10 **notmuch** **show** [*option* ...] <*search-term*> ...
15 Shows all messages matching the search terms.
17 See :any:`notmuch-search-terms(7)` for details of the supported syntax for
20 The messages will be grouped and sorted based on the threading (all
21 replies to a particular message will appear immediately after that
22 message in date order). The output is not indented by default, but depth
23 tags are printed so that proper indentation can be performed by a
24 post-processor (such as the emacs interface to notmuch).
26 Supported options for **show** include
28 ``--entire-thread=(true|false)``
29 If true, **notmuch show** outputs all messages in the thread of
30 any message matching the search terms; if false, it outputs only
31 the matching messages. For ``--format=json`` and ``--format=sexp``
32 this defaults to true. For other formats, this defaults to false.
34 ``--format=(text|json|sexp|mbox|raw)``
35 **text** (default for messages)
36 The default plain-text format has all text-content MIME parts
37 decoded. Various components in the output, (**message**,
38 **header**, **body**, **attachment**, and MIME **part**), will
39 be delimited by easily-parsed markers. Each marker consists of
40 a Control-L character (ASCII decimal 12), the name of the
41 marker, and then either an opening or closing brace, ('{' or
42 '}'), to either open or close the component. For a multipart
43 MIME message, these parts will be nested.
46 The output is formatted with Javascript Object Notation
47 (JSON). This format is more robust than the text format for
48 automated processing. The nested structure of multipart MIME
49 messages is reflected in nested JSON output. By default JSON
50 output includes all messages in a matching thread; that is, by
51 default, ``--format=json`` sets ``--entire-thread``. The
52 caller can disable this behaviour by setting
53 ``--entire-thread=false``. The JSON output is always encoded
54 as UTF-8 and any message content included in the output will
55 be charset-converted to UTF-8.
58 The output is formatted as the Lisp s-expression (sexp)
59 equivalent of the JSON format above. Objects are formatted as
60 property lists whose keys are keywords (symbols preceded by a
61 colon). True is formatted as ``t`` and both false and null are
62 formatted as ``nil``. As for JSON, the s-expression output is
63 always encoded as UTF-8.
66 All matching messages are output in the traditional, Unix mbox
67 format with each message being prefixed by a line beginning
68 with "From " and a blank line separating each message. Lines
69 in the message content beginning with "From " (preceded by
70 zero or more '>' characters) have an additional '>' character
71 added. This reversible escaping is termed "mboxrd" format and
72 described in detail here:
74 http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/mail-mbox-formats.html
76 **raw** (default if ``--part`` is given)
77 Write the raw bytes of the given MIME part of a message to
78 standard out. For this format, it is an error to specify a
79 query that matches more than one message.
81 If the specified part is a leaf part, this outputs the body of
82 the part after performing content transfer decoding (but no
83 charset conversion). This is suitable for saving attachments,
86 For a multipart or message part, the output includes the part
87 headers as well as the body (including all child parts). No
88 decoding is performed because multipart and message parts
89 cannot have non-trivial content transfer encoding. Consumers
90 of this may need to implement MIME decoding and similar
93 ``--format-version=N``
94 Use the specified structured output format version. This is
95 intended for programs that invoke :any:`notmuch(1)` internally. If
96 omitted, the latest supported version will be used.
99 Output the single decoded MIME part N of a single message. The
100 search terms must match only a single message. Message parts are
101 numbered in a depth-first walk of the message MIME structure, and
102 are identified in the 'json', 'sexp' or 'text' output formats.
104 Note that even a message with no MIME structure or a single body
105 part still has two MIME parts: part 0 is the whole message
106 (headers and body) and part 1 is just the body.
109 Compute and report the validity of any MIME cryptographic
110 signatures found in the selected content (e.g., "multipart/signed"
111 parts). Status of the signature will be reported (currently only
112 supported with ``--format=json`` and ``--format=sexp``), and the
113 multipart/signed part will be replaced by the signed data.
115 ``--decrypt=(false|auto|true|stash)``
116 If ``true``, decrypt any MIME encrypted parts found in the
117 selected content (e.g., "multipart/encrypted" parts). Status of
118 the decryption will be reported (currently only supported
119 with ``--format=json`` and ``--format=sexp``) and on successful
120 decryption the multipart/encrypted part will be replaced by
121 the decrypted content.
123 ``stash`` behaves like ``true``, but upon successful decryption it
124 will also stash the message's session key in the database, and
125 index the cleartext of the message, enabling automatic decryption
128 If ``auto``, and a session key is already known for the
129 message, then it will be decrypted, but notmuch will not try
130 to access the user's keys.
132 Use ``false`` to avoid even automatic decryption.
134 Non-automatic decryption (``stash`` or ``true``, in the absence of
135 a stashed session key) expects a functioning :manpage:`gpg-agent(1)` to
136 provide any needed credentials. Without one, the decryption will
139 Note: setting either ``true`` or ``stash`` here implies
142 Here is a table that summarizes each of these policies:
144 +------------------------+-------+------+------+-------+
145 | | false | auto | true | stash |
146 +========================+=======+======+======+=======+
147 | Show cleartext if | | X | X | X |
148 | session key is | | | | |
149 | already known | | | | |
150 +------------------------+-------+------+------+-------+
151 | Use secret keys to | | | X | X |
152 | show cleartext | | | | |
153 +------------------------+-------+------+------+-------+
154 | Stash any newly | | | | X |
155 | recovered session keys,| | | | |
156 | reindexing message if | | | | |
158 +------------------------+-------+------+------+-------+
160 Note: ``--decrypt=stash`` requires write access to the database.
161 Otherwise, ``notmuch show`` operates entirely in read-only mode.
165 ``--exclude=(true|false)``
166 Specify whether to omit threads only matching search.exclude\_tags
167 from the search results (the default) or not. In either case the
168 excluded message will be marked with the exclude flag (except when
169 output=mbox when there is nowhere to put the flag).
171 If ``--entire-thread`` is specified then complete threads are returned
172 regardless (with the excluded flag being set when appropriate) but
173 threads that only match in an excluded message are not returned
174 when ``--exclude=true.``
176 The default is ``--exclude=true.``
178 ``--body=(true|false)``
179 If true (the default) **notmuch show** includes the bodies of the
180 messages in the output; if false, bodies are omitted.
181 ``--body=false`` is only implemented for the text, json and sexp
182 formats and it is incompatible with ``--part > 0.``
184 This is useful if the caller only needs the headers as body-less
185 output is much faster and substantially smaller.
188 Include "text/html" parts as part of the output (currently
189 only supported with ``--format=text``, ``--format=json`` and
190 ``--format=sexp``). By default, unless ``--part=N`` is used to
191 select a specific part or ``--include-html`` is used to include all
192 "text/html" parts, no part with content type "text/html" is included
195 A common use of **notmuch show** is to display a single thread of
196 email messages. For this, use a search term of "thread:<thread-id>" as
197 can be seen in the first column of output from the
198 :any:`notmuch-search(1)` command.
203 This command supports the following special exit status codes
206 The requested format version is too old.
209 The requested format version is too new.
215 :any:`notmuch-config(1)`,
216 :any:`notmuch-count(1)`,
217 :any:`notmuch-dump(1)`,
218 :any:`notmuch-hooks(5)`,
219 :any:`notmuch-insert(1)`,
220 :any:`notmuch-new(1)`,
221 :any:`notmuch-reply(1)`,
222 :any:`notmuch-restore(1)`,
223 :any:`notmuch-search(1)`,
224 :any:`notmuch-search-terms(7)`,
225 :any:`notmuch-tag(1)`