1 [[!img notmuch-logo.png alt="Notmuch logo" class="left"]]
2 #Tips and Tricks for using notmuch with Emacs
4 The main Notmuch message reading client is **notmuch.el**, which is an
5 [emacs](http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/) major mode, and is
6 included in the notmuch package.
10 To use the Notmuch emacs mode, first add the following line to your
15 Then, either run "emacs -f notmuch", or execute the command "M-x
16 notmuch" from within a running emacs.
18 ## Navigating & reading mails
20 When first starting notmuch in emacs, you will be presented with the
21 notmuch "hello" page. From here you can do searches, see lists of
22 recent searches, saved searches, message tags, help information, etc.
24 Executing a search will open a new buffer in notmuch-search-mode
25 displaying the search results. Each line in the search results
26 represents a message thread. Hitting the '?' key will show help for
29 In general, the 'q' will kill the current notmuch buffer and return
30 you to the previous buffer (sort of like a 'pop').
32 In search mode, navigating to a thread and hitting return will then
33 open a new buffer in notmuch-show-mode, which will show the actual
34 message contents of the thread.
38 In any notmuch mode, you can start a new message by hitting the 'm'
39 key. To reply to a message or thread, just hit the 'r' key.
41 When composing new messages, you will be entered in emacs's
42 "message-mode", which is a powerful mode for composing and sending
43 messages. When in message move, you can type "C-c ?" for help.
45 If you would like to use address autocompletion, see the [address
46 completion howto](#address_completion)" below.
48 When you are ready to send a message, type "C-c C-c". By default
49 message mode will use your sendmail command to send mail, so make sure
50 that works. One annoying standard configuration of message mode is
51 that it will hide the sent mail in your emacs frame stack, but it will
52 not close it. If you type several mails in an emacs session they will
53 accumulate and make switching between buffers more annoying. You can
54 avoid that behavior by adding `(setq message-kill-buffer-on-exit t)`
55 in your .emacs file which will really close the mail window after
60 Using the `M-x mml-attach-file` command, you can attach any file to be
61 send with your mail. By default this command is bound to the menu item
62 `Attachments--Attach File` with the key binding `C-c C-a`. The
63 variable `mml-dnd-attach-options` (M-x
64 customize-variable<RET>`mml-dnd-attach-options`) can be set to allow
65 the prompting for various attachment options (such as
66 inline/attachement) if you want to do that.
68 For those who prefer graphics, you can also simply drag and drop files
69 from a file manager into a mail composition window to have it attached
70 (assuming you are using emacs with X support). At least in Ubuntu it
71 works by dragging from the file manager without any modifications.
75 <h2 id="advanced_tips">Advanced tips and tweaks</h2>
77 * <span id="custom_keybinding">**Add a key binding to add/remove/toggle a tag.**</span>
79 The notmuch-{search,show}-{add,remove}-tag functions are very useful
80 for making quick tag key bindings. For instance, here's an example
81 of how to make a key binding to add the "spam" tag and remove the
82 "inbox" tag in notmuch-show-mode:
84 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "S"
86 "mark message as spam"
88 (notmuch-show-add-tag "spam")
89 (notmuch-show-remove-tag "inbox")))
91 You can do the same for threads in notmuch-search-mode by just
92 replacing "show" with "search" in the called functions.
94 The definition above makes use of a lambda function, but you could
95 also define a separate function first:
97 (defun notmuch-show-tag-spam()
98 "mark message as spam"
100 (notmuch-show-add-tag "spam")
101 (notmuch-show-remove-tag "inbox")))
102 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "S" 'notmuch-show-tag-spam)
104 Here's a more complicated example of how to add a toggle "deleted"
107 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "d"
109 "toggle deleted tag for message"
111 (if (member "deleted" (notmuch-show-get-tags))
112 (notmuch-show-remove-tag "deleted")
113 (notmuch-show-add-tag "deleted"))))
115 * <span id="fcc">**How to do FCC/BCC...**</span>
117 Any notmuch reply will automatically include your primary email
118 address in a BCC so that any messages you send will (eventually) end
119 up in your mail store as well. But this doesn't do anything for
120 messages that you compose that are not replies.
122 Another method is to save the file in a folder of your local
123 Maildir, usually called FCC (file carbon copy). You can achieve this
124 by setting the variables `message-directory` (which defines a base
125 directory) and `notmuch-fcc-dirs` which defines the subdirectory
126 relative to message-directory in which to save the mail. Enter a
127 directory (without the maildir /cur ending which will be appended
128 automatically). To customize both variables at the same time, use
131 M-x customize-apropos<RET>\(notmuch-fcc-dirs\)\|\(message-directory\)
133 This method will even allow you to select different outboxes
134 depending on your selected from address, if you need that
135 functionality. Please see the documentation on the variable in the
136 customization window for how to do so.
138 * <span id="customize_notmuch_folder">**How to customize notmuch-folders**</span>
140 There's a "notmuch-folder" command available in the emacs client
141 that displays a list of "folders" and the number of messages in
142 each. Each folder is simply a named search specification. To
143 configure this mode, edit your ${HOME}/.emacs file and include text
144 something like the following:
146 (setq notmuch-folders '(("inbox" . "tag:inbox")
147 ("unread" . "tag:inbox AND tag:unread")
148 ("notmuch" . "tag:inbox AND to:notmuchmail.org")))
150 Of course, you can have any number of folders, each configured
151 with any supported search terms (see "notmuch help search-terms").
153 Personally, I find it fairly useful to add "not tag:delete" to those
154 views as I use that tag to mark messages as deleted and it
155 automatically removes them from my standard views. Use whatever
156 seems most useful to you.
158 * **Viewing HTML messages with an external viewer**
160 The emacs client can often display an HTML message inline, but it
161 sometimes fails for one reason or another, (or is perhaps inadequate
162 if you really need to see the graphical presentation of the HTML
165 In this case, it can be useful to display the message in an external
166 viewer, such as a web browser. Here's a little script that Keith
167 Packard wrote, which he calls view-html:
172 cat "$@" > "$dir"/msg
173 if munpack -C "$dir" -t < "$dir"/msg 2>&1 | grep 'Did not find'; then
174 sed -n '/[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]/,$p' "$dir"/msg > $dir/part1.html
177 for i in "$dir"/part*; do
178 if grep -q -i -e '<html>' -e 'text/html' "$i"; then
185 Save that script somewhere in your ${PATH}, make it executable, and
186 change the invocation of iceweasel to any other HTML viewer if
187 necessary. Then within the emacs client, press "|" to pipe the
188 current message, then type "view-html".
190 Keith mentions the following caveat, "Note that if iceweasel isn't
191 already running, it seems to shut down when the script exits. I
194 * **msmtp, message mode and multiple accounts**
196 As an alternative to running a mail server such as sendmail or
197 postfix just to send email, it is possible to use
198 [msmtp](http://msmtp.sourceforge.net/). This small application will
199 look like /usr/bin/sendmail to a MUA such as emacs message mode, but
200 will just forward the email to an external SMTP server. It's fairly
201 easy to set up and it support several account for using different
202 SMTP servers. The msmtp pages have several examples.
204 A typical scenario is that you want to use the company SMTP server
205 for email coming from your company email address, and your personal
206 server for personal email. If msmtp is passed the envelope address
207 on the command line (the -f/--from option) it will automatically
208 pick the matching account. The only trick here seems to be getting
209 emacs to actually pass the envelope from. There are a number of
210 overlapping configuration variables that control this, and it's a
211 little confusion, but setting these three works for me:
213 - mail-specify-envelope-from: t
215 - message-sendmail-envelope-from: header
217 - mail-envelope-from: header
219 With that in place, you need a .msmtprc with the accounts configured
220 for the domains you want to send out using specific SMTP servers and
221 the rest will go to the default account.
223 * <span id="address_completion">**how to get email address completion**</span>
225 There are currently two solutions to this:
227 [bbdb](http://bbdb.sourceforge.net) is a contact database for emacs
228 that works quite nicely together with message mode, including
229 address autocompletion.
231 You can also use the notmuch database as a mail address book itself.
232 To do this you need a command line tool that outputs likely address
233 candidates based on a search string. There are currently two
236 * The python tool notmuch\_address.py ('git clone
237 http://jkr.acm.jhu.edu/git/notmuch_addresses.git`) (slower, but
238 no compilation required so good for testing the setup)
241 [addrlookup](http://github.com/spaetz/vala-notmuch) (faster, but
242 needs compiling). The addrlookup binary needs to be compiled.
244 http://github.com/spaetz/vala-notmuch/raw/static-sources/src/addrlookup.c
247 cc -o addrlookup addrlookup.c `pkg-config --cflags --libs gobject-2.0` -lnotmuch
249 EUDC is integrated into emacs and is needed for tab completion of
250 email addresses. See [this
251 mail](http://mid.gmane.org/87fx3uflkx.fsf@jhu.edu)
252 (id:87fx3uflkx.fsf@jhu.edu) for more information.
254 * <span id="sign_messages_gpg">**how to sign/encrypt my messages with
257 You can manually sign your messages with gpg by invoking `M-x
258 mml-secure-sign-pgpmime` (or `M-x
259 mml-secure-encrypt-pgpmime`). These functions are available via the
260 convenient (*cough cough*) keybindings `C-c C-m s p` and `C-c C-m c
261 p` by default. To sign my outgoing mail by default, I use this hook
264 ;;sign messages by default
265 (add-hook 'message-setup-hook 'mml-secure-sign-pgpmime)
267 This inserts the blurb `<#part sign=pgpmime>` into the beginning of
268 my mail text body and will be converted into a pgp signature when
269 sending (so I can just manually delete that line if I do not want a