1 <h1>NOTMUCH-PROPERTIES(7)</h1>
5 notmuch-properties - notmuch message property conventions and documen‐
11 <b>notmuch</b> <b>count</b> <b>property:</b><<u>key</u>>=<<u>value</u>>
13 <b>notmuch</b> <b>search</b> <b>property:</b><<u>key</u>>=<<u>value</u>>
15 <b>notmuch</b> <b>show</b> <b>property:</b><<u>key</u>>=<<u>value</u>>
17 <b>notmuch</b> <b>reindex</b> <b>property:</b><<u>key</u>>=<<u>value</u>>
19 <b>notmuch</b> <b>tag</b> +<<u>tag</u>> <b>property:</b><<u>key</u>>=<<u>value</u>>
21 <b>notmuch</b> <b>dump</b> <b>--include=properties</b>
23 <b>notmuch</b> <b>restore</b> <b>--include=properties</b>
28 Several notmuch commands can search for, modify, add or remove proper‐
29 ties associated with specific messages. Properties are key/value
30 pairs, and a message can have more than one key/value pair for the same
33 While users can select based on a specific property in their search
34 terms with the prefix <b>property:</b>, the notmuch command-line interface
35 does not provide mechanisms for modifying properties directly to the
38 Instead, message properties are expected to be set and used programmat‐
39 ically, according to logic in notmuch itself, or in extensions to it.
41 Extensions to notmuch which make use of properties are encouraged to
42 report the specific properties used to the upstream notmuch project, as
43 a way of avoiding collisions in the property namespace.
48 Any property with a key that starts with "index." will be removed (and
49 possibly re-set) upon reindexing (see <a href='../notmuch-reindex-1/'>notmuch-reindex</a>(1)).
52 <h2>MESSAGE PROPERTIES</h2>
54 The following properties are set by notmuch internally in the course of
57 <b>index.decryption</b>
58 If a message contains encrypted content, and notmuch tries to
59 decrypt that content during indexing, it will add the property
60 <b>index.decryption=success</b> when the cleartext was successfully
61 indexed. If notmuch attempts to decrypt any part of a message
62 during indexing and that decryption attempt fails, it will add
63 the property <b>index.decryption=failure</b> to the message.
65 Note that it's possible for a single message to have both
66 <b>index.decryption=success</b> and <b>index.decryption=failure</b>. Consider
67 an encrypted e-mail message that contains another encrypted
68 e-mail message as an attachment -- if the outer message can be
69 decrypted, but the attached part cannot, then both properties
70 will be set on the message as a whole.
72 If notmuch never tried to decrypt an encrypted message during
73 indexing (which is the default, see <b>index.decrypt</b> in <a href='../notmuch-config-1/'>not‐</a>
74 <a href='../notmuch-config-1/'>much-config</a>(1)), then this property will not be set on that mes‐
78 When <a href='../notmuch-show-1/'>notmuch-show</a>(1) or <b>nomtuch-reply</b> encounters a message with an
79 encrypted part, if notmuch finds a <b>session-key</b> property associated
80 with the message, it will try that stashed session key for decryp‐
83 If you do not want to use any stashed session keys that might be
84 present, you should pass those programs <b>--decrypt=false</b>.
86 Using a stashed session key with "notmuch show" will speed up ren‐
87 dering of long encrypted threads. It also allows the user to
88 destroy the secret part of any expired encryption-capable subkey
89 while still being able to read any retained messages for which they
90 have stashed the session key. This enables truly deletable e-mail,
91 since (once the session key and asymmetric subkey are both
92 destroyed) there are no keys left that can be used to decrypt any
93 copy of the original message previously stored by an adversary.
95 However, access to the stashed session key for an encrypted message
96 permits full byte-for-byte reconstruction of the cleartext message.
97 This includes attachments, cryptographic signatures, and other mate‐
98 rial that cannot be reconstructed from the index alone.
100 See <b>index.decrypt</b> in <a href='../notmuch-config-1/'>notmuch-config</a>(1) for more details about how to
101 set notmuch's policy on when to store session keys.
103 The session key should be in the ASCII text form produced by GnuPG.
104 For OpenPGP, that consists of a decimal representation of the hash
105 algorithm used (identified by number from RFC 4880, e.g. 9 means
106 AES-256) followed by a colon, followed by a hexadecimal representa‐
107 tion of the algorithm-specific key. For example, an AES-128 key
108 might be stashed in a notmuch property as: <b>ses-</b>
109 <b>sion-key=7:14B16AF65536C28AF209828DFE34C9E0</b>.
111 <b>index.repaired</b>
112 Some messages arrive in forms that are confusing to view; they can
113 be mangled by mail transport agents, or the sending mail user agent
114 may structure them in a way that is confusing. If notmuch knows how
115 to both detect and repair such a problematic message, it will do so
118 If it applies a message repair during indexing, it will use the
119 <b>index.repaired</b> property to note the type of repair(s) it performed.
121 <b>index.repaired=skip-protected-headers-legacy-display</b> indicates that
122 when indexing the cleartext of an encrypted message, notmuch skipped
123 over a "legacy-display" text/rfc822-headers part that it found in
124 that message, since it was able to index the built-in protected
127 <b>index.repaired=mixedup</b> indicates the repair of a "Mixed Up"
128 encrypted PGP/MIME message, a mangling typically produced by Micro‐
130 <u>https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-dkg-openpgp-pgpmime-message-mangling</u>
131 for more information.
136 <a href='../notmuch-1/'>notmuch</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-config-1/'>notmuch-config</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-dump-1/'>notmuch-dump</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-insert-1/'>notmuch-insert</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-new-1/'>not‐</a>
137 <a href='../notmuch-new-1/'>much-new</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-reindex-1/'>notmuch-reindex</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-reply-1/'>notmuch-reply</a>(1), <a href='../notmuch-restore-1/'>notmuch-restore</a>(1),
138 <a href='../notmuch-show-1/'>notmuch-show</a>(1), <b>*notmuch-search-terms</b>(7)
143 Carl Worth and many others
148 2009-2020, Carl Worth and many others