tags vs. show

[David Bremner]

Paul Tarvydas <paultarvydas at gmail.com> writes:

> Specifics (linux mint, emacs 24.3.1):

What version of notmuch?

> I run this tagging query at the command line:
>
>  > notmuch tag +xyz -- '(to:xyz at me.com or from:xyz at me.com or
>  > cc:xyz at me.com)'
fwiw, cc: is not a valid search prefix, but I don't think that's
your problem, since that would only effect your tagging step.
[snip]
> Then, I run on the command line:
>
>  > notmuch show --format=mbox "tag:xyz" >xyz-all.txt
>

I tried a couple of tests here, and I could not duplicate your problem
with notmuch 0.20.2. For me, only messages with the tag show up.

You might want to try the following to debug:

- compare "notmuch count tag:xyz" with the number of messages recognized
  by e.g. mutt in the mbox.

- if those two are the same, find one of the message you think should
  not have the tag, and look at it by message-id.

- if the two are not the same, find a message in the mbox that you think
  should not be there, and double check the tags and headers.
  Note that

       The to: prefix is used to match the names or addresses of any
       recipient of an email message, (whether To, Cc, or Bcc).

  to quote notmuch-search-terms(7). One possibility is the existence
  of Bcc headers in some of your messages.

d