1 # Tips and Tricks for using notmuch with Emacs
3 One of the more popular notmuch message reading clients is
4 **notmuch.el**, an [emacs](http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/) major
5 mode for interacting with notmuch. It is included in the notmuch
6 package (notmuch-emacs in Debian). This page goes over some usage
7 tips for using notmuch with Emacs.
13 Have a look at the [Howto](http://notmuchmail.org/howto/) for
14 prerequisites. Be sure you have done the general setup using the
17 To use the Notmuch emacs mode, first add the following line to your
22 or you can load the package via autoload:
24 (autoload 'notmuch "notmuch" "notmuch mail" t)
26 Then, either run "emacs -f notmuch", or execute the command `M-x
27 notmuch` from within a running emacs.
29 ## Navigating & reading mails
31 When first starting notmuch in emacs, you will be presented with the
32 notmuch "hello" page. From here you can do searches, see lists of
33 recent searches, saved searches, message tags, help information, etc.
35 Executing a search will open a new buffer in `notmuch-search-mode`
36 displaying the search results. Each line in the search results
37 represents a message thread. Hitting the '?' key will show help for
40 In general, the 'q' will kill the current notmuch buffer and return
41 you to the previous buffer (sort of like a 'pop').
43 In search mode, navigating to a thread and hitting return will then
44 open a new buffer in `notmuch-show-mode`, which will show the actual
45 message contents of the thread.
49 In any notmuch mode, you can start a new message by hitting the 'm'
50 key. To reply to a message or thread, just hit the 'r' key.
52 When composing new messages, you will be entered in emacs's
53 `message-mode`, which is a powerful mode for composing and sending
54 messages. When in message mode, you can type `C-c ?` for help.
56 If you would like to use address autocompletion when composing
57 messages, see [address completion](#address_completion).
59 When you are ready to send a message, type `C-c C-c`. By default
60 message mode will use your sendmail command to send mail, so make sure
61 that works. One annoying standard configuration of message mode is
62 that it will hide the sent mail in your emacs frame stack, but it will
63 not close it. If you type several mails in an emacs session they will
64 accumulate and make switching between buffers more annoying. You can
65 avoid that behavior by adding `(setq message-kill-buffer-on-exit t)`
66 in your `.emacs` file (or doing `M-x
67 customize-variable<RET>message-kill-buffer-on-exit<RET>`) which will
68 really close the mail window after sending it.
72 Using the `M-x mml-attach-file` command, you can attach any file to be
73 sent with your mail. By default this command is bound to the menu item
74 *Attachments--Attach File* with the key binding `C-c C-a`. The
75 variable `mml-dnd-attach-options` (`M-x
76 customize-variable<RET>mml-dnd-attach-options<RET>`) can be set to
77 allow the prompting for various attachment options (such as
78 inline/attachment) if you want to do that.
80 For those who prefer a more graphical interface, you can also simply
81 drag and drop files from a file manager into a mail composition window
82 to have them attached. In Ubuntu this works without any modifications
83 if files are dragged from the file manager.
85 And for those who prefer working from command line, the following
86 script opens new emacs window with empty message and attaches files
87 mentioned as script arguments. (Note: The script expects that you have
88 `(server-start)` in your `.emacs` file.)
93 fullpath=$(readlink --canonicalize "$1")
94 attach_cmds="$attach_cmds (mml-attach-file \"$fullpath\")"
97 emacsclient -a '' -c -e "(progn (compose-mail) $attach_cmds)"
99 ## Issues with Emacs 24
101 If notmuch-show-mode behaves badly for you in emacs 24.x try adding one of
103 (setq gnus-inhibit-images nil)
113 # Advanced tips and tweaks
115 ## Use separate emacs lisp file for notmuch configuration
117 Instead of adding notmuch configuration code to `.emacs`, there
118 is an option to collect those to a separate file (which is only
119 loaded when `notmuch` is invoked). To do this, write, for example
120 a file called `~/.emacs.d/my-notmuch.el`:
122 ;;; my-notmuch.el -- my notmuch mail configuration
125 ;;; add here stuff required to be configured *before*
126 ;;; notmuch is loaded;
128 ;; uncomment and modify in case some elisp files are not found in load-path
129 ;; (add-to-list 'load-path "~/vc/ext/notmuch/emacs")
134 ;;; add here stuff required to be configured *after*
135 ;;; notmuch is loaded;
137 ;; uncomment & modify if you want to use external smtp server to send mail
138 ;; (setq smtpmail-smtp-server "smtp.server.tld"
139 ;; message-send-mail-function 'message-smtpmail-send-it)
140 ;; uncomment to debug smtp sending problems
141 ;; (setq smtpmail-debug-info t)
143 Then, add to `.emacs`:
145 (autoload 'notmuch "~/.emacs.d/my-notmuch" "notmuch mail" t)
148 ## Add a key binding to add/remove/toggle a tag
150 The `notmuch-{search,show}-{add,remove}-tag` functions are very useful
151 for making quick tag key bindings. For instance, here's an example
152 of how to make a key binding to add the "spam" tag and remove the
153 "inbox" tag in notmuch-show-mode:
155 In notmuch versions up to 0.11.x
157 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "S"
159 "mark message as spam"
161 (notmuch-show-add-tag "spam")
162 (notmuch-show-remove-tag "inbox")))
164 Starting from notmuch 0.12 the functions `notmuch-show-add-tag` and
165 `notmuch-show-remove-tag` have changed to be more versatile and lost
166 noninteractive use. When upgrading to 0.12 the above needs to be
169 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "S"
171 "mark message as spam"
173 (notmuch-show-tag-message "+spam" "-inbox")))
175 You can do the same for threads in `notmuch-search-mode` by just
176 replacing "show" with "search" in the called functions.
178 Starting from notmuch 0.12 use `notmuch-search-tag-thread` instead:
180 (define-key notmuch-search-mode-map "S"
182 "mark messages in thread as spam"
184 (notmuch-show-tag-thread "+spam" "-inbox")))
186 Starting from notmuch 0.13 use `notmuch-search-tag` -- it has a little
187 different usage syntax:
189 (define-key notmuch-search-mode-map "S"
191 "mark messages in thread as spam"
193 (notmuch-search-tag '("+spam" "-inbox"))))
195 The definition above makes use of a lambda function, but you could
196 also define a separate function first:
198 (defun notmuch-show-tag-spam ()
199 "mark message as spam"
201 (notmuch-show-add-tag "spam")
202 (notmuch-show-remove-tag "inbox")))
203 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "S" 'notmuch-show-tag-spam)
205 (See above for analogy how to apply this for notmuch 0.12 and later)
207 Here's a more complicated example of how to add a toggle "deleted"
210 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "d"
212 "toggle deleted tag for message"
214 (if (member "deleted" (notmuch-show-get-tags))
215 (notmuch-show-remove-tag "deleted")
216 (notmuch-show-add-tag "deleted"))))
218 And version for notmuch 0.12
220 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "d"
222 "toggle deleted tag for message"
224 (notmuch-show-tag-message
225 (if (member "deleted" (notmuch-show-get-tags))
226 "-deleted" "+deleted"))))
228 ## Adding many tagging keybindings
230 If you want to have have many tagging keybindings, you can save the typing
231 the few lines of boilerplate for every binding (for versions before 0.12,
232 you will need to change notmuch-show-apply-tag-macro).
234 (eval-after-load 'notmuch-show
235 '(define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "`" 'notmuch-show-apply-tag-macro))
237 (setq notmuch-show-tag-macro-alist
239 '("m" "+notmuch::patch" "+notmuch::moreinfo" "-notmuch::needs-review")
240 '("n" "+notmuch::patch" "+notmuch::needs-review" "-notmuch::pushed")
241 '("o" "+notmuch::patch" "+notmuch::obsolete"
242 "-notmuch::needs-review" "-notmuch::moreinfo")
243 '("p" "-notmuch::pushed" "-notmuch::needs-review"
244 "-notmuch::moreinfo" "+pending")
245 '("P" "-pending" "-notmuch::needs-review" "-notmuch::moreinfo" "+notmuch::pushed")
246 '("r" "-notmuch::patch" "+notmuch::review")
247 '("s" "+notmuch::patch" "-notmuch::obsolete" "-notmuch::needs-review" "-notmuch::moreinfo" "+notmuch::stale")
248 '("t" "+notmuch::patch" "-notmuch::needs-review" "+notmuch::trivial")
249 '("w" "+notmuch::patch" "+notmuch::wip" "-notmuch::needs-review")))
251 (defun notmuch-show-apply-tag-macro (key)
253 (let ((macro (assoc key notmuch-show-tag-macro-alist)))
254 (apply 'notmuch-show-tag-message (cdr macro))))
256 ## Restore reply-to-all key binding to 'r'
258 Starting from notmuch 0.12 the 'r' key is bound to reply-to-sender instead of
259 reply-to-all. Here's how to swap the reply to sender/all bindings in show mode:
261 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "r" 'notmuch-show-reply)
262 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "R" 'notmuch-show-reply-sender)
266 (define-key notmuch-search-mode-map "r" 'notmuch-search-reply-to-thread)
267 (define-key notmuch-search-mode-map "R" 'notmuch-search-reply-to-thread-sender)
270 ## How to do FCC/BCC...
272 The Emacs interface to notmuch will automatically add an `Fcc`
273 header to your outgoing mail so that any messages you send will also
274 be saved in your mail store. You can control where this copy of the
275 message is saved by setting the variables `message-directory` (which
276 defines a base directory) and `notmuch-fcc-dirs` which defines the
277 subdirectory relative to `message-directory` in which to save the
278 mail. Enter a directory (without the maildir `/cur` ending which
279 will be appended automatically). To customize both variables at the
280 same time, use the fancy command:
282 M-x customize-apropos<RET>\(notmuch-fcc-dirs\)\|\(message-directory\)
284 This mechanism also allows you to select different folders to be
285 used for the outgoing mail depending on your selected `From`
286 address. Please see the documentation for the variable
287 `notmuch-fcc-dirs` in the customization window for how to arrange
290 ## How to customize `notmuch-saved-searches`
292 When starting notmuch, a list of saved searches and message counts is
293 displayed, replacing the older `notmuch-folders` command. The set of
294 saved searches displayed can be modified directly from the notmuch
295 interface (using the `[save]` button next to a previous search) or by
296 customising the variable `notmuch-saved-searches`.
298 An example setting might be:
300 (setq notmuch-saved-searches '(("inbox" . "tag:inbox")
301 ("unread" . "tag:inbox AND tag:unread")
302 ("notmuch" . "tag:inbox AND to:notmuchmail.org")))
304 Of course, you can have any number of saved searches, each configured
305 with any supported search terms (see "notmuch help search-terms").
307 Some users find it useful to add `and not tag:delete` to those
308 searches, as they use the `delete` tag to mark messages as
309 deleted. This causes messages that are marked as deleted to be removed
310 from the commonly used views of messages. Use whatever seems most
313 ## Viewing HTML messages with an external viewer
315 The emacs client can display an HTML message inline using either the
316 `html2text` library or some text browser, like w3m or lynx. This is
317 controlled by the `mm-text-html-renderer` variable.
319 The first option is theorically better, because it can generate
320 strings formatted for emacs and do whatever you want, e.g., substitute
321 text inside <b> tags for bold text in the buffer. The library, however
322 is still in a very early development phase and cannot yet process
323 properly many elements, like tables and <style> directives, and even
324 the generated text is often poorly formatted.
326 Among the available browsers, w3m seems to do a better job converting
327 the html, and if you have the w3m emacs package, you can use it,
328 instead of the w3m-standalone, and thus preserve the text formatting.
330 But if the rendering fails for one reason or another, or if you really
331 need to see the graphical presentation of the HTML message, it can be
332 useful to display the message in an external viewer, such as a web
333 browser. Here's a little script that Keith Packard wrote, which he
339 cat "$@" > "$dir"/msg
340 if munpack -C "$dir" -t < "$dir"/msg 2>&1 | grep 'Did not find'; then
341 sed -n '/[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]/,$p' "$dir"/msg > $dir/part1.html
344 for i in "$dir"/part*; do
345 if grep -q -i -e '<html>' -e 'text/html' "$i"; then
352 Save that script somewhere in your `${PATH}`, make it executable,
353 and change the invocation of `iceweasel` to any other HTML viewer if
354 necessary. Then within the emacs client, press '|' to pipe the
355 current message, then type "view-html".
357 Keith mentions the following caveat, "Note that if iceweasel isn't
358 already running, it seems to shut down when the script exits. I
361 ## msmtp, message mode and multiple accounts
363 As an alternative to running a mail server such as sendmail or postfix
364 just to send email, it is possible to use
365 [msmtp](http://msmtp.sourceforge.net/). This small application will
366 look like `/usr/bin/sendmail` to a MUA such as emacs message mode, but
367 will just forward the email to an external SMTP server. It's fairly
368 easy to set up and it supports several accounts for using different
369 SMTP servers. The msmtp pages have several examples.
371 A typical scenario is that you want to use the company SMTP server
372 for email coming from your company email address, and your personal
373 server for personal email. If msmtp is passed the envelope address
374 on the command line (the -f/--from option) it will automatically
375 pick the matching account. The only trick here seems to be getting
376 emacs to actually pass the envelope from. There are a number of
377 overlapping configuration variables that control this, and it's a
378 little confusion, but setting these three works for me:
380 - `mail-specify-envelope-from`: `t`
382 - `message-sendmail-envelope-from`: `header`
384 - `mail-envelope-from`: `header`
386 With that in place, you need a `.msmtprc` with the accounts configured
387 for the domains you want to send out using specific SMTP servers and
388 the rest will go to the default account.
390 If you have a hard time getting the above to work for you, as I did,
391 it's also possible to add a message-send-mail-hook in your .emacs to
392 send the from header explicitly as an argument to msmtp as described
393 [here](http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/GnusMSMTP#toc2) on the
397 ## <span id="address_completion">Address completion when composing</span>
399 There are currently three solutions to this:
403 [bbdb](http://bbdb.sourceforge.net) is a contact database for emacs
404 that works quite nicely together with message mode, including
405 address autocompletion.
407 ### notmuch database as an address book
409 You can also use the notmuch database as a mail address book itself.
410 To do this you need a command line tool that outputs likely address
411 candidates based on a search string. There are currently three
414 * The python tool `notmuch_address.py` (`git clone
415 http://commonmeasure.org/~jkr/git/notmuch_addresses.git`) (slower, but
416 no compilation required so good for testing the setup)
419 [addrlookup](http://github.com/spaetz/vala-notmuch) (faster, but
420 needs compiling). The addrlookup binary needs to be compiled.
422 `http://github.com/spaetz/vala-notmuch/raw/static-sources/src/addrlookup.c`
425 cc -o addrlookup addrlookup.c `pkg-config --cflags --libs gobject-2.0` -lnotmuch
427 * Shell/fgrep/perl combination [nottoomuch-addresses.sh](http://www.iki.fi/too/nottoomuch/nottoomuch-addresses/).
428 This tools maintains it's own address "database" gathered from email
429 files notmuch knows and search from that "database" is done by `fgrep(1)`.
431 You can perform tab-completion using any of these programs.
432 Just add the following to your .emacs:
434 (require 'notmuch-address)
435 (setq notmuch-address-command "/path/to/address_fetching_program")
436 (notmuch-address-message-insinuate)
440 [GooBook](http://code.google.com/p/goobook/) is a command-line tool for
441 accessing Google Contacts. Install and set it up according to its documentation.
443 To use GooBook with notmuch, use this wrapper script and set it up like the
447 goobook query "$*" | sed 's/\(.*\)\t\(.*\)\t.*/\2 \<\1\>/' | sed '/^$/d'
449 You can add the sender of a message to Google Contacts by piping the message
450 (`notmuch-show-pipe-message`) to `goobook add`.
452 ## How to sign/encrypt messages with gpg
454 Messages can by signed using gpg by invoking
455 `M-x mml-secure-sign-pgpmime` (or `M-x mml-secure-encrypt-pgpmime`).
456 These functions are available via the standard `message-mode` keybindings
457 `C-c C-m s p` and `C-c C-m c p`. To sign outgoing mail by default, use the
458 `message-setup-hook` in your `.emacs` file:
460 ;; Sign messages by default.
461 (add-hook 'message-setup-hook 'mml-secure-sign-pgpmime)
463 This inserts the required `<#part sign=pgpmime>` into the beginning
464 of the mail text body and will be converted into a pgp signature
465 when sending (so one can just manually delete that line if signing
468 Alternatively, you may prefer to use `mml-secure-message-sign-pgpmime` instead
469 of `mml-secure-sign-pgpmime` to sign the whole message instead of just one
472 ### Troubleshooting message-mode gpg support
474 - If you have trouble with expired subkeys, you may have encountered
475 emacs bug #7931. This is fixed in git commit 301ea744c on
476 2011-02-02. Note that if you have the Debian package easypg
477 installed, it will shadow the fixed version of easypg included with
480 ## Multiple identities using gnus-alias
482 [gnus-alias](http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/GnusAlias) allows you to
483 define multiple identities when using `message-mode`. You can specify
484 the from address, organization, extra headers (including *Bcc*), extra
485 body text, and signature for each identity. Identities are chosen
486 based on a set of rules. When you are in message mode, you can switch
487 identities using gnus-alias.
491 - put `gnus-alias.el` on your load Emacs-Lisp load path (add new directory
492 to load path by writing `(add-to-list 'load-path "/some/load/path")` into
495 - Add the following to your `.emacs`
497 (autoload 'gnus-alias-determine-identity "gnus-alias" "" t)
498 (add-hook 'message-setup-hook 'gnus-alias-determine-identity)
500 Looking into `gnus-alias.el` gives a bit more information...
502 ### Example Configuration
504 Here is an example configuration.
506 ;; Define two identities, "home" and "work"
507 (setq gnus-alias-identity-alist
509 nil ;; Does not refer to any other identity
510 "John Doe <jdoe@example.net>" ;; Sender address
511 nil ;; No organization header
512 nil ;; No extra headers
513 nil ;; No extra body text
517 "John Doe <john.doe@example.com>"
519 (("Bcc" . "john.doe@example.com"))
521 "~/.signature.work")))
522 ;; Use "home" identity by default
523 (setq gnus-alias-default-identity "home")
524 ;; Define rules to match work identity
525 (setq gnus-alias-identity-rules
526 '(("work" ("any" "john.doe@\\(example\\.com\\|help\\.example.com\\)" both) "work"))
527 ;; Determine identity when message-mode loads
528 (add-hook 'message-setup-hook 'gnus-alias-determine-identity)
530 When `gnus-alias` has been loaded (using autoload, require, *M-x load-library*
531 or *M-x load-file* (load-file takes file path -- therefore it can be used
532 without any `.emacs` changes)) the following commands can be used to get(/set)
533 more information (some of these have "extensive documentation"):
535 M-x describe-variable RET gnus-alias-identity-alist
536 M-x describe-variable RET gnus-alias-identity-rules
537 M-x describe-variable RET gnus-alias-default-identity
539 M-x customize-group RET gnus-alias RET
541 M-x gnus-alias-customize RET
543 The last two do the same thing.
545 See also the **Usage:** section in `gnus-alias.el`.
547 ## Resending (or bouncing) messages
549 Add the following to your `.emacs` to be able to resend the current message in
552 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "b"
553 (lambda (&optional address)
554 "Bounce the current message."
555 (interactive "sBounce To: ")
556 (notmuch-show-view-raw-message)
557 (message-resend address)))
559 ## `notmuch-hello` refresh status message
561 Add the following to your `.emacs` to get a status message about the change in
562 the number of messages in the mail store when refreshing the `notmuch-hello`
565 (defvar notmuch-hello-refresh-count 0)
567 (defun notmuch-hello-refresh-status-message ()
571 (car (process-lines notmuch-command "count"))))
572 (diff-count (- new-count notmuch-hello-refresh-count)))
574 ((= notmuch-hello-refresh-count 0)
575 (message "You have %s messages."
576 (notmuch-hello-nice-number new-count)))
578 (message "You have %s more messages since last refresh."
579 (notmuch-hello-nice-number diff-count)))
581 (message "You have %s fewer messages since last refresh."
582 (notmuch-hello-nice-number (- diff-count)))))
583 (setq notmuch-hello-refresh-count new-count))))
585 (add-hook 'notmuch-hello-refresh-hook 'notmuch-hello-refresh-status-message)
587 ## Replacing tabs with spaces in subject and header
589 Mailman mailing list software rewrites and rewraps long message subjects in
590 a way that causes TABs to appear in the middle of the subject and header
591 lines. Add this to your `.emacs` to replace tabs with spaces in subject
594 (defun notmuch-show-subject-tabs-to-spaces ()
595 "Replace tabs with spaces in subject line."
596 (goto-char (point-min))
597 (when (re-search-forward "^Subject:" nil t)
598 (while (re-search-forward "\t" (line-end-position) t)
599 (replace-match " " nil nil))))
601 (add-hook 'notmuch-show-markup-headers-hook 'notmuch-show-subject-tabs-to-spaces)
603 And in header lines (this will only work with the yet to be released
604 notmuch version 0.15):
606 (defun notmuch-show-header-tabs-to-spaces ()
607 "Replace tabs with spaces in header line."
608 (setq header-line-format
609 (notmuch-show-strip-re
610 (replace-regexp-in-string "\t" " " (notmuch-show-get-subject)))))
612 (add-hook 'notmuch-show-hook 'notmuch-show-header-tabs-to-spaces)