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
30 .. option:: --entire-thread=(true|false)
32 If true, **notmuch show** outputs all messages in the thread of
33 any message matching the search terms; if false, it outputs only
34 the matching messages. For ``--format=json`` and ``--format=sexp``
35 this defaults to true. For other formats, this defaults to false.
37 .. option:: --format=(text|json|sexp|mbox|raw)
39 **text** (default for messages)
40 The default plain-text format has all text-content MIME parts
41 decoded. Various components in the output, (**message**,
42 **header**, **body**, **attachment**, and MIME **part**), will
43 be delimited by easily-parsed markers. Each marker consists of
44 a Control-L character (ASCII decimal 12), the name of the
45 marker, and then either an opening or closing brace, ('{' or
46 '}'), to either open or close the component. For a multipart
47 MIME message, these parts will be nested.
50 The output is formatted with Javascript Object Notation
51 (JSON). This format is more robust than the text format for
52 automated processing. The nested structure of multipart MIME
53 messages is reflected in nested JSON output. By default JSON
54 output includes all messages in a matching thread; that is, by
55 default, ``--format=json`` sets ``--entire-thread``. The
56 caller can disable this behaviour by setting
57 ``--entire-thread=false``. The JSON output is always encoded
58 as UTF-8 and any message content included in the output will
59 be charset-converted to UTF-8.
62 The output is formatted as the Lisp s-expression (sexp)
63 equivalent of the JSON format above. Objects are formatted as
64 property lists whose keys are keywords (symbols preceded by a
65 colon). True is formatted as ``t`` and both false and null are
66 formatted as ``nil``. As for JSON, the s-expression output is
67 always encoded as UTF-8.
70 All matching messages are output in the traditional, Unix mbox
71 format with each message being prefixed by a line beginning
72 with "From " and a blank line separating each message. Lines
73 in the message content beginning with "From " (preceded by
74 zero or more '>' characters) have an additional '>' character
75 added. This reversible escaping is termed "mboxrd" format and
76 described in detail here:
78 http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/mail-mbox-formats.html
80 **raw** (default if ``--part`` is given)
81 Write the raw bytes of the given MIME part of a message to
82 standard out. For this format, it is an error to specify a
83 query that matches more than one message.
85 If the specified part is a leaf part, this outputs the body of
86 the part after performing content transfer decoding (but no
87 charset conversion). This is suitable for saving attachments,
90 For a multipart or message part, the output includes the part
91 headers as well as the body (including all child parts). No
92 decoding is performed because multipart and message parts
93 cannot have non-trivial content transfer encoding. Consumers
94 of this may need to implement MIME decoding and similar
97 .. option:: --format-version=N
99 Use the specified structured output format version. This is
100 intended for programs that invoke :any:`notmuch(1)` internally. If
101 omitted, the latest supported version will be used.
105 Output the single decoded MIME part N of a single message. The
106 search terms must match only a single message. Message parts are
107 numbered in a depth-first walk of the message MIME structure, and
108 are identified in the 'json', 'sexp' or 'text' output formats.
110 Note that even a message with no MIME structure or a single body
111 part still has two MIME parts: part 0 is the whole message
112 (headers and body) and part 1 is just the body.
114 .. option:: --sort=(newest-first|oldest-first)
116 This option can be used to present results in either chronological
117 order (**oldest-first**) or reverse chronological order
120 Only threads as a whole are reordered. Ordering of messages within
121 each thread will not be affected by this flag, since that order is
122 always determined by the thread's replies.
124 By default, results will be displayed in reverse chronological
125 order, (that is, the newest results will be displayed first).
129 Compute and report the validity of any MIME cryptographic
130 signatures found in the selected content (e.g., "multipart/signed"
131 parts). Status of the signature will be reported (currently only
132 supported with ``--format=json`` and ``--format=sexp``), and the
133 multipart/signed part will be replaced by the signed data.
135 .. option:: --decrypt=(false|auto|true|stash)
137 If ``true``, decrypt any MIME encrypted parts found in the
138 selected content (e.g., "multipart/encrypted" parts). Status of
139 the decryption will be reported (currently only supported
140 with ``--format=json`` and ``--format=sexp``) and on successful
141 decryption the multipart/encrypted part will be replaced by
142 the decrypted content.
144 ``stash`` behaves like ``true``, but upon successful decryption it
145 will also stash the message's session key in the database, and
146 index the cleartext of the message, enabling automatic decryption
149 If ``auto``, and a session key is already known for the
150 message, then it will be decrypted, but notmuch will not try
151 to access the user's keys.
153 Use ``false`` to avoid even automatic decryption.
155 Non-automatic decryption (``stash`` or ``true``, in the absence of
156 a stashed session key) expects a functioning :manpage:`gpg-agent(1)` to
157 provide any needed credentials. Without one, the decryption will
160 Note: setting either ``true`` or ``stash`` here implies
163 Here is a table that summarizes each of these policies:
165 +------------------------+-------+------+------+-------+
166 | | false | auto | true | stash |
167 +========================+=======+======+======+=======+
168 | Show cleartext if | | X | X | X |
169 | session key is | | | | |
170 | already known | | | | |
171 +------------------------+-------+------+------+-------+
172 | Use secret keys to | | | X | X |
173 | show cleartext | | | | |
174 +------------------------+-------+------+------+-------+
175 | Stash any newly | | | | X |
176 | recovered session keys,| | | | |
177 | reindexing message if | | | | |
179 +------------------------+-------+------+------+-------+
181 Note: ``--decrypt=stash`` requires write access to the database.
182 Otherwise, ``notmuch show`` operates entirely in read-only mode.
186 .. option:: --exclude=(true|false)
188 Specify whether to omit threads only matching search.exclude\_tags
189 from the search results (the default) or not. In either case the
190 excluded message will be marked with the exclude flag (except when
191 output=mbox when there is nowhere to put the flag).
193 If ``--entire-thread`` is specified then complete threads are returned
194 regardless (with the excluded flag being set when appropriate) but
195 threads that only match in an excluded message are not returned
196 when ``--exclude=true.``
198 The default is ``--exclude=true.``
200 .. option:: --body=(true|false)
202 If true (the default) **notmuch show** includes the bodies of the
203 messages in the output; if false, bodies are omitted.
204 ``--body=false`` is only implemented for the text, json and sexp
205 formats and it is incompatible with ``--part > 0.``
207 This is useful if the caller only needs the headers as body-less
208 output is much faster and substantially smaller.
210 .. option:: --include-html
212 Include "text/html" parts as part of the output (currently
213 only supported with ``--format=text``, ``--format=json`` and
214 ``--format=sexp``). By default, unless ``--part=N`` is used to
215 select a specific part or ``--include-html`` is used to include all
216 "text/html" parts, no part with content type "text/html" is included
219 A common use of **notmuch show** is to display a single thread of
220 email messages. For this, use a search term of "thread:<thread-id>" as
221 can be seen in the first column of output from the
222 :any:`notmuch-search(1)` command.
227 This command supports the following special exit status codes
230 The requested format version is too old.
233 The requested format version is too new.
239 :any:`notmuch-config(1)`,
240 :any:`notmuch-count(1)`,
241 :any:`notmuch-dump(1)`,
242 :any:`notmuch-hooks(5)`,
243 :any:`notmuch-insert(1)`,
244 :any:`notmuch-new(1)`,
245 :any:`notmuch-reply(1)`,
246 :any:`notmuch-restore(1)`,
247 :any:`notmuch-search(1)`,
248 :any:`notmuch-search-terms(7)`,
249 :any:`notmuch-tag(1)`