• linux finds all nodes that contain the word linux. not server finds all the nodes that do not contain the word server.
  • The boolean operators that can be used are: and, or and not. Without boolean operators, and will be assumed. The operators are not case sensitive. These three searches are the same: linux server, server linux, linux AND server. To search for the words and, or, or not, place them in a double quotes. "not" will search for the word ``not''.
  • To search for a phrase in a node, use double-quotes to delimit your search terms. You can not use boolean search terms inside a phrase. That is: vi and emacs finds nodes with both words ``vi'' and ``emacs'', but: "vi and emacs" finds nodes that have the phrase ``vi and emacs''. A phrase can consist of a single word, so this is how to search for the words used as boolean operators: vi "and" emacs finds nodes that contain all three words, but in any order.
  • Parentheses can be used to group searches: not (vi and emacs). The result is all nodes that have none or one term, but not both.
  • The wildcard (*) is available, however it can only be used at the end of a word. install only retrieves nodes which contain the given word. On the other hand: install* retrieves ``installing'', ``installation'', etc. along with ``install''.
  • To limit a search to words found in a tag, you prefix the keywords with the name of the tag, followed by the equal sign: programlisting=bash, command= (ls or cd), tagname = ( (this or that) or "this phrase" ). It is not necessary to have spaces at either side of the ``=''. Any DocBook tag can be used, e.g. author, section, screen, note, file, etc. In addition, attributes of the tags can be searched as well, e.g. section.id=m* finds the sections with an id that starts with 'm'.
  • To search on a word that contains a ``='', precede the ``='' with a ``\'' (backslash): test = x\=4 or y\=5. This query returns the nodes where the word ``x=4'' is associated with the tag ``test'' or that contains the word ``y=5'' not associated with any tag.
  • Tag search and plain search can be mixed in a single query: tag1 = (a1 or a4) not (a3 and a7). This query will retrieve all the nodes in which ``a1'' or ``a2'' are found in the tag ``tag1'' and that do not contain the words ``a3'' and ``a7'', where ``a3'' and ``a7'' are not associated to any tag.