[PATCH] doc: add a section on quoting to notmuch-search-terms(7)

[Tomi Ollila]

On Sat, Apr 07 2018, David Bremner wrote:

> I think we've diverged enough from the Xapian query parser
> that we can't rely on that syntax description [1]. As far as I can
> tell, [1] also only discusses quotes in the context of phrases.
>
> [1]: https://xapian.org/docs/queryparser.html
> ---
>  doc/man7/notmuch-search-terms.rst | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 22 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/doc/man7/notmuch-search-terms.rst b/doc/man7/notmuch-search-terms.rst
> index b4d784a3..a4e5abfc 100644
> --- a/doc/man7/notmuch-search-terms.rst
> +++ b/doc/man7/notmuch-search-terms.rst
> @@ -273,6 +273,28 @@ Both of these will match a subject "Free Delicious Pizza" while
>  
>  will not.
>  
> +Quoting
> +-------
> +
> +Double quotes are also used by the notmuch query parser to protect
> +boolean terms or regular expressions containing spaces or other
> +special characters, e.g.
> +
> +::
> +
> +   tag:"a tag"
> +
> +::
> +
> +   folder:"/^.*/(Junk|Spam)$/"
> +
> +As with phrases, you will probably have to protect the double quotes

The 'probably' gives somewhat uncertain answer -- perhaps s/will probably //

Also, perhaps the example in line 45 could be in format:

    notmuch search 'from:"/bob at .*[.]example[.]com/"'

-- format that should be always safe to use -- good for 
   e.g. tldr people like me.

Btw, the ones who have notmuch email since 2011-10-18 can try the
following:
 
    notmuch count 'from:/Richard Stallman/'
    3
    notmuch count 'from:/Richard Stallma/' 
    0
    notmuch count 'from:"/Richard Stallman/"'
    3
    notmuch count 'from:"/Richard Stallma/"'
    0

I find all but 3rd odd (1st one "works" even there are spaces, and 
second and last don't find matches...).

Tomi

> +from the shell e.g.
> +
> +::
> +
> +   % notmuch search 'folder:"/^.*/(Junk|Spam)$/"'
> +
>  DATE AND TIME SEARCH
>  ====================
>  
> -- 
> 2.16.3
>
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