+;; By default clicking on a button does not select the window
+;; containing the button (as opposed to clicking on a widget which
+;; does). This means that the button action is then executed in the
+;; current selected window which can cause problems if the button
+;; changes the buffer (e.g., id: links) or moves point.
+;;
+;; This provides a button type which overrides mouse-action so that
+;; the button's window is selected before the action is run. Other
+;; notmuch buttons can get the same behaviour by inheriting from this
+;; button type.
+(define-button-type 'notmuch-button-type
+ 'mouse-action (lambda (button)
+ (select-window (posn-window (event-start last-input-event)))
+ (button-activate button)))
+
+(defun notmuch-command-to-string (&rest args)
+ "Synchronously invoke \"notmuch\" with the given list of arguments.
+
+If notmuch exits with a non-zero status, output from the process
+will appear in a buffer named \"*Notmuch errors*\" and an error
+will be signaled.
+
+Otherwise the output will be returned"
+ (with-temp-buffer
+ (let* ((status (apply #'call-process notmuch-command nil t nil args))
+ (output (buffer-string)))
+ (notmuch-check-exit-status status (cons notmuch-command args) output)
+ output)))
+