8 **notmuch** **show** [*option* ...] <*search-term*> ...
13 Shows all messages matching the search terms.
15 See **notmuch-search-terms(7)** for details of the supported syntax for
18 The messages will be grouped and sorted based on the threading (all
19 replies to a particular message will appear immediately after that
20 message in date order). The output is not indented by default, but depth
21 tags are printed so that proper indentation can be performed by a
22 post-processor (such as the emacs interface to notmuch).
24 Supported options for **show** include
26 ``--entire-thread=(true|false)``
27 If true, **notmuch show** outputs all messages in the thread of
28 any message matching the search terms; if false, it outputs only
29 the matching messages. For ``--format=json`` and
30 ``--format=sexp`` this defaults to true. For other formats, this
33 ``--format=(text|json|sexp|mbox|raw)``
35 **text** (default for messages)
36 The default plain-text format has all text-content MIME
37 parts decoded. Various components in the output,
38 (**message**, **header**, **body**, **attachment**, and MIME
39 **part**), will be delimited by easily-parsed markers. Each
40 marker consists of a Control-L character (ASCII decimal 12),
41 the name of the marker, and then either an opening or
42 closing brace, ('{' or '}'), to either open or close the
43 component. For a multipart MIME message, these parts will be
47 The output is formatted with Javascript Object Notation
48 (JSON). This format is more robust than the text format for
49 automated processing. The nested structure of multipart MIME
50 messages is reflected in nested JSON output. By default JSON
51 output includes all messages in a matching thread; that is,
54 ``--format=json`` sets ``--entire-thread`` The caller can
55 disable this behaviour by setting ``--entire-thread=false``
58 The output is formatted as an S-Expression (sexp). This
59 format is more robust than the text format for automated
60 processing. The nested structure of multipart MIME messages
61 is reflected in nested S-Expression output. By default,
62 S-Expression output includes all messages in a matching
63 thread; that is, by default,
65 ``--format=sexp`` sets ``--entire-thread`` The caller can
66 disable this behaviour by setting ``--entire-thread=false``
69 All matching messages are output in the traditional, Unix
70 mbox format with each message being prefixed by a line
71 beginning with "From " and a blank line separating each
72 message. Lines in the message content beginning with "From "
73 (preceded by zero or more '>' characters) have an additional
74 '>' character added. This reversible escaping is termed
75 "mboxrd" format and described in detail here:
77 http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/mail-mbox-formats.html
79 **raw** (default if --part is given)
80 Write the raw bytes of the given MIME part of a message to
81 standard out. For this format, it is an error to specify a
82 query that matches more than one message.
84 If the specified part is a leaf part, this outputs the
85 body of the part after performing content transfer
86 decoding (but no charset conversion). This is suitable for
87 saving attachments, for example.
89 For a multipart or message part, the output includes the
90 part headers as well as the body (including all child
91 parts). No decoding is performed because multipart and
92 message parts cannot have non-trivial content transfer
93 encoding. Consumers of this may need to implement MIME
94 decoding and similar functions.
96 ``--format-version=N``
97 Use the specified structured output format version. This is
98 intended for programs that invoke **notmuch(1)** internally. If
99 omitted, the latest supported version will be used.
102 Output the single decoded MIME part N of a single message. The
103 search terms must match only a single message. Message parts are
104 numbered in a depth-first walk of the message MIME structure,
105 and are identified in the 'json', 'sexp' or 'text' output
108 Note that even a message with no MIME structure or a single
109 body part still has two MIME parts: part 0 is the whole
110 message (headers and body) and part 1 is just the body.
113 Compute and report the validity of any MIME cryptographic
114 signatures found in the selected content (ie. "multipart/signed"
115 parts). Status of the signature will be reported (currently only
116 supported with --format=json and --format=sexp), and the
117 multipart/signed part will be replaced by the signed data.
120 Decrypt any MIME encrypted parts found in the selected content
121 (ie. "multipart/encrypted" parts). Status of the decryption will
122 be reported (currently only supported with --format=json and
123 --format=sexp) and on successful decryption the
124 multipart/encrypted part will be replaced by the decrypted
127 Decryption expects a functioning **gpg-agent(1)** to provide any
128 needed credentials. Without one, the decryption will fail.
132 ``--exclude=(true|false)``
133 Specify whether to omit threads only matching
134 search.tag\_exclude from the search results (the default) or
135 not. In either case the excluded message will be marked with the
136 exclude flag (except when output=mbox when there is nowhere to
139 If --entire-thread is specified then complete threads are
140 returned regardless (with the excluded flag being set when
141 appropriate) but threads that only match in an excluded message
142 are not returned when ``--exclude=true.``
144 The default is ``--exclude=true.``
146 ``--body=(true|false)``
147 If true (the default) **notmuch show** includes the bodies of
148 the messages in the output; if false, bodies are omitted.
149 ``--body=false`` is only implemented for the json and sexp
150 formats and it is incompatible with ``--part > 0.``
152 This is useful if the caller only needs the headers as body-less
153 output is much faster and substantially smaller.
156 Include "text/html" parts as part of the output (currently only
157 supported with --format=json and --format=sexp). By default,
158 unless ``--part=N`` is used to select a specific part or
159 ``--include-html`` is used to include all "text/html" parts, no
160 part with content type "text/html" is included in the output.
162 A common use of **notmuch show** is to display a single thread of email
163 messages. For this, use a search term of "thread:<thread-id>" as can be
164 seen in the first column of output from the **notmuch search** command.
169 This command supports the following special exit status codes
172 The requested format version is too old.
175 The requested format version is too new.
180 **notmuch(1)**, **notmuch-config(1)**, **notmuch-count(1)**,
181 **notmuch-dump(1)**, **notmuch-hooks(5)**, **notmuch-insert(1)**,
182 **notmuch-new(1)**, **notmuch-reply(1)**, **notmuch-restore(1)**,
183 **notmuch-search(1)**, **notmuch-search-terms(7)**, **notmuch-tag(1)**