AERC-SEARCH(1) General Commands Manual AERC-SEARCH(1)

aerc-search - search and filter patterns and options for aerc(1)

This syntax is common to all backends.

:filter [-ruba] [-x <flag>] [-X <flag>] [-H <header>:[<value>]] [-f <from>] [-t <to>] [-c <cc>] [-d <start[..end]>] [<terms>...]
:search [-ruba] [-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
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 the <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

-f <from>: Search for messages from <from>

-t <to>: Search for messages to <to>

-c <cc>: Search for messages cc'ed to <cc>

-d <start[..end]>:

Search for messages within a particular date range defined as [start, end).

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 abbreviate, so Monday..Tuesday can 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 the time units in the past. Multiple relative terms can will 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.

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

aerc(1) aerc-config(5)

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/.

2024-07-30