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628 lines
18 KiB
Groff
628 lines
18 KiB
Groff
.\" notmuch - Not much of an email program, (just index, search and tagging)
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.\"
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.\" Copyright © 2009 Carl Worth
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.\"
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.\" Notmuch is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
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.\" it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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.\" the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
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.\" (at your option) any later version.
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.\"
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.\" Notmuch is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
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.\" but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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.\" MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
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.\" GNU General Public License for more details.
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.\"
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.\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
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.\" along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/ .
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.\"
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.\" Author: Carl Worth <cworth@cworth.org>
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.TH NOTMUCH 1 2009-10-31 "Notmuch 0.1"
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.SH NAME
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notmuch \- thread-based email index, search, and tagging
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.SH SYNOPSIS
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.B notmuch
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.IR command " [" args " ...]"
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.SH DESCRIPTION
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Notmuch is a command-line based program for indexing, searching,
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reading, and tagging large collections of email messages.
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The quickest way to get started with Notmuch is to simply invoke the
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.B notmuch
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command with no arguments, which will interactively guide you through
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the process of indexing your mail.
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.SH NOTE
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While the command-line program
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.B notmuch
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provides powerful functionality, it does not provide the most
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convenient interface for that functionality. More sophisticated
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interfaces are expected to be built on top of either the command-line
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interface, or more likely, on top of the notmuch library
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interface. See http://notmuchmail.org for more about alternate
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interfaces to notmuch.
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.SH COMMANDS
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The
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.BR setup
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command is used to configure Notmuch for first use, (or to reconfigure
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it later).
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.B setup
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Interactively sets up notmuch for first use.
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The setup command will prompt for your full name, your primary email
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address, any alternate email addresses you use, and the directory
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containing your email archives. Your answers will be written to a
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configuration file in ${NOTMUCH_CONFIG} (if set) or
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${HOME}/.notmuch-config . This configuration file will be created with
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descriptive comments, making it easy to edit by hand later to change the
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configuration. Or you can run
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.B "notmuch setup"
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again to change the configuration.
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The mail directory you specify can contain any number of
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sub-directories and should primarily contain only files with individual
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email messages (eg. maildir or mh archives are perfect). If there are
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other, non-email files (such as indexes maintained by other email
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programs) then notmuch will do its best to detect those and ignore
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them.
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Mail storage that uses mbox format, (where one mbox file contains many
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messages), will not work with notmuch. If that's how your mail is
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currently stored, it is recommended you first convert it to maildir
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format with a utility such as mb2md before running
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.B "notmuch setup" .
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Invoking
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.B notmuch
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with no command argument will run
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.B setup
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if the setup command has not previously been completed.
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.RE
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The
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.B new
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command is used to incorporate new mail into the notmuch database.
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.B new
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Find and import any new messages to the database.
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The
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.B new
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command scans all sub-directories of the database, performing
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full-text indexing on new messages that are found. Each new message
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will automatically be tagged with both the
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.BR inbox " and " unread
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tags.
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You should run
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.B "notmuch new"
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once after first running
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.B "notmuch setup"
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to create the initial database. The first run may take a long time if
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you have a significant amount of mail (several hundred thousand
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messages or more). Subsequently, you should run
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.B "notmuch new"
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whenever new mail is delivered and you wish to incorporate it into the
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database. These subsequent runs will be much quicker than the initial
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run.
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Invoking
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.B notmuch
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with no command argument will run
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.B new
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if
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.B "notmuch setup"
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has previously been completed, but
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.B "notmuch new"
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has not previously been run.
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.RE
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Several of the notmuch commands accept search terms with a common
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syntax. See the
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.B "SEARCH SYNTAX"
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section below for more details on the supported syntax.
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The
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.BR search ", " show " and " count
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commands are used to query the email database.
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.BR search " [options...] <search-term>..."
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Search for messages matching the given search terms, and display as
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results the threads containing the matched messages.
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The output consists of one line per thread, giving a thread ID, the
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date of the newest (or oldest, depending on the sort option) matched
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message in the thread, the number of matched messages and total
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messages in the thread, the names of all participants in the thread,
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and the subject of the newest (or oldest) message.
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Supported options for
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.B search
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include
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.BR \-\-format= ( json | text )
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Presents the results in either JSON or plain-text (default).
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.RE
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.B \-\-output=(summary|threads|messages|files|tags)
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.B summary
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Output a summary of each thread with any message matching the search
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terms. The summary includes the thread ID, date, the number of
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messages in the thread (both the number matched and the total number),
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the authors of the thread and the subject.
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.RE
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.B threads
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Output the thread IDs of all threads with any message matching the
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search terms, either one per line (\-\-format=text) or as a JSON array
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(\-\-format=json).
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.RE
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.B messages
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Output the message IDs of all messages matching the search terms,
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either one per line (\-\-format=text) or as a JSON array
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(\-\-format=json).
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.RE
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.B files
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Output the filenames of all messages matching the search terms, either
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one per line (\-\-format=text) or as a JSON array (\-\-format=json).
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.RE
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.B tags
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Output all tags that appear on any message matching the search terms,
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either one per line (\-\-format=text) or as a JSON array
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(\-\-format=json).
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.RE
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.RE
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.BR \-\-sort= ( newest\-first | oldest\-first )
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This option can be used to present results in either chronological order
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.RB ( oldest\-first )
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or reverse chronological order
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.RB ( newest\-first ).
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Note: The thread order will be distinct between these two options
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(beyond being simply reversed). When sorting by
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.B oldest\-first
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the threads will be sorted by the oldest message in each thread, but
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when sorting by
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.B newest\-first
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the threads will be sorted by the newest message in each thread.
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.RE
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.RS 4
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By default, results will be displayed in reverse chronological order,
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(that is, the newest results will be displayed first).
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See the
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.B "SEARCH SYNTAX"
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section below for details of the supported syntax for <search-terms>.
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.RE
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.TP
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.BR show " [options...] <search-term>..."
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Shows all messages matching the search terms.
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The messages will be grouped and sorted based on the threading (all
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replies to a particular message will appear immediately after that
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message in date order). The output is not indented by default, but
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depth tags are printed so that proper indentation can be performed by
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a post-processor (such as the emacs interface to notmuch).
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Supported options for
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.B show
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include
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.B \-\-entire\-thread
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By default only those messages that match the search terms will be
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displayed. With this option, all messages in the same thread as any
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matched message will be displayed.
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.RE
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.B \-\-format=(text|json|mbox|raw)
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.B text
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The default plain-text format has all text-content MIME parts
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decoded. Various components in the output,
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.RB ( message ", " header ", " body ", " attachment ", and MIME " part ),
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will be delimited by easily-parsed markers. Each marker consists of a
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Control-L character (ASCII decimal 12), the name of the marker, and
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then either an opening or closing brace, ('{' or '}'), to either open
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or close the component.
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.RE
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.B json
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The output is formatted with Javascript Object Notation (JSON). This
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format is more robust than the text format for automated
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processing. JSON output always includes all messages in a matching
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thread; in effect
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.B \-\-format=json
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implies
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.B \-\-entire\-thread
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.RE
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.B mbox
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All matching messages are output in the traditional, Unix mbox format
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with each message being prefixed by a line beginning with "From " and
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a blank line separating each message. Lines in the message content
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beginning with "From " (preceded by zero or more '>' characters) have
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an additional '>' character added. This reversible escaping
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is termed "mboxrd" format and described in detail here:
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http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/mail-mbox-formats.html
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.RE
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.B raw
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The original, raw content of the email message is displayed.
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Consumers of this format should expect to implement MIME decoding and
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similar functions. This format must only be used with search terms
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matching a single message.
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.RE
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A common use of
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.B notmuch show
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is to display a single thread of email messages. For this, use a
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search term of "thread:<thread-id>" as can be seen in the first
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column of output from the
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.B notmuch search
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command.
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See the
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.B "SEARCH SYNTAX"
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section below for details of the supported syntax for <search-terms>.
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.RE
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.TP
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.BR count " <search-term>..."
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Count messages matching the search terms.
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The number of matching messages is output to stdout.
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With no search terms, a count of all messages in the database will be
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displayed.
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.RE
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.RE
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The
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.B reply
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command is useful for preparing a template for an email reply.
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.BR reply " [options...] <search-term>..."
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Constructs a reply template for a set of messages.
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To make replying to email easier,
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.B notmuch reply
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takes an existing set of messages and constructs a suitable mail
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template. The Reply-to header (if any, otherwise From:) is used for
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the To: address. Vales from the To: and Cc: headers are copied, but
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not including any of the current user's email addresses (as configured
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in primary_mail or other_email in the .notmuch\-config file) in the
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recipient list
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It also builds a suitable new subject, including Re: at the front (if
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not already present), and adding the message IDs of the messages being
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replied to to the References list and setting the In\-Reply\-To: field
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correctly.
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Finally, the original contents of the emails are quoted by prefixing
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each line with '> ' and included in the body.
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The resulting message template is output to stdout.
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Supported options for
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.B reply
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include
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.RS
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.TP 4
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.BR \-\-format= ( default | headers\-only )
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.RS
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.TP 4
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.BR default
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Includes subject and quoted message body.
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.TP
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.BR headers\-only
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Only produces In\-Reply\-To, References, To, Cc, and Bcc headers.
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.RE
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See the
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.B "SEARCH SYNTAX"
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section below for details of the supported syntax for <search-terms>.
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Note: It is most common to use
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.B "notmuch reply"
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with a search string matching a single message, (such as
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id:<message-id>), but it can be useful to reply to several messages at
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once. For example, when a series of patches are sent in a single
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thread, replying to the entire thread allows for the reply to comment
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on issue found in multiple patches.
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.RE
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.RE
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The
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.B tag
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command is the only command available for manipulating database
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contents.
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.BR tag " +<tag>|\-<tag> [...] [\-\-] <search-term>..."
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Add/remove tags for all messages matching the search terms.
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Tags prefixed by '+' are added while those prefixed by '\-' are
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removed. For each message, tag removal is performed before tag
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addition.
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The beginning of <search-terms> is recognized by the first
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argument that begins with neither '+' nor '\-'. Support for
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an initial search term beginning with '+' or '\-' is provided
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by allowing the user to specify a "\-\-" argument to separate
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the tags from the search terms.
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See the
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.B "SEARCH SYNTAX"
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section below for details of the supported syntax for <search-terms>.
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.RE
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The
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.BR dump " and " restore
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commands can be used to create a textual dump of email tags for backup
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purposes, and to restore from that dump
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.BR dump " [<filename>]"
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Creates a plain-text dump of the tags of each message.
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The output is to the given filename, if any, or to stdout.
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These tags are the only data in the notmuch database that can't be
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recreated from the messages themselves. The output of notmuch dump is
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therefore the only critical thing to backup (and much more friendly to
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incremental backup than the native database files.)
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.TP
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.BR restore " <filename>"
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Restores the tags from the given file (see
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.BR "notmuch dump" "."
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Note: The dump file format is specifically chosen to be
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compatible with the format of files produced by sup-dump.
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So if you've previously been using sup for mail, then the
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.B "notmuch restore"
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command provides you a way to import all of your tags (or labels as
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sup calls them).
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.RE
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The
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.B part
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command can used to output a single part of a multi-part MIME message.
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.BR part " \-\-part=<part-number> <search-term>..."
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Output a single MIME part of a message.
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A single decoded MIME part, with no encoding or framing, is output to
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stdout. The search terms must match only a single message, otherwise
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this command will fail.
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The part number should match the part "id" field output by the
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"\-\-format=json" option of "notmuch show". If the message specified by
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the search terms does not include a part with the specified "id" there
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will be no output.
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See the
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.B "SEARCH SYNTAX"
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section below for details of the supported syntax for <search-terms>.
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.RE
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The
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.B config
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command can be used to get or set settings int the notmuch
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configuration file.
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.BR "config get " <section> . <item>
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The value of the specified configuration item is printed to stdout. If
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the item has multiple values, each value is separated by a newline
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character.
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Available configuration items include at least
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database.path
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user.name
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user.primary_email
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user.other_email
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new.tags
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.RE
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.RS 4
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.TP 4
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.BR "config set " <section> . "<item> [values ...]"
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The specified configuration item is set to the given value. To
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specify a multiple-value item, provide each value as a separate
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command-line argument.
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If no values are provided, the specified configuration item will be
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removed from the configuration file.
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.RE
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.SH SEARCH SYNTAX
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Several notmuch commands accept a common syntax for search terms.
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The search terms can consist of free-form text (and quoted phrases)
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which will match all messages that contain all of the given
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terms/phrases in the body, the subject, or any of the sender or
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recipient headers.
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As a special case, a search string consisting of exactly a single
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asterisk ("*") will match all messages.
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In addition to free text, the following prefixes can be used to force
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terms to match against specific portions of an email, (where
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<brackets> indicate user-supplied values):
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from:<name-or-address>
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to:<name-or-address>
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subject:<word-or-quoted-phrase>
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attachment:<word>
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tag:<tag> (or is:<tag>)
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id:<message-id>
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thread:<thread-id>
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folder:<directory-path>
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The
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.B from:
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prefix is used to match the name or address of the sender of an email
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message.
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The
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.B to:
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prefix is used to match the names or addresses of any recipient of an
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email message, (whether To, Cc, or Bcc).
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Any term prefixed with
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.B subject:
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will match only text from the subject of an email. Searching for a
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phrase in the subject is supported by including quotation marks around
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the phrase, immediately following
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.BR subject: .
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The
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.B attachment:
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prefix can be used to search for specific filenames (or extensions) of
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attachments to email messages.
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For
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.BR tag: " and " is:
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valid tag values include
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.BR inbox " and " unread
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by default for new messages added by
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.B notmuch new
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as well as any other tag values added manually with
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.BR "notmuch tag" .
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For
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.BR id: ,
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message ID values are the literal contents of the Message\-ID: header
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of email messages, but without the '<', '>' delimiters.
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The
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.B thread:
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prefix can be used with the thread ID values that are generated
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|
internally by notmuch (and do not appear in email messages). These
|
|
thread ID values can be seen in the first column of output from
|
|
.B "notmuch search"
|
|
|
|
The
|
|
.B folder:
|
|
prefix can be used to search for email message files that are
|
|
contained within particular directories within the mail store. Only
|
|
the directory components below the top-level mail database path are
|
|
available to be searched.
|
|
|
|
In addition to individual terms, multiple terms can be
|
|
combined with Boolean operators (
|
|
.BR and ", " or ", " not
|
|
, etc.). Each term in the query will be implicitly connected by a
|
|
logical AND if no explicit operator is provided, (except that terms
|
|
with a common prefix will be implicitly combined with OR until we get
|
|
Xapian defect #402 fixed).
|
|
|
|
Parentheses can also be used to control the combination of the Boolean
|
|
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
|
|
in the Notmuch distribution).
|
|
|
|
The notmuch website:
|
|
.B http://notmuchmail.org
|
|
.SH CONTACT
|
|
Feel free to send questions, comments, or kudos to the notmuch mailing
|
|
list <notmuch@notmuchmail.org> . Subscription is not required before
|
|
posting, but is available from the notmuchmail.org website.
|
|
|
|
Real-time interaction with the Notmuch community is available via IRC
|
|
(server: irc.freenode.net, channel: #notmuch).
|