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,
53 ``--format=json`` sets ``--entire-thread``. The caller can
54 disable this behaviour by setting ``--entire-thread=false``.
55 The JSON output is always encoded as UTF-8 and any message
56 content included in the output will be charset-converted to
60 The output is formatted as an S-Expression (sexp). This
61 format is more robust than the text format for automated
62 processing. The nested structure of multipart MIME messages
63 is reflected in nested S-Expression output. By default,
64 S-Expression output includes all messages in a matching
65 thread; that is, by default,
66 ``--format=sexp`` sets ``--entire-thread``. The caller can
67 disable this behaviour by setting ``--entire-thread=false``.
70 All matching messages are output in the traditional, Unix
71 mbox format with each message being prefixed by a line
72 beginning with "From " and a blank line separating each
73 message. Lines in the message content beginning with "From "
74 (preceded by zero or more '>' characters) have an additional
75 '>' character added. This reversible escaping is termed
76 "mboxrd" format and 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
86 body of the part after performing content transfer
87 decoding (but no charset conversion). This is suitable for
88 saving attachments, for example.
90 For a multipart or message part, the output includes the
91 part headers as well as the body (including all child
92 parts). No decoding is performed because multipart and
93 message parts cannot have non-trivial content transfer
94 encoding. Consumers of this may need to implement MIME
95 decoding and similar functions.
97 ``--format-version=N``
98 Use the specified structured output format version. This is
99 intended for programs that invoke **notmuch(1)** internally. If
100 omitted, the latest supported version will be used.
103 Output the single decoded MIME part N of a single message. The
104 search terms must match only a single message. Message parts are
105 numbered in a depth-first walk of the message MIME structure,
106 and are identified in the 'json', 'sexp' or 'text' output
109 Note that even a message with no MIME structure or a single
110 body part still has two MIME parts: part 0 is the whole
111 message (headers and body) and part 1 is just the body.
114 Compute and report the validity of any MIME cryptographic
115 signatures found in the selected content (ie. "multipart/signed"
116 parts). Status of the signature will be reported (currently only
117 supported with --format=json and --format=sexp), and the
118 multipart/signed part will be replaced by the signed data.
121 Decrypt any MIME encrypted parts found in the selected content
122 (ie. "multipart/encrypted" parts). Status of the decryption will
123 be reported (currently only supported with --format=json and
124 --format=sexp) and on successful decryption the
125 multipart/encrypted part will be replaced by the decrypted
128 Decryption expects a functioning **gpg-agent(1)** to provide any
129 needed credentials. Without one, the decryption will fail.
133 ``--exclude=(true|false)``
134 Specify whether to omit threads only matching
135 search.tag\_exclude from the search results (the default) or
136 not. In either case the excluded message will be marked with the
137 exclude flag (except when output=mbox when there is nowhere to
140 If --entire-thread is specified then complete threads are
141 returned regardless (with the excluded flag being set when
142 appropriate) but threads that only match in an excluded message
143 are not returned when ``--exclude=true.``
145 The default is ``--exclude=true.``
147 ``--body=(true|false)``
148 If true (the default) **notmuch show** includes the bodies of
149 the messages in the output; if false, bodies are omitted.
150 ``--body=false`` is only implemented for the json and sexp
151 formats and it is incompatible with ``--part > 0.``
153 This is useful if the caller only needs the headers as body-less
154 output is much faster and substantially smaller.
157 Include "text/html" parts as part of the output (currently only
158 supported with --format=json and --format=sexp). By default,
159 unless ``--part=N`` is used to select a specific part or
160 ``--include-html`` is used to include all "text/html" parts, no
161 part with content type "text/html" is included in the output.
163 A common use of **notmuch show** is to display a single thread of email
164 messages. For this, use a search term of "thread:<thread-id>" as can be
165 seen in the first column of output from the **notmuch search** command.
170 This command supports the following special exit status codes
173 The requested format version is too old.
176 The requested format version is too new.
181 **notmuch(1)**, **notmuch-config(1)**, **notmuch-count(1)**,
182 **notmuch-dump(1)**, **notmuch-hooks(5)**, **notmuch-insert(1)**,
183 **notmuch-new(1)**, **notmuch-reply(1)**, **notmuch-restore(1)**,
184 **notmuch-search(1)**, **notmuch-search-terms(7)**, **notmuch-tag(1)**