[[!img notmuch-logo.png alt="Notmuch logo" class="left"]]
-# Notmuch -- The mail indexer
+# Notmuch -- Just an email system
-## Why Notmuch?
+If you've been looking for a fast, global-search and tag-based email
+system to use within your text editor or in a terminal...
+
+If you're the kind of person that gets excited about being able to
+write shell scripts for exploring and manipulating your email...
+
+If you're a developer of an existing email program and would love a
+good library interface for fast, global search with support for
+arbitrary tags...
+
+If you want the convenience of fast, reliable search of all your
+email, but don't want to give a 3rd-party access to your email...
+
+Then notmuch may be exactly what you've been looking for.
+
+[[!toc levels=2]]
+
+## Why is it named Notmuch?
* "Not much mail" is what Notmuch thinks about your email
collection. Even if you receive 12000 messages per month or have on
that you can keep your inbox tamed and focus on what really matters
in your life, (which is surely not email).
-* Notmuch is an answer to [Sup](http://sup.rubyforge.org/).
+* Notmuch is an answer to [Sup](http://sup-heliotrope.github.io/).
Sup is a very good email program written by William Morgan (and
others) and is the direct inspiration for Notmuch. Notmuch began as
an effort to rewrite performance-critical pieces of Sup in C rather
- than ruby. From there, it grew into a separate project. One
+ than Ruby. From there, it grew into a separate project. One
significant contribution Notmuch makes compared to Sup is the
separation of the indexer/searcher from the user interface. (Notmuch
provides a library interface so that its indexing/searching/tagging
interface and Xapian does all the heavy lifting, then what's left
here? Not much.
-Notmuch is still in the early stages of development, but there are
-already two user interfaces available for it (one for emacs and one
-for vim). If you've been looking for a fast, global-search and
-tag-based email reader to use within your text editor or in a
-terminal, then Notmuch may be exactly what you've been looking for.
+## News
-Otherwise, if you're a developer of an existing email program and
-would love a good library interface for fast, global search with
-support for arbitrary tags, then Notmuch also may be exactly what
-you've been looking for.
+[[Notmuch news|news]] (mostly release notes and changes).
-## News
+## Getting Started
-[[The latest news from notmuch|news]]
+To get started with Notmuch, just run "notmuch" at the command line.
+This command will walk you through initial setup, including specifying
+the location of your mail store and how to start the initial indexing.
-## Documentation
+For a little more detailed guide, see [[Getting Started with
+Notmuch|getting-started]].
+
+## Email Clients and Front Ends
+
+Notmuch ships with a powerful set of [command-line
+tools](https://notmuchmail.org/doc/latest/man1/notmuch.html), an
+[[email client for Emacs|notmuch-emacs]], another [client for
+vim](https://git.notmuchmail.org/git/notmuch/blob/HEAD:/vim/README),
+and a [[Mutt integration script|notmuch-mutt]].
+
+There are also many other [[email clients, frontends and tools|frontends]] based
+on Notmuch.
-So far, there is not much documentation. Eventually, the wiki will
-contain a reference for users. This is what we have so far:
+## Documentation
+ * [Notmuch official documentation (manual pages)](https://notmuchmail.org/doc/latest/)
+ * [[Email clients and frontends|frontends]]
* [[General how-tos|howto]]
- * [[Initial_Tagging]]
- * [[Tips for using notmuch within Emacs|emacstips]]
- * [[Remote Usage|remoteusage]]
+ * [[Frequently Asked Questions|faq]]
+ * [[Searching]]
+ * [[Excluding and deleting messages|excluding]]
+ * [[Initial tagging|Initial_Tagging]]
+ * Tips for using Notmuch with [[Emacs|emacstips]], [[Vim|vimtips]], [[Postfix & Dovecot|postfixdovecottips]] and [[Mutt|mutttips]]
+ * [[Emacs remote usage|remoteusage]]
* [[Performance|performance]]
- * [[Available frontends|frontends]]
+ * [[References|references]]
+ * [[Notmuch Library Language Bindings|bindings]]
-Apart from the wiki, help is available via email. Join the mailing
-list. Read the archives. Ask questions.
+Apart from the wiki, help is available via email and on IRC (see
+below). Join the mailing list. Read the archives. Ask questions.
-## Source code
+## Screenshots
-All of the code for Notmuch is available as [free
-software](http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-sw.html) released
-under the GNU [GPL version
-3](http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html). The latest
-versions can be checked out via git with this command:
+* [[Emacs UI screenshots|screenshots]]
- git clone git://notmuchmail.org/git/notmuch
+## Obtaining Notmuch
-You can browse the [Notmuch code
-history](http://git.notmuchmail.org/git/notmuch) online. And finally,
-you can [subscribe to the `notmuch-commits`
-list](http://notmuchmail.org/mailman/listinfo/notmuch-commits) to watch
-every commit made to notmuch and the notmuchmail.org web site.
+[Notmuch source releases](https://notmuchmail.org/releases/) are available as
+source tar balls.
-Source code of notmuch releases can be downloaded [here](http://notmuchmail.org/releases/).
+Notmuch is packaged for at least the following operating systems and
+distributions:
-There is a buildbot [here](http://buildbot.notmuchmail.org/grid) (configuration [here](https://github.com/tomprince/buildbot-configs/tree/notmuch)).
+* [Arch Linux](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?q=notmuch)
+* [Debian](http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=notmuch)
+* [Fedora](https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/notmuch)
+* [FreeBSD](http://www.freshports.org/mail/notmuch)
+* [Gentoo](http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-mail/notmuch)
+* [NetBSD](http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/mail/notmuch/README.html)
+* [openSUSE](https://build.opensuse.org/search?search_text=notmuch)
+* macOS [Homebrew](https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/09baa1c3f5a30f8450d2145d4fd988e4b4d48070/Formula/notmuch.rb), [MacPorts](https://ports.macports.org/port/notmuch), or [pkgsrc](http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/mail/notmuch/README.html).
+* [Slackware](http://slackbuilds.org/repository/13.37/office/notmuch/)
+* [Ubuntu](http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=notmuch)
-## Bug-tracking and patches
+## Contact: Email & IRC
-Patches are most welcome and should be sent to notmuch@notmuchmail.org.
-Please try to follow the [[patch submission guidelines|patchformatting]]
-when submitting patches to notmuch.
+Comments? Please feel free to email the notmuch mailing list:
+<mailto:notmuch@notmuchmail.org> (subscription is not required, but you can
+also subscribe to the
+[notmuch mailing list](https://nmbug.notmuchmail.org/list/)). You
+can also browse the
+[online list archives](https://nmbug.notmuchmail.org/nmweb/) or
+download an [archive](https://nmbug.notmuchmail.org/archive/notmuch-list.tar.xz)
+of the entire mailing-list.
-The tagging and filtering features of notmuch make it quite suitable
-for use as a bug- and patch-tracker. We are currently experimenting
-with using it for this purpose for notmuch development, using a
-utility called [[nmbug]].
+The archive unpacks to maildir format which is convenient for reading
+the archives within notmuch itself.
-The status of current patches can also be followed [[online|http://nmbug.tethera.net/status]].
+If you prefer real-time chat, there is often someone on the
+[#notmuch](irc://irc.libera.chat/#notmuch)@irc.libera.chat IRC channel. Don't
+ask if you can ask a question, just ask, and please wait for an answer, we might
+not be in your timezone.
-## Binary packages
+## Troubleshooting, Reporting Bugs and Feature Requests
-* [Debian](http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=notmuch), [Ubuntu](http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=notmuch)
-* [Slackware](http://slackbuilds.org/repository/13.37/office/notmuch/)
+Please send bug reports and feature requests to the [Notmuch mailing
+list](https://nmbug.notmuchmail.org/list/)
+<mailto:notmuch@notmuchmail.org>.
-## Screenshots
+For hints about troubleshooting and bug reporting see [[bugs]].
-* [[Emacs UI screenshots|screenshots]]
+Please see the [nmbug status page](https://nmbug.notmuchmail.org/status/) for
+lists of [known bugs](https://nmbug.notmuchmail.org/status/#Bugs) and [feature
+requests](https://nmbug.notmuchmail.org/status/#Wish-list).
-## Contact: Email & IRC
+## Development and Contributing
-Comments? Please feel free to email the notmuch mailing list:
-notmuch@notmuchmail.org (subscription is not required, but you can
-subscribe to the [notmuch
-list](http://notmuchmail.org/mailman/listinfo/notmuch) if you would
-like to). You can also browse the [online
-archives](http://notmuchmail.org/pipermail/notmuch/) of the mailing
-list, read them as a [web forum
-(nabble)](http://notmuch.198994.n3.nabble.com/), or download an
-[mbox file](http://notmuchmail.org/archives/notmuch.mbox) of the entire
-mailing-list.
-
-The `mb2md` utility can be used to convert the archives to maildir
-format which is convenient for reading the archives within notmuch
-itself.
+All of the code for Notmuch is available as [free
+software](https://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-sw.html) released
+under the GNU [GPL version
+3](https://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html). The latest
+versions can be checked out via git with this command:
-If you prefer real-time chat, there is often someone on the
-[#notmuch](irc://chat.freenode.net/#notmuch)@irc.freenode.net IRC
-channel.
+ git clone https://git.notmuchmail.org/git/notmuch
+
+You can browse the [Notmuch code history
+online](https://git.notmuchmail.org/git/notmuch). [The Notmuch OpenHub project
+page](https://www.openhub.net/p/notmuch) has a nice summary of the codebase and
+activity.
-## Feature ideas
+Continuous integration build and test suite status: [](https://travis-ci.org/notmuch/notmuch)
-We have started a [[feature requests|feature-requests]] page on this
-wiki. No, things you add there won't automatically get implemented -
-but it's a nice way to collect ideas.
+Contributions, such as patches, to Notmuch are most welcome. Please refer to the
+[[guide to contributing|contributing]].
## Website
-This wiki is maintained using
-[ikiwiki](http://ikiwiki.info). Instructions on how to edit it can be
-found [[here|wikiwriteaccess]].
+This website is a wiki, maintained using [ikiwiki](http://ikiwiki.info). Here
+are [[instructions on how to edit the wiki|wikiwriteaccess]]. The wiki contents
+are mostly [[dual licensed under CC-BY-SA-3.0 and GPLv3+|COPYING]].
projects / notmuch-wiki / blobdiff