aerc-search - Man Page
search and filter patterns and options for aerc(1)
Syntax
This syntax is common to all backends.
:filter [-rubae] [-x <flag>] [-X <flag>] [-H <header>:[<value>]] [-f <from>] [-t <to>] [-c <cc>] [-d <start[..end]>] [<terms>...]
:search [-rubae] [-x <flag>] [-X <flag>] [-H <header>:[<value>]] [-f <from>] [-t <to>] [-c <cc>] [-d <start[..end]>] [<terms>...]
Searches the current folder for messages matching the given set of conditions.
:filter restricts the displayed messages to only the search results.
Each space separated term of <terms>, if provided, is searched case-insensitively among subject lines unless -b or -a are provided.
-r: Search for read messages
-u: Search for unread messages
-x <flag>, -X <flag>: Restrict search to messages with or without <flag>
Use -x to search for messages with the flag set. Use -X to search for messages without the flag set.
Possible values are:
- Seen
Read messages
- Answered
Replied messages
- Forwarded
Forwarded messages
- Flagged
Flagged messages
- Draft
Draft messages
- -H <header>:[<value>]:
Search in the headers of the messages for a specific <header> that matches <value>, <value> can be omitted to only search for a <header>. If either the <header> or the <value> contain a space then the whole argument needs to be escaped with quotes, note: spaces around <value> are trimmed.
-b: Search in the body of the messages
-a: Search in the entire text of the messages
- -e: Instruct the backend to use a custom search extension
(such as X-GM-EXT-1 if available). Search terms are expected in <terms>; other flags will be ignored.
-f <from>: Search for messages from <from>
-t <to>: Search for messages to <to>
-c <cc>: Search for messages cc'ed to <cc>
- -d <since[..until]>:
Search for messages within a particular date range between since and until, excluding the latter (in mathematical notation: search for messages in the [since, until) interval). until can be omitted to only search for <since> to present.
Spaces and underscores are allowed in relative dates to improve readability.
YYYY-MM-DD
today, yesterday
(this|last) (year|month|week)
- Weekdays, Monthnames
Can also be abbreviated, so Monday..Tuesday can be written as Mon..Tue and February..March as Feb..Mar.
<N> (y[ear]|m[onth]|w[eek]|d[ay])
<N> is a positive integer that represents the number of time units in the past. Multiple relative terms can be accumulated. The units can also be abbreviated by a single letter such that yesterday would correspond to 1d (equivalent to 1 day or 1_day) and 8 days ago would be either 1w1d or 8d.
Custom IMAP Extensions
The Gmail IMAP extension (X-GM-EXT-1) can be used for searching and filtering. To use this custom extension, make sure it is activated (see aerc-imap(5)) and use the extension -e flag in your :filter or :search commands.
Notmuch
For notmuch, it is possible to avoid using the above flags and only rely on notmuch search syntax.
:filter query...
:search query...
You can use the full notmuch query language as described in notmuch-search-terms(7).
The query will only apply on top of the active folder query.
Example, jump to next unread:
:search tag:unread
See Also
Authors
Originally created by Drew DeVault and maintained by Robin Jarry who is assisted by other open source contributors. For more information about aerc development, see https://sr.ht/~rjarry/aerc/.