The setup command will prompt for your full name, your primary email
address, any alternate email addresses you use, and the directory
containing your email archives. Your answers will be written to a
-configuration file in ${HOME}/.notmuch-config . This configuration
-file will be created with descriptive comments, making it easy to edit
-by hand later to change the configuration. Or you can run
+configuration file in ${NOTMUCH_CONFIG} (if set) or
+${HOME}/.notmuch-config . This configuration file will be created with
+descriptive comments, making it easy to edit by hand later to change the
+configuration. Or you can run
.B "notmuch setup"
again to change the configuration.
database. These subsequent runs will be much quicker than the initial
run.
-Note:
-.B notmuch new
-runs (other than the first run) will skip any read-only directories,
-so you can use that to mark directories that will not receive any new
-mail (and make
-.B notmuch new
-even faster).
-
Invoking
.B notmuch
with no command argument will run
section below for more details on the supported syntax.
The
-.BR search " and "show
+.BR search ", " show " and " count
commands are used to query the email database.
.RS 4
.TP 4
include
.RS 4
.TP 4
-.BR \-\-max\-threads= <value>
-
-Restricts displayed search results to a subset of the complete results
-that would match the terms. With this option, no more than <value>
-thread results will be displayed. If this option is not used, then all
-matching threads will be displayed. See also the
-.B \-\-first
-option.
-
-.TP
-.BR \-\-first= <value>
-
-Omits the first <value> threads from the search results that would
-otherwise be displayed. Together with the
-.BR \-\-max\-threads
-option, this can be used to perform incremental searches. For example,
-the first 50 thread results can be displayed with
-.B "\-\-first=0 \-\-max\-threads=50"
-and the next 50 could be displayed with
-.B "\-\-first=50 \-\-max\-threads=50"
-etc.
+.BR \-\-format= ( json | text )
-.TP
+Presents the results in either JSON or plain-text (default).
+.RE
+.RS 4
+.TP 4
.BR \-\-sort= ( newest\-first | oldest\-first )
This option can be used to present results in either chronological order
.B newest\-first
the threads will be sorted by the newest message in each thread.
+.RE
+.RS 4
By default, results will be displayed in reverse chronological order,
(that is, the newest results will be displayed first).
section below for details of the supported syntax for <search-terms>.
.RE
.TP
-.BR show " <search-term>..."
+.BR show " [options...] <search-term>..."
Shows all messages matching the search terms.
depth tags are printed so that proper indentation can be performed by
a post-processor (such as the emacs interface to notmuch).
-The output format is plain-text, with all text-content MIME parts
+Supported options for
+.B show
+include
+.RS 4
+.TP 4
+.B \-\-entire\-thread
+
+By default only those messages that match the search terms will be
+displayed. With this option, all messages in the same thread as any
+matched message will be displayed.
+.RE
+
+.RS 4
+.TP 4
+.B \-\-format=(text|json|mbox)
+
+.RS 4
+.TP 4
+.B text
+
+The default plain-text format has all text-content MIME parts
decoded. Various components in the output,
.RB ( message ", " header ", " body ", " attachment ", and MIME " part ),
will be delimited by easily-parsed markers. Each marker consists of a
then either an opening or closing brace, ('{' or '}'), to either open
or close the component.
+.RE
+.RS 4
+.TP 4
+.B json
+
+The output is formatted with Javascript Object Notation (JSON). This
+format is more robust than the text format for automated
+processing. JSON output always includes all messages in a matching
+thread; in effect
+.B \-\-format=json
+implies
+.B \-\-entire\-thread
+
+.RE
+.RS 4
+.TP 4
+.B mbox
+
+All matching messages are output in the traditional, Unix mbox format
+with each message being prefixed by a line beginning with "From " and
+a blank line separating each message. Lines in the message content
+beginning with "From " (preceded by zero or more '>' characters) have
+an additional '>' character added. This reversible escaping
+is termed "mboxrd" format and described in detail here:
+http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/mail-mbox-formats.html
+
+.RE
A common use of
.B notmuch show
is to display a single thread of email messages. For this, use a
.B "SEARCH SYNTAX"
section below for details of the supported syntax for <search-terms>.
.RE
+.TP
+.BR count " <search-term>..."
+
+Count messages matching the search terms.
+
+The number of matching messages is output to stdout.
+
+With no search terms, a count of all messages in the database will be
+displayed.
+.RE
+.RE
The
.B reply
command is useful for preparing a template for an email reply.
-
-.TP
-.BR reply " <search-term>..."
+.RS 4
+.TP 4
+.BR reply " [options...] <search-term>..."
Constructs a reply template for a set of messages.
template. The Reply-to header (if any, otherwise From:) is used for
the To: address. Vales from the To: and Cc: headers are copied, but
not including any of the current user's email addresses (as configured
-in primary_mail or other_email in the .notmuch-config file) in the
+in primary_mail or other_email in the .notmuch\-config file) in the
recipient list
It also builds a suitable new subject, including Re: at the front (if
not already present), and adding the message IDs of the messages being
-replied to to the References list and setting the In-Reply-To: field
+replied to to the References list and setting the In\-Reply\-To: field
correctly.
Finally, the original contents of the emails are quoted by prefixing
The resulting message template is output to stdout.
+Supported options for
+.B reply
+include
+.RS
+.TP 4
+.BR \-\-format= ( default | headers\-only )
+.RS
+.TP 4
+.BR default
+Includes subject and quoted message body.
+.TP
+.BR headers\-only
+Only produces In\-Reply\-To, References, To, Cc, and Bcc headers.
+.RE
+
See the
.B "SEARCH SYNTAX"
section below for details of the supported syntax for <search-terms>.
thread, replying to the entire thread allows for the reply to comment
on issue found in multiple patches.
.RE
+.RE
The
.B tag
.RS 4
.TP 4
-.BR tag " +<tag>|-<tag> [...] [--] <search-term>..."
+.BR tag " +<tag>|\-<tag> [...] [\-\-] <search-term>..."
Add/remove tags for all messages matching the search terms.
-Tags prefixed by '+' are added while those prefixed by '-' are
+Tags prefixed by '+' are added while those prefixed by '\-' are
removed. For each message, tag removal is performed before tag
addition.
The beginning of <search-terms> is recognized by the first
-argument that begins with neither '+' nor '-'. Support for
-an initial search term beginning with '+' or '-' is provided
-by allowing the user to specify a "--" argument to separate
+argument that begins with neither '+' nor '\-'. Support for
+an initial search term beginning with '+' or '\-' is provided
+by allowing the user to specify a "\-\-" argument to separate
the tags from the search terms.
See the
.B "notmuch restore"
command provides you a way to import all of your tags (or labels as
sup calls them).
+.RE
+
+The
+.B part
+command can used to output a single part of a multi-part MIME message.
+
+.RS 4
+.TP 4
+.BR part " \-\-part=<part-number> <search-term>..."
+
+Output a single MIME part of a message.
+
+A single decoded MIME part, with no encoding or framing, is output to
+stdout. The search terms must match only a single message, otherwise
+this command will fail.
+
+The part number should match the part "id" field output by the
+"\-\-format=json" option of "notmuch show". If the message specified by
+the search terms does not include a part with the specified "id" there
+will be no output.
+
+See the
+.B "SEARCH SYNTAX"
+section below for details of the supported syntax for <search-terms>.
+.RE
+
+The
+.B config
+command can be used to get settings from the notmuch configuration
+file.
+
+.RS 4
+.TP 4
+.BR "config get " <section> . <item>
+
+Get settings from the notmuch configuration file.
+
+The value of the specified configuration item is printed to stdout. If
+the item has multiple values, each value is separated by a newline
+character.
+
+Available configuration items include at least
+
+ database.path
+
+ user.name
+
+ user.primary_email
+
+ user.other_email
+
+ new.tags
+.RE
+
.SH SEARCH SYNTAX
Several notmuch commands accept a common syntax for search terms.
terms/phrases in the body, the subject, or any of the sender or
recipient headers.
+As a special case, a search string consisting of exactly a single
+asterisk ("*") will match all messages.
+
In addition to free text, the following prefixes can be used to force
terms to match against specific portions of an email, (where
<brackets> indicate user-supplied values):
attachment:<word>
- tag:<tag>
+ tag:<tag> (or is:<tag>)
id:<message-id>
attachments to email messages.
For
-.BR tag: ,
+.BR tag: " and " is:
valid tag values include
.BR inbox " and " unread
by default for new messages added by
For
.BR id: ,
-message ID values are the literal contents of the Message-ID: header
+message ID values are the literal contents of the Message\-ID: header
of email messages, but without the '<', '>' delimiters.
The
operators, but will have to be protected from interpretation by the
shell, (such as by putting quotation marks around any parenthesized
expression).
+
+Finally, results can be restricted to only messages within a
+particular time range, (based on the Date: header) with a syntax of:
+
+ <intial-timestamp>..<final-timestamp>
+
+Each timestamp is a number representing the number of seconds since
+1970\-01\-01 00:00:00 UTC. This is not the most convenient means of
+expressing date ranges, but until notmuch is fixed to accept a more
+convenient form, one can use the date program to construct
+timestamps. For example, with the bash shell the folowing syntax would
+specify a date range to return messages from 2009\-10\-01 until the
+current time:
+
+ $(date +%s \-d 2009\-10\-01)..$(date +%s)
+.SH ENVIRONMENT
+The following environment variables can be used to control the
+behavior of notmuch.
+.TP
+.B NOTMUCH_CONFIG
+Specifies the location of the notmuch configuration file. Notmuch will
+use ${HOME}/.notmuch\-config if this variable is not set.
.SH SEE ALSO
The emacs-based interface to notmuch (available as
.B notmuch.el
projects / notmuch / blobdiff