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.
116 Compute and report the validity of any MIME cryptographic
117 signatures found in the selected content (e.g., "multipart/signed"
118 parts). Status of the signature will be reported (currently only
119 supported with ``--format=json`` and ``--format=sexp``), and the
120 multipart/signed part will be replaced by the signed data.
122 .. option:: --decrypt=(false|auto|true|stash)
124 If ``true``, decrypt any MIME encrypted parts found in the
125 selected content (e.g., "multipart/encrypted" parts). Status of
126 the decryption will be reported (currently only supported
127 with ``--format=json`` and ``--format=sexp``) and on successful
128 decryption the multipart/encrypted part will be replaced by
129 the decrypted content.
131 ``stash`` behaves like ``true``, but upon successful decryption it
132 will also stash the message's session key in the database, and
133 index the cleartext of the message, enabling automatic decryption
136 If ``auto``, and a session key is already known for the
137 message, then it will be decrypted, but notmuch will not try
138 to access the user's keys.
140 Use ``false`` to avoid even automatic decryption.
142 Non-automatic decryption (``stash`` or ``true``, in the absence of
143 a stashed session key) expects a functioning :manpage:`gpg-agent(1)` to
144 provide any needed credentials. Without one, the decryption will
147 Note: setting either ``true`` or ``stash`` here implies
150 Here is a table that summarizes each of these policies:
152 +------------------------+-------+------+------+-------+
153 | | false | auto | true | stash |
154 +========================+=======+======+======+=======+
155 | Show cleartext if | | X | X | X |
156 | session key is | | | | |
157 | already known | | | | |
158 +------------------------+-------+------+------+-------+
159 | Use secret keys to | | | X | X |
160 | show cleartext | | | | |
161 +------------------------+-------+------+------+-------+
162 | Stash any newly | | | | X |
163 | recovered session keys,| | | | |
164 | reindexing message if | | | | |
166 +------------------------+-------+------+------+-------+
168 Note: ``--decrypt=stash`` requires write access to the database.
169 Otherwise, ``notmuch show`` operates entirely in read-only mode.
173 .. option:: --exclude=(true|false)
175 Specify whether to omit threads only matching search.exclude\_tags
176 from the search results (the default) or not. In either case the
177 excluded message will be marked with the exclude flag (except when
178 output=mbox when there is nowhere to put the flag).
180 If ``--entire-thread`` is specified then complete threads are returned
181 regardless (with the excluded flag being set when appropriate) but
182 threads that only match in an excluded message are not returned
183 when ``--exclude=true.``
185 The default is ``--exclude=true.``
187 .. option:: --body=(true|false)
189 If true (the default) **notmuch show** includes the bodies of the
190 messages in the output; if false, bodies are omitted.
191 ``--body=false`` is only implemented for the text, json and sexp
192 formats and it is incompatible with ``--part > 0.``
194 This is useful if the caller only needs the headers as body-less
195 output is much faster and substantially smaller.
197 .. option:: --include-html
199 Include "text/html" parts as part of the output (currently
200 only supported with ``--format=text``, ``--format=json`` and
201 ``--format=sexp``). By default, unless ``--part=N`` is used to
202 select a specific part or ``--include-html`` is used to include all
203 "text/html" parts, no part with content type "text/html" is included
206 A common use of **notmuch show** is to display a single thread of
207 email messages. For this, use a search term of "thread:<thread-id>" as
208 can be seen in the first column of output from the
209 :any:`notmuch-search(1)` command.
214 This command supports the following special exit status codes
217 The requested format version is too old.
220 The requested format version is too new.
226 :any:`notmuch-config(1)`,
227 :any:`notmuch-count(1)`,
228 :any:`notmuch-dump(1)`,
229 :any:`notmuch-hooks(5)`,
230 :any:`notmuch-insert(1)`,
231 :any:`notmuch-new(1)`,
232 :any:`notmuch-reply(1)`,
233 :any:`notmuch-restore(1)`,
234 :any:`notmuch-search(1)`,
235 :any:`notmuch-search-terms(7)`,
236 :any:`notmuch-tag(1)`