# SOLVED: Exclude properties drawer from Unlinked References rg **URL:** \ **Category:** Troubleshooting\ **Created:** [September 9, 2021, 9:23pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025 "2021-09-09T21:23:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mandelbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@mandelbot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/mandelbot)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2021, 9:23pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/1 "2021-09-09T21:23:24Z")
I am using org-noter to annotate PDFs, by calling org-noter-insert-precise-note, which generates an org-heading with a property drawer contraining :NOTER\_PAGE: which includes the title of the document. Currently Unlinked References in the org-roam-mode buffer is returning hits from from :NOTER\_PAGE: and other portions of the property drawers on each of these notes, which is not particularly helpful and adds quite a bit of clutter (example below). ![Screen Shot 2021-09-09 at 2.22.04 PM](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/orgroam/original/1X/3d22337c68fb39ea55c364b04009fb2e5b9c6502.jpeg) Is there a was to configure the rg-command defined in org-roam-mode.el to exclude the properties drawers from the returned hits in unlinked references? ---
**Author:** ![nobiot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/nobiot/32/159_2.png) [@nobiot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/nobiot)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2021, 1:29pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/2 "2021-09-10T13:29:08Z")
It’s hard to see what you really want to remove from the result. I’d remove the entire “unlinked reference” section (easiest). I’m on Windows so it cannot even be used – I feel nothing is missing this way. You will remove the entire “clutter”. If you want to keep the section but remove some text from each line that ripgrep returns, I don’t see any customizing options. Have a look at variable `org-roam-unlinked-references-result-re` and function `org-roam-unlinked-references-section`. You would probably need to do two things: 1. Define your own regexp that assign groups for the parts you want to remove from the result (e.g. the text string “#+NOTER\_PAGE:”) 2. Override the function and work out a new logic that do not add the groups you want to remove – see how it constructs the displayed line is constructed (I think it’s f, row and col with using `match-string` and the number that represents the group). I can’t test my theory as I don’t have the unlinked ref section altogether. But something like this should work. ---
**Author:** ![mandelbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@mandelbot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/mandelbot)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2021, 6:08pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/3 "2021-09-10T18:08:13Z")
Thanks @nobiot I’ll look into the variables you suggested and possibly defining my own regexp and update if I find a workable solution. What I want to do is override the rg-command defined in org-roam-mode.el to exclude all results that contain the string :NOTER\_PAGE: or 🆔 I am getting two types of hits from the unlinked references rg-command: 1. Hits from the actual content of my notes in org headings, which is useful and what I want to see in the Unlinked References section. There is no unwanted information from the properties drawers displayed in these hits. 2. Hits from :NOTER\_PAGE: and 🆔 in the properties drawers themselves, for which the relevant org heading does not contain any germane reference. This is because the title of the pdf :NOTER\_PAGE: it is pointing to contains the string of the new node I am creating. What I end up with is 10’s to 100’s of hits showing me the same directory path from :NOTER\_PAGE: ---
**Author:** ![nobiot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/nobiot/32/159_2.png) [@nobiot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/nobiot)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2021, 7:53pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/4 "2021-09-10T19:53:11Z")
I see… It could be as easy as adding another condition in this part in `org-roam-unlinked-references-section`: ```auto (when (and match (not (f-equal-p (org-roam-node-file node) f)) (member (downcase match) (mapcar #'downcase titles))) ``` Like: ```auto (when (and match (not (f-equal-p (org-roam-node-file node) f)) (member (downcase match) (mapcar #'downcase titles)) (not (s-contains? ":NOTER_PAGE:" line t)) (not (s-contains? ":ID:" line t)) ``` I am assuming `line` contains the entire line of string returned by `ripgrep`. EDIT: Sorry, you may not have package called `s` for `s-contanis?` function. But I think you get the idea I’m trying to convey. ---
**Author:** ![Muff2n](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9adbd/32.png) [@Muff2n](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/Muff2n)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2021, 10:15am UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/5 "2021-10-04T10:15:26Z")
I have also run into this issue - my org-noter headings have an 🆔 and so are classified as org-nodes. I have attempted your fix but it doesn’t work for me. Alas I am a complete noob who has little understanding of emacs or lisp, so I don’t know if I have done the right thing. What I did: Verified that I have package s installed. Go to my spacemacs packages and edit elpa/27.2/develop/org-roam-20210930.1108/org-roam-mode.el as in your post. Restart emacs and attempt to use org-roam-insert. ---
**Author:** ![nobiot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/nobiot/32/159_2.png) [@nobiot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/nobiot)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2021, 10:36am UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/6 "2021-10-04T10:36:01Z")
It has been a long time since my post; could you please remind me what the problem is and what “fix” have you tried? One thing I don’t understand is, why do you have the ID property for Org-noter notes. Do you need IDs? Perhaps Spacemacs automatically adds another package that does it (org-notes-pdf, or something I forgot the exact name). If you don’t need it, could you turn it off or remove it? ---
**Author:** ![Muff2n](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9adbd/32.png) [@Muff2n](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/Muff2n)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2021, 12:03pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/7 "2021-10-04T12:03:32Z")
My understanding of the problem is this. 1. org-roam. org-roam uses nodes that are defined as a heading (or file) with “:PROPERTIES:” and “🆔”. 2. org-noter-pdftools. When annotating a pdf, this tool will add headings with “:PROPERTIES:” data that includes “🆔”. It looks like this: ```auto * My annotated text :PROPERTIES: :NOTER_PAGE: [[pdf:PATH_TO_FILE.pdf::2++0.00;;annot-2-36]] :ID: PATH_TO_FILE.pdf-annot-2-36 :END: ``` Consequently when searching for org-roam nodes, all of my pdf annotations appear in the search. As I understood your suggested fix, it was to get org-roam to disregard nodes with “:NOTER\_PAGE:”. ---
**Author:** ![nobiot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/nobiot/32/159_2.png) [@nobiot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/nobiot)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2021, 12:29pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/8 "2021-10-04T12:29:31Z")
@Muff2n Thank you. I suggest you try [one of the options described in this other thread](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/exlude-org-noter-insert-notes-from-being-cached-as-nodes/2017/2) – I think disabling the ID for org-noter-pdftools is the easiest and hence my recommendation. This thread is about unlinked references, which might look similar but a different issue from what you describe. ---
**Author:** ![Muff2n](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9adbd/32.png) [@Muff2n](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/Muff2n)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2021, 2:03pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/9 "2021-10-04T14:03:25Z")
Understood, thank you. ---
**Author:** ![mandelbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@mandelbot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/mandelbot)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2022, 3:41am UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/11 "2022-05-13T03:41:47Z")
_sorry I posted earlier but was confusing two different issues_ Unfortunately I am still too green with emacs to know how to implement the solution you proposed and I had to abandon using unlinked references altogether. If you could provide some further guidance I would be very greateful! I don’t have `s` installed and I’m not sure how to install it on doom/macos (is this an emacs package or a command line tool?) I am also not very well versed in lisp and am unsure how I would go about incorporating your snippet into my config file - would I just place something like [this](https://pastebin.com/raw/jvASFTxZ) in my config? ---
**Author:** ![nobiot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/nobiot/32/159_2.png) [@nobiot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/nobiot)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2022, 5:33am UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/12 "2022-05-16T05:33:14Z")
I don’t know if I can be of any help; I don’t use Doom and unlinked references. `s` is an Emacs package. I suggest you refer to Doom documentation for how you are supposed to install one. I believe you do something in your `package.el` (some Straight syntax) and then `doom-sync` to effect the change. For the linked function, I can’t tell much without context, but perhaps you can try? It is to override the function `org-roam-unlinked-references-section`, so I think you’d need to evaluate it after you have loaded `org-roam`. I’d surround the `defun` with `with-eval-after-load 'org-roam` like this below. I don’t know if this is the proper way. I think you can put it in `config.el` (? I guess for Doom??) ```auto (with-eval-after-load 'org-roam (defun ...)) ``` ---
**Author:** ![mandelbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@mandelbot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/mandelbot)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 6:35pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/13 "2022-05-17T18:35:20Z")
Thanks @nobiot, really appreciate your help. It turns out s.el is pre-installed with doom (my bad). I was able to add your snippet to the `org-roam-unlinked-references-section` function using `with-eval-after-load` in ~/.doom.d/config.el, and confirmed that it was changed with `helpful-function`. However it seems that the snippet does not change the behaviour of the `unlinked-references` section in the `org-roam-buffer`. FWIW I took a look at the regexp in the varaible `org-roam-unlinked-references-result-re` but to be totally honest I’m not quite sure what I’m doing. ---
**Author:** ![nobiot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/nobiot/32/159_2.png) [@nobiot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/nobiot)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2022, 4:59am UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/14 "2022-05-18T04:59:40Z")
Sorry, not sure what “snippet” you refer to and what exactly you did? ---
**Author:** ![mandelbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@mandelbot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/mandelbot)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2022, 12:47pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/15 "2022-05-18T12:47:48Z")
I added the following to `org-roam-unlinked-references` function, and wrapped it in `with-eval-after-load`: ```auto (when (and match (not (f-equal-p (org-roam-node-file node) f)) (member (downcase match) (mapcar #'downcase titles)) (not (s-contains? ":NOTER_PAGE:" line t)) (not (s-contains? ":NOTER_DOCUMENT:" line t)) ``` I put the new function in my config.el (full function [here](https://pastebin.com/4WM4ptEi)). I used `helpful-function` to confirm that the `s-contains?` conditions were added to the function. However the `org-roam-buffer` still shows lines containing `:NOTER_PAGE:` and `:NOTER_DOCUMENT:` ---
**Author:** ![nobiot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/nobiot/32/159_2.png) [@nobiot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/nobiot)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2022, 12:58pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/16 "2022-05-18T12:58:31Z")
I see. Then I’d suggest the best way forward is to use `edebug` to go through the runtime line by line as Emacs evaluates the function. It’s easy; move your cursor somehwhere in the function and set the break point by `M-x edebug-defun`. Then try to run Org-roam as normal. If Emacs hits the break point, a new window pops up (it’s an Emacs window within the current frame). You may need to extract the `defun` from `with-eval-after-load` and evaluate the function so that the line that contains `defun` has no indentation — the rest of the function can have indentation for readability (I think there should be a technical explanation for this but I can’t tell—edebug might just work without doing this). The result of each function and variable gets displayed in the echo/minibuffer part as you move each line with SPC key. ---
**Author:** ![mandelbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@mandelbot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/mandelbot)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2022, 10:52pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/17 "2022-05-21T22:52:07Z")
Thanks again - I was able to use `edebug-defun` to step through the function as it populated the unlinked references section of the org-roam buffer. When I got to the break points marked by `*` below… ```auto (when (and match (not (f-equal-p (org-roam-node-file node) f)) (member (downcase match) (mapcar #'downcase titles)) (not (s-contains? ":NOTER_PAGE:" line t))* (not (s-contains? ":NOTER_DOCUMENT:" line t))* )* ``` … the output in the minibuffer was `Result: t` even when the output of the whole function and the unlinked references section contained `:NOTER_PAGE:` or `NOTER_DOCUMENT:`. I’m not sure if I’m interpreting this correctly, but this appears to be an issue with the conditions defined above not correctly identifying the strings `:NOTER_PAGE:` and `:NOTER_DOCUMENT:`? ---
**Author:** ![nobiot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/nobiot/32/159_2.png) [@nobiot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/nobiot)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2022, 7:35pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/18 "2022-05-23T19:35:27Z")
> [@mandelbot](#): > > ```auto > (not (s-contains? ":NOTER_PAGE:" line t))* > (not (s-contains? ":NOTER_DOCUMENT:" line t))* > > ``` This is weird. I can’t really test it on my end – I can’t use unlinked reference on my machines. The intention of this part is that `line` contains each line that `rg` returns, and only when all the conditions are met and only then does Org-roam adds the line for the unlinked references section in the org-roam buffer. If I evaluate the code below, I get `nil` – so in theory, it should work. When you edebug, it should also display the value of `line` – can you make sure the property in the code is correctly spelt – e.g. is the \_ underscore correct, not a - hyphen, for example? ```auto (not (s-contains? ":NOTER_PAGE:" "this contains :NOTER_PAGE:" t)) ``` I really cannot do much more on this as I can’t really test it it on my end. ---
**Author:** ![mandelbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@mandelbot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/mandelbot)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 8:04pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/19 "2022-06-08T20:04:53Z")
> [@nobiot](#): > > When you edebug, it should also display the value of `line` I think I figured out the issue, but am unsure how to fix it… ```auto (not (s-contains? ":NOTER_PAGE:" line* t)) ``` The value of `line` at the `*` above is: ```auto Result: "/Users/ryantaylor/Documents/GranularityNet/slobodi..." ``` This is the _file path_ of the node that the `org-roam-buffer` is getting the results from. However, I was expecting the value of `line` to be from the contents of the node, not the file path. If I change the function to contain a string from the file path, for example: ```auto (not (s-contains? "slobodi" line t)) ``` I get `nil` for results with “slobodi” in the file path when I step through with `edebug-defun`. It appears to me that `s-contains?` is acting on the file path of the node, rather than it’s contents, and this is why it’s not detecting `:NOTER_DOCUMENT:`. I tried changing `line` to `contents` but I get an error that `contents` is a void variable. ---
**Author:** ![nobiot](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/org-roam.discourse.group/nobiot/32/159_2.png) [@nobiot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/nobiot)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 9:03pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/20 "2022-06-08T21:03:23Z")
It looks to me that `line` loops for each line of `results`, so it’s possible that one line may be the filename (including the path). You will need to check all the lines ---
**Author:** ![mandelbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@mandelbot](https://org-roam.discourse.group/u/mandelbot)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 9:39pm UTC](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025/21 "2022-06-08T21:39:17Z")
When `edebug-defun` steps through the `org-roam-unlinked-references-section` it loops for each of the results in the `org-roam-buffer`'s `unlinked-references-section`. I looped the function through all results in the `org-roam-buffer`. For all unlinked references that populate the `unlinked-references-section` the result of `line` in `(not (s-contains? "EXAMPLE" line t)) ` is a file path. Just to be clear: the string I am trying to exclude from `unlinked references` does contain a file path, but it is a different file path than the one shown in the results of line. The file path I am trying to exclude is the PDF linked by in the `:NOTER_PAGE:` and `:NOTER_DOCUMENT:` properties. The file path in the `line` result is to the `.org` document that the `unlinked references` are in. I may be misunderstanding the issue but it looks to me like `s-contains?` is only looking at the org document title/file path and not the contents. [Next page](https://org-roam.discourse.group/t/solved-exclude-properties-drawer-from-unlinked-references-rg/2025.md?page=2)