10 **notmuch** **show** [*option* ...] <*search-term*> ...
15 Shows all messages matching the search terms.
17 See :any:`notmuch-search-terms(7)` for details of the supported syntax for
20 The messages will be grouped and sorted based on the threading (all
21 replies to a particular message will appear immediately after that
22 message in date order). The output is not indented by default, but depth
23 tags are printed so that proper indentation can be performed by a
24 post-processor (such as the emacs interface to notmuch).
26 Supported options for **show** include
30 .. option:: --duplicate=N
32 Output duplicate number N. The numbering starts from 1, and matches
33 the order used by :option:`search --duplicate` and
34 :option:`search --output=files <search --output>`
36 .. option:: --entire-thread=(true|false)
38 If true, **notmuch show** outputs all messages in the thread of
39 any message matching the search terms; if false, it outputs only
40 the matching messages. For ``--format=json`` and ``--format=sexp``
41 this defaults to true. For other formats, this defaults to false.
43 .. option:: --format=(text|json|sexp|mbox|raw)
45 text (default for messages)
46 The default plain-text format has all text-content MIME parts
47 decoded. Various components in the output, (**message**,
48 **header**, **body**, **attachment**, and MIME **part**), will
49 be delimited by easily-parsed markers. Each marker consists of
50 a Control-L character (ASCII decimal 12), the name of the
51 marker, and then either an opening or closing brace, ('{' or
52 '}'), to either open or close the component. For a multipart
53 MIME message, these parts will be nested.
56 The output is formatted with Javascript Object Notation
57 (JSON). This format is more robust than the text format for
58 automated processing. The nested structure of multipart MIME
59 messages is reflected in nested JSON output. By default JSON
60 output includes all messages in a matching thread; that is, by
61 default, ``--format=json`` sets ``--entire-thread``. The
62 caller can disable this behaviour by setting
63 ``--entire-thread=false``. The JSON output is always encoded
64 as UTF-8 and any message content included in the output will
65 be charset-converted to UTF-8.
68 The output is formatted as the Lisp s-expression (sexp)
69 equivalent of the JSON format above. Objects are formatted as
70 property lists whose keys are keywords (symbols preceded by a
71 colon). True is formatted as ``t`` and both false and null are
72 formatted as ``nil``. As for JSON, the s-expression output is
73 always encoded as UTF-8.
76 All matching messages are output in the traditional, Unix mbox
77 format with each message being prefixed by a line beginning
78 with "From " and a blank line separating each message. Lines
79 in the message content beginning with "From " (preceded by
80 zero or more '>' characters) have an additional '>' character
81 added. This reversible escaping is termed "mboxrd" format and
82 described in detail here:
84 http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/mail-mbox-formats.html
86 raw (default if ``--part`` is given)
87 Write the raw bytes of the given MIME part of a message to
88 standard out. For this format, it is an error to specify a
89 query that matches more than one message.
91 If the specified part is a leaf part, this outputs the body of
92 the part after performing content transfer decoding (but no
93 charset conversion). This is suitable for saving attachments,
96 For a multipart or message part, the output includes the part
97 headers as well as the body (including all child parts). No
98 decoding is performed because multipart and message parts
99 cannot have non-trivial content transfer encoding. Consumers
100 of this may need to implement MIME decoding and similar
103 .. option:: --format-version=N
105 Use the specified structured output format version. This is
106 intended for programs that invoke :any:`notmuch(1)` internally. If
107 omitted, the latest supported version will be used.
111 Output the single decoded MIME part N of a single message. The
112 search terms must match only a single message. Message parts are
113 numbered in a depth-first walk of the message MIME structure, and
114 are identified in the 'json', 'sexp' or 'text' output formats.
116 Note that even a message with no MIME structure or a single body
117 part still has two MIME parts: part 0 is the whole message
118 (headers and body) and part 1 is just the body.
120 .. option:: --sort=(newest-first|oldest-first)
122 This option can be used to present results in either chronological
123 order (**oldest-first**) or reverse chronological order
126 Only threads as a whole are reordered. Ordering of messages within
127 each thread will not be affected by this flag, since that order is
128 always determined by the thread's replies.
130 By default, results will be displayed in reverse chronological
131 order, (that is, the newest results will be displayed first).
133 .. option:: --offset=[-]N
135 Skip displaying the first N results. With the leading '-', start
136 at the Nth result from the end.
138 .. option:: --limit=N
140 Limit the number of displayed results to N.
144 Compute and report the validity of any MIME cryptographic
145 signatures found in the selected content (e.g., "multipart/signed"
146 parts). Status of the signature will be reported (currently only
147 supported with ``--format=json`` and ``--format=sexp``), and the
148 multipart/signed part will be replaced by the signed data.
150 .. option:: --decrypt=(false|auto|true|stash)
152 If ``true``, decrypt any MIME encrypted parts found in the
153 selected content (e.g., "multipart/encrypted" parts). Status of
154 the decryption will be reported (currently only supported
155 with ``--format=json`` and ``--format=sexp``) and on successful
156 decryption the multipart/encrypted part will be replaced by
157 the decrypted content.
159 ``stash`` behaves like ``true``, but upon successful decryption it
160 will also stash the message's session key in the database, and
161 index the cleartext of the message, enabling automatic decryption
164 If ``auto``, and a session key is already known for the
165 message, then it will be decrypted, but notmuch will not try
166 to access the user's keys.
168 Use ``false`` to avoid even automatic decryption.
170 Non-automatic decryption (``stash`` or ``true``, in the absence of
171 a stashed session key) expects a functioning :manpage:`gpg-agent(1)` to
172 provide any needed credentials. Without one, the decryption will
175 Note: setting either ``true`` or ``stash`` here implies
178 Here is a table that summarizes each of these policies:
180 +------------------------+-------+------+------+-------+
181 | | false | auto | true | stash |
182 +========================+=======+======+======+=======+
183 | Show cleartext if | | X | X | X |
184 | session key is | | | | |
185 | already known | | | | |
186 +------------------------+-------+------+------+-------+
187 | Use secret keys to | | | X | X |
188 | show cleartext | | | | |
189 +------------------------+-------+------+------+-------+
190 | Stash any newly | | | | X |
191 | recovered session keys,| | | | |
192 | reindexing message if | | | | |
194 +------------------------+-------+------+------+-------+
196 Note: ``--decrypt=stash`` requires write access to the database.
197 Otherwise, ``notmuch show`` operates entirely in read-only mode.
201 .. option:: --exclude=(true|false)
203 Specify whether to omit threads only matching search.exclude\_tags
204 from the search results (the default) or not. In either case the
205 excluded message will be marked with the exclude flag (except when
206 output=mbox when there is nowhere to put the flag).
208 If ``--entire-thread`` is specified then complete threads are returned
209 regardless (with the excluded flag being set when appropriate) but
210 threads that only match in an excluded message are not returned
211 when ``--exclude=true.``
213 The default is ``--exclude=true.``
215 .. option:: --body=(true|false)
217 If true (the default) **notmuch show** includes the bodies of the
218 messages in the output; if false, bodies are omitted.
219 ``--body=false`` is only implemented for the text, json and sexp
220 formats and it is incompatible with ``--part > 0.``
222 This is useful if the caller only needs the headers as body-less
223 output is much faster and substantially smaller.
225 .. option:: --include-html
227 Include "text/html" parts as part of the output (currently
228 only supported with ``--format=text``, ``--format=json`` and
229 ``--format=sexp``). By default, unless ``--part=N`` is used to
230 select a specific part or ``--include-html`` is used to include all
231 "text/html" parts, no part with content type "text/html" is included
234 A common use of **notmuch show** is to display a single thread of
235 email messages. For this, use a search term of "thread:<thread-id>" as
236 can be seen in the first column of output from the
237 :any:`notmuch-search(1)` command.
242 Structured output (json / sexp) is influenced by the configuration
243 option :nmconfig:`show.extra_headers`. See
244 :any:`notmuch-config(1)` for details.
249 This command supports the following special exit status codes
252 The requested format version is too old.
255 The requested format version is too new.
261 :any:`notmuch-config(1)`,
262 :any:`notmuch-count(1)`,
263 :any:`notmuch-dump(1)`,
264 :any:`notmuch-hooks(5)`,
265 :any:`notmuch-insert(1)`,
266 :any:`notmuch-new(1)`,
267 :any:`notmuch-reply(1)`,
268 :any:`notmuch-restore(1)`,
269 :any:`notmuch-search(1)`,
270 :any:`notmuch-search-terms(7)`,
271 :any:`notmuch-tag(1)`