1 [[!img notmuch-logo.png alt="Notmuch logo" class="left"]]
2 # Notmuch -- The mail indexer
6 Because dealing with your mail can be so much better.
8 * "Not much mail" is what Notmuch thinks about your email
9 collection. Even if you receive 12000 messages per month or have on
10 the order of millions of messages that you've been saving for
11 decades. Regardless, Notmuch will be able to quickly search all of
12 it. It's just plain not much mail.
14 * "Not much mail" is also what you should have in your inbox at any
15 time. Notmuch gives you what you need, (tags and fast search), so
16 that you can keep your inbox tamed and focus on what really matters
17 in your life, (which is surely not email).
19 * Notmuch is an answer to [Sup](http://sup.rubyforge.org/).
20 Sup is a very good email program written by William Morgan (and
21 others) and is the direct inspiration for Notmuch. Notmuch began as
22 an effort to rewrite performance-critical pieces of Sup in C rather
23 than ruby. From there, it grew into a separate project. One
24 significant contribution Notmuch makes compared to Sup is the
25 separation of the indexer/searcher from the user interface. (Notmuch
26 provides a library interface so that its indexing/searching/tagging
27 features can be integrated into any email program.)
29 * Notmuch is not much of an email program. It doesn't receive messages
30 (no POP or IMAP support). It doesn't send messages (no mail composer,
31 no network code at all). And for what it does do (email search) that
32 work is provided by an external library,
33 [Xapian](http://xapian.org). So if Notmuch provides no user
34 interface and Xapian does all the heavy lifting, then what's left
37 If you've been looking for a fast, global-search and tag-based email
38 reader to use within your text editor or in a terminal, then Notmuch
39 may be exactly what you've been looking for.
41 If you're a developer of an existing email program and would love a
42 good library interface for fast, global search with support for
43 arbitrary tags, then Notmuch also may be exactly what you've been
48 [[The latest news from notmuch|news]]
52 To get started with notmuch, just run "notmuch" at the command line.
53 The configuration wizard will walk you through initial setup,
54 including specifying the location of your mail store and how to start
55 the initial indexing. After that, come back and checkout our docs:
57 * [[Notmuch manual pages|manpages]]
58 * [[General how-tos|howto]]
59 * [[Frequently Asked Questions|faq]]
61 * [[Excluding and deleting messages|excluding]]
62 * [[Initial tagging|Initial_Tagging]]
63 * [[Tips for using notmuch within Emacs|emacstips]]
64 * [[Remote usage|remoteusage]]
65 * [[Performance|performance]]
66 * [[References|references]]
68 Apart from the wiki, help is available via email and on IRC (see
69 below). Join the mailing list. Read the archives. Ask questions.
71 ## Email clients and front ends
73 Notmuch ships with a powerful set of [[command-line tools|manpages]], an
74 [[email client for Emacs|emacstips]], another
75 [client for vim](http://git.notmuchmail.org/git/notmuch/blob/HEAD:/vim/README),
76 and a [[Mutt integration script|notmuch-mutt]].
78 There are also many other [[email clients and frontends|frontends]] based on
79 Notmuch. And a few tips about integrating it with [[Mutt|mutttips]] and [[Vim|vimtips]].
83 * [[Emacs UI screenshots|screenshots]]
87 [Notmuch source releases](http://notmuchmail.org/releases/) are available as
90 Notmuch is packaged for at least the following distributions:
92 * [Arch Linux](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?q=notmuch)
93 * [Debian](http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=notmuch)
94 * [Fedora](https://apps.fedoraproject.org/packages/notmuch)
95 * [Gentoo](http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-mail/notmuch)
96 * [openSUSE](https://build.opensuse.org/search?search_text=notmuch)
97 * [Slackware](http://slackbuilds.org/repository/13.37/office/notmuch/)
98 * [Ubuntu](http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=notmuch)
100 Notmuch can be installed on Mac OS X using [MacPorts](https://www.macports.org/ports.php?by=name&substr=notmuch).
102 ## Development and Contributing
104 All of the code for Notmuch is available as [free
105 software](http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-sw.html) released
106 under the GNU [GPL version
107 3](http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html). The latest
108 versions can be checked out via git with this command:
110 git clone git://notmuchmail.org/git/notmuch
113 [Notmuch code history online](http://git.notmuchmail.org/git/notmuch). And
115 [subscribe to the `notmuch-commits` list](http://notmuchmail.org/mailman/listinfo/notmuch-commits)
116 to watch every commit made to notmuch and the notmuchmail.org web
119 We have a [buildbot](http://buildbot.notmuchmail.org/grid) (here's
121 [configuration](https://github.com/tomprince/buildbot-configs/tree/notmuch)).
123 Contributions, such as patches, to Notmuch are most welcome. Please refer to the
124 [[guide to contributing|contributing]].
126 ## Bug and patch tracking
128 The tagging and filtering features of notmuch make it quite suitable
129 for use as a bug- and patch-tracker. We are currently experimenting
130 with using it for this purpose for notmuch development, using a
131 utility called [[nmbug]]. The status of bugs and current patches can also be
132 followed [online](http://nmbug.tethera.net/status).
134 Bug reports should be sent to the Notmuch mailing list notmuch@notmuchmail.org.
136 ## Contact: Email & IRC
138 Comments? Please feel free to email the notmuch mailing list:
139 notmuch@notmuchmail.org (subscription is not required, but you can
140 also subscribe to the
141 [notmuch mailing list](http://notmuchmail.org/mailman/listinfo/notmuch)). You
143 [online list archives](http://notmuchmail.org/pipermail/notmuch/),
145 [web forum (nabble)](http://notmuch.198994.n3.nabble.com/), or
146 download an [mbox file](http://notmuchmail.org/archives/notmuch.mbox)
147 of the entire mailing-list.
149 The `mb2md` utility can be used to convert the archives to maildir
150 format which is convenient for reading the archives within notmuch
153 If you prefer real-time chat, there is often someone on the
154 [#notmuch](irc://chat.freenode.net/#notmuch)@irc.freenode.net IRC
159 If you have a feature idea/request, please send it to the
160 [mailing list](http://notmuchmail.org/mailman/listinfo/notmuch). You
161 don't have to be subscribed to send, although there might be a delay
166 This wiki is maintained using [ikiwiki](http://ikiwiki.info). Here are
167 [[instructions on how to edit the wiki|wikiwriteaccess]].