= in that position) matches any term that starts with the part before
the ***; they are supported for backward compatibility and *mu* translates them to
regular expressions internally:
#+begin_example
foo*
#+end_example
is equivalent to
#+begin_example
/foo.*/
#+end_example

As a note of caution, certain wild-cards and regular expression can take quite a
bit longer than 'normal' queries.

* FIELDS

We already saw a number of search fields, such as *subject:* and *body:*. For the
full table, see *mu-fields(1)*.
#+begin_example
	bcc,h           Bcc (blind-carbon-copy) recipient(s)
	body,b          Message body
	cc,c            Cc (carbon-copy) recipient(s)
	changed,k       Last change to message file (range)
	date,d          Send date (range)
	embed,e         Search inside embedded text parts
	file,j          Attachment filename
	flag,g          Message Flags
	from,f          Message sender
	list,v          Mailing list (e.g. the List-Id value)
	maildir,m       Maildir
	mime,y          MIME-type of one or more message parts
	msgid,i         Message-ID
	prio,p          Message priority (=low=, =normal= or =high=)
	size,z          Message size range
	subject,s       Message subject
	tag,x           Tags for the message
	thread,w        Thread a message belongs to
	to,t            To: recipient(s)
#+end_example

The shortcut character can be used instead of the full name:
#+begin_example
f:foo@bar
#+end_example
is the same as
#+begin_example
from:foo@bar
#+end_example
For queries that are not one-off, we would recommend the longer name
for readability.

There are also the special fields *contact:*, which matches all contact-fields
(=from=, =to=, =cc= and =bcc=), and *recip*, which matches all recipient-fields (=to=, =cc=
and =bcc=). Hence, for instance,
#+begin_example
contact:fnorb@example.com
#+end_example
is equivalent to
#+begin_example
(from:fnorb@example.com or to:fnorb@example.com or
      cc:from:fnorb@example.com or bcc:fnorb@example.com)
#+end_example

* DATE RANGES

The *date:* field takes a date-range, expressed as the lower and upper bound,
separated by *..*. 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 *mu* 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:
#+begin_example
date:20170505..20170602
date:2017-05-05..2017-06-02
date:..2017-10-01T12:00
date:2015-06-01..
date:2016..2016
#+end_example

You can also use the special 'dates' *now* and *today*:
#+begin_example
date:20170505..now
date:today..
#+end_example

Finally, you can use relative 'ago' times which express some time before now and
consist of a number followed by a unit, with units *s* for seconds, *M* for minutes,
*h* for hours, *d* for days, *w* for week, *m* for months and *y* for years. Some
examples:

#+begin_example
date:3m..
date:2017.01.01..5w
#+end_example

* SIZE RANGES

The *size* or *z* field allows you to match =size ranges= -- 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:

#+begin_example
size:10k..2m
size:10m..
#+end_example

* FLAG FIELD

The *flag/g* field allows you to match message flags. The following fields are
available:
#+begin_example
	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
#+end_example

Some examples:
#+begin_example
flag:attach
flag:replied
g:x
#+end_example

Encrypted messages may be signed as well, but this is only visible after
decrypting and thus invisible to *mu*.

* PRIORITY FIELD

The message priority field (*prio:*) has three possible values: *low*, *normal* or
*high*. For instance, to match high-priority messages:
#+begin_example
prio:high
#+end_example

* MAILDIR

The Maildir field describes the directory path starting *after* the Maildir-base
path, and before the =/cur/= or =/new/= part. So for example, if there's a message
with the file name =~/Maildir/lists/running/cur/1234.213:2,=, you could find it
(and all the other messages in the same maildir) with:
#+begin_example
maildir:/lists/running
#+end_example

Note the starting '/'. If you want to match mails in the 'root' maildir, you can
do with a single '/':
#+begin_example
maildir:/
#+end_example

If you have maildirs (or any fields) that include spaces, you need to quote
them, ie.
#+begin_example
maildir:"/Sent Items"
#+end_example

Note that from the command-line, such queries must be quoted:
#+begin_example
mu find 'maildir:"/Sent Items"'
#+end_example

* MORE EXAMPLES

Here are some simple examples of *mu* 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)
#+begin_example
bee AND bird
#+end_example

Find all messages with either Frodo or Sam:
#+begin_example
Frodo OR Sam
#+end_example

Find all messages with the 'wombat' as subject, and 'capybara' anywhere:
#+begin_example
subject:wombat and capybara
#+end_example

Find all messages in the 'Archive' folder from Fred:
#+begin_example
from:fred and maildir:/Archive
#+end_example

Find all unread messages with attachments:
#+begin_example
flag:attach and flag:unread
#+end_example


Find all messages with PDF-attachments:
#+begin_example
mime:application/pdf
#+end_example

Find all messages with attached images:
#+begin_example
mime:image/*
#+end_example

* CAVEATS

With current Xapian versions, the apostroph character is considered part of a
word. Thus, you cannot find =D'Artagnan= by searching for =Artagnan=. 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 =Sent Items=. See *MAILDIR*
above.

#+include: "prefooter.inc" :minlevel 1

* SEE ALSO
*mu-find(1)*, *mu-fields(1)*