1 # Tips and Tricks for using notmuch with Emacs
3 One of the more popular notmuch message reading clients is
4 **notmuch.el**, an [emacs](http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/) major
5 mode for interacting with notmuch. It is included in the notmuch
6 package (notmuch-emacs in Debian). This page goes over some usage
7 tips for using notmuch with Emacs.
13 Have a look at the [Howto](http://notmuchmail.org/howto/) for
14 prerequisites. Be sure you have done the general setup using the
17 To use the Notmuch emacs mode, first add the following line to your
22 or you can load the package via autoload:
24 (autoload 'notmuch "notmuch" "notmuch mail" t)
26 Then, either run "emacs -f notmuch", or execute the command `M-x
27 notmuch` from within a running emacs.
29 ## Navigating & reading mails
31 When first starting notmuch in emacs, you will be presented with the
32 notmuch "hello" page. If it exits with an error after writing
33 "Welcome to notmutch. You have" you need to do the basic notmuch setup
35 From here you can do searches, see lists of recent
36 searches, saved searches, message tags, help information, etc.
38 Executing a search will open a new buffer in `notmuch-search-mode`
39 displaying the search results. Each line in the search results
40 represents a message thread. Hitting the '?' key will show help for
43 In general, the 'q' will kill the current notmuch buffer and return
44 you to the previous buffer (sort of like a 'pop').
46 In search mode, navigating to a thread and hitting return will then
47 open a new buffer in `notmuch-show-mode`, which will show the actual
48 message contents of the thread.
52 In any notmuch mode, you can start a new message by hitting the 'm'
53 key. To reply to a message or thread, just hit the 'r' key.
55 When composing new messages, you will be entered in emacs's
56 `message-mode`, which is a powerful mode for composing and sending
57 messages. When in message mode, you can type `C-c ?` for help.
59 If you would like to use address autocompletion when composing
60 messages, see [address completion](#address_completion).
62 When you are ready to send a message, type `C-c C-c`. By default
63 message mode will use your sendmail command to send mail, so make sure
64 that works. One annoying standard configuration of message mode is
65 that it will hide the sent mail in your emacs frame stack, but it will
66 not close it. If you type several mails in an emacs session they will
67 accumulate and make switching between buffers more annoying. You can
68 avoid that behavior by adding `(setq message-kill-buffer-on-exit t)`
69 in your `.emacs` file (or doing `M-x
70 customize-variable<RET>message-kill-buffer-on-exit<RET>`) which will
71 really close the mail window after sending it.
75 Using the `M-x mml-attach-file` command, you can attach any file to be
76 sent with your mail. By default this command is bound to the menu item
77 *Attachments--Attach File* with the key binding `C-c C-a`. The
78 variable `mml-dnd-attach-options` (`M-x
79 customize-variable<RET>mml-dnd-attach-options<RET>`) can be set to
80 allow the prompting for various attachment options (such as
81 inline/attachment) if you want to do that.
83 For those who prefer a more graphical interface, you can also simply
84 drag and drop files from a file manager into a mail composition window
85 to have them attached. In Ubuntu this works without any modifications
86 if files are dragged from the file manager.
88 And for those who prefer working from command line, the following
89 script opens new emacs window with empty message and attaches files
90 mentioned as script arguments. (Note: The script expects that you have
91 `(server-start)` in your `.emacs` file.)
96 fullpath=$(readlink --canonicalize "$1")
97 attach_cmds="$attach_cmds (mml-attach-file \"$fullpath\")"
100 emacsclient -a '' -c -e "(progn (compose-mail) $attach_cmds)"
102 ## Issues with Emacs 24
104 If notmuch-show-mode behaves badly for you in emacs 24.x try adding one of
106 (setq gnus-inhibit-images nil)
116 # Advanced tips and tweaks
118 ## Use separate emacs lisp file for notmuch configuration
120 Instead of adding notmuch configuration code to `.emacs`, there
121 is an option to collect those to a separate file (which is only
122 loaded when `notmuch` is invoked). To do this, write, for example
123 a file called `~/.emacs.d/my-notmuch.el`:
125 ;;; my-notmuch.el -- my notmuch mail configuration
128 ;;; add here stuff required to be configured *before*
129 ;;; notmuch is loaded;
131 ;; uncomment and modify in case some elisp files are not found in load-path
132 ;; (add-to-list 'load-path "~/vc/ext/notmuch/emacs")
137 ;;; add here stuff required to be configured *after*
138 ;;; notmuch is loaded;
140 ;; uncomment & modify if you want to use external smtp server to send mail
141 ;; (setq smtpmail-smtp-server "smtp.server.tld"
142 ;; message-send-mail-function 'message-smtpmail-send-it)
143 ;; uncomment to debug smtp sending problems
144 ;; (setq smtpmail-debug-info t)
146 Then, add to `.emacs`:
148 (autoload 'notmuch "~/.emacs.d/my-notmuch" "notmuch mail" t)
151 ## Add a key binding to add/remove/toggle a tag
153 The `notmuch-{search,show}-{add,remove}-tag` functions are very useful
154 for making quick tag key bindings. For instance, here's an example
155 of how to make a key binding to add the "spam" tag and remove the
156 "inbox" tag in notmuch-show-mode:
158 In notmuch versions up to 0.11.x
160 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "S"
162 "mark message as spam"
164 (notmuch-show-add-tag "spam")
165 (notmuch-show-remove-tag "inbox")))
167 Starting from notmuch 0.12 the functions `notmuch-show-add-tag` and
168 `notmuch-show-remove-tag` have changed to be more versatile and lost
169 noninteractive use. When upgrading to 0.12 the above needs to be
172 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "S"
174 "mark message as spam"
176 (notmuch-show-tag-message "+spam" "-inbox")))
178 You can do the same for threads in `notmuch-search-mode` by just
179 replacing "show" with "search" in the called functions.
181 Starting from notmuch 0.12 use `notmuch-search-tag-thread` instead:
183 (define-key notmuch-search-mode-map "S"
185 "mark messages in thread as spam"
187 (notmuch-show-tag-thread "+spam" "-inbox")))
189 Starting from notmuch 0.13 use `notmuch-search-tag` -- it has a little
190 different usage syntax:
192 (define-key notmuch-search-mode-map "S"
194 "mark messages in thread as spam"
196 (notmuch-search-tag '("+spam" "-inbox"))))
198 The definition above makes use of a lambda function, but you could
199 also define a separate function first:
201 (defun notmuch-show-tag-spam ()
202 "mark message as spam"
204 (notmuch-show-add-tag "spam")
205 (notmuch-show-remove-tag "inbox")))
206 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "S" 'notmuch-show-tag-spam)
208 (See above for analogy how to apply this for notmuch 0.12 and later)
210 Here's a more complicated example of how to add a toggle "deleted"
213 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "d"
215 "toggle deleted tag for message"
217 (if (member "deleted" (notmuch-show-get-tags))
218 (notmuch-show-remove-tag "deleted")
219 (notmuch-show-add-tag "deleted"))))
221 And version for notmuch 0.12
223 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "d"
225 "toggle deleted tag for message"
227 (notmuch-show-tag-message
228 (if (member "deleted" (notmuch-show-get-tags))
229 "-deleted" "+deleted"))))
231 ## Adding many tagging keybindings
233 If you want to have have many tagging keybindings, you can save the typing
234 the few lines of boilerplate for every binding (for versions before 0.12,
235 you will need to change notmuch-show-apply-tag-macro).
237 (eval-after-load 'notmuch-show
238 '(define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "`" 'notmuch-show-apply-tag-macro))
240 (setq notmuch-show-tag-macro-alist
242 '("m" "+notmuch::patch" "+notmuch::moreinfo" "-notmuch::needs-review")
243 '("n" "+notmuch::patch" "+notmuch::needs-review" "-notmuch::pushed")
244 '("o" "+notmuch::patch" "+notmuch::obsolete"
245 "-notmuch::needs-review" "-notmuch::moreinfo")
246 '("p" "-notmuch::pushed" "-notmuch::needs-review"
247 "-notmuch::moreinfo" "+pending")
248 '("P" "-pending" "-notmuch::needs-review" "-notmuch::moreinfo" "+notmuch::pushed")
249 '("r" "-notmuch::patch" "+notmuch::review")
250 '("s" "+notmuch::patch" "-notmuch::obsolete" "-notmuch::needs-review" "-notmuch::moreinfo" "+notmuch::stale")
251 '("t" "+notmuch::patch" "-notmuch::needs-review" "+notmuch::trivial")
252 '("w" "+notmuch::patch" "+notmuch::wip" "-notmuch::needs-review")))
254 (defun notmuch-show-apply-tag-macro (key)
256 (let ((macro (assoc key notmuch-show-tag-macro-alist)))
257 (apply 'notmuch-show-tag-message (cdr macro))))
259 ## Restore reply-to-all key binding to 'r'
261 Starting from notmuch 0.12 the 'r' key is bound to reply-to-sender instead of
262 reply-to-all. Here's how to swap the reply to sender/all bindings in show mode:
264 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "r" 'notmuch-show-reply)
265 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "R" 'notmuch-show-reply-sender)
269 (define-key notmuch-search-mode-map "r" 'notmuch-search-reply-to-thread)
270 (define-key notmuch-search-mode-map "R" 'notmuch-search-reply-to-thread-sender)
273 ## How to do FCC/BCC...
275 The Emacs interface to notmuch will automatically add an `Fcc`
276 header to your outgoing mail so that any messages you send will also
277 be saved in your mail store. You can control where this copy of the
278 message is saved by setting the variable `notmuch-fcc-dirs` which defines the
279 subdirectory relative to the `database.path` setting from your
280 notmuch configuration in which to save the mail. Enter a directory
281 (without the maildir `/cur` ending which will be appended
282 automatically). Additional information can be found as usual using:
284 M-x describe-variable notmuch-fcc-dirs
286 An additional variable that can affect FCC settings in some cases is
287 `message-directory`. Emacs message-mode uses this variable for
290 To customize both variables at the same time, use the fancy command:
292 M-x customize-apropos<RET>\(notmuch-fcc-dirs\)\|\(message-directory\)
294 This mechanism also allows you to select different folders to be
295 used for the outgoing mail depending on your selected `From`
296 address. Please see the documentation for the variable
297 `notmuch-fcc-dirs` in the customization window for how to arrange
300 ## How to customize `notmuch-saved-searches`
302 When starting notmuch, a list of saved searches and message counts is
303 displayed, replacing the older `notmuch-folders` command. The set of
304 saved searches displayed can be modified directly from the notmuch
305 interface (using the `[save]` button next to a previous search) or by
306 customising the variable `notmuch-saved-searches`.
308 An example setting might be:
310 (setq notmuch-saved-searches '(("inbox" . "tag:inbox")
311 ("unread" . "tag:inbox AND tag:unread")
312 ("notmuch" . "tag:inbox AND to:notmuchmail.org")))
314 Of course, you can have any number of saved searches, each configured
315 with any supported search terms (see "notmuch help search-terms").
317 Some users find it useful to add `and not tag:delete` to those
318 searches, as they use the `delete` tag to mark messages as
319 deleted. This causes messages that are marked as deleted to be removed
320 from the commonly used views of messages. Use whatever seems most
323 ## Viewing HTML messages with an external viewer
325 The emacs client can display an HTML message inline using either the
326 `html2text` library or some text browser, like w3m or lynx. This is
327 controlled by the `mm-text-html-renderer` variable.
329 The first option is theorically better, because it can generate
330 strings formatted for emacs and do whatever you want, e.g., substitute
331 text inside <b> tags for bold text in the buffer. The library, however
332 is still in a very early development phase and cannot yet process
333 properly many elements, like tables and <style> directives, and even
334 the generated text is often poorly formatted.
336 Among the available browsers, w3m seems to do a better job converting
337 the html, and if you have the w3m emacs package, you can use it,
338 instead of the w3m-standalone, and thus preserve the text formatting.
340 But if the rendering fails for one reason or another, or if you really
341 need to see the graphical presentation of the HTML message, it can be
342 useful to display the message in an external viewer, such as a web
343 browser. Here's a little script that Keith Packard wrote, which he
349 cat "$@" > "$dir"/msg
350 if munpack -C "$dir" -t < "$dir"/msg 2>&1 | grep 'Did not find'; then
351 sed -n '/[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]/,$p' "$dir"/msg > $dir/part1.html
354 for i in "$dir"/part*; do
355 if grep -q -i -e '<html>' -e 'text/html' "$i"; then
362 Save that script somewhere in your `${PATH}`, make it executable,
363 and change the invocation of `iceweasel` to any other HTML viewer if
364 necessary. Then within the emacs client, press '|' to pipe the
365 current message, then type "view-html".
367 Keith mentions the following caveat, "Note that if iceweasel isn't
368 already running, it seems to shut down when the script exits. I
371 ## msmtp, message mode and multiple accounts
373 As an alternative to running a mail server such as sendmail or postfix
374 just to send email, it is possible to use
375 [msmtp](http://msmtp.sourceforge.net/). This small application will
376 look like `/usr/bin/sendmail` to a MUA such as emacs message mode, but
377 will just forward the email to an external SMTP server. It's fairly
378 easy to set up and it supports several accounts for using different
379 SMTP servers. The msmtp pages have several examples.
381 A typical scenario is that you want to use the company SMTP server
382 for email coming from your company email address, and your personal
383 server for personal email. If msmtp is passed the envelope address
384 on the command line (the -f/--from option) it will automatically
385 pick the matching account. The only trick here seems to be getting
386 emacs to actually pass the envelope from. There are a number of
387 overlapping configuration variables that control this, and it's a
388 little confusion, but setting these three works for me:
390 - `mail-specify-envelope-from`: `t`
392 - `message-sendmail-envelope-from`: `header`
394 - `mail-envelope-from`: `header`
396 With that in place, you need a `.msmtprc` with the accounts configured
397 for the domains you want to send out using specific SMTP servers and
398 the rest will go to the default account.
400 If you have a hard time getting the above to work for you, as I did,
401 it's also possible to add a message-send-mail-hook in your .emacs to
402 send the from header explicitly as an argument to msmtp as described
403 [here](http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/GnusMSMTP#toc2) on the
407 ## <span id="address_completion">Address completion when composing</span>
409 There are currently three solutions to this:
413 [bbdb](http://bbdb.sourceforge.net) is a contact database for emacs
414 that works quite nicely together with message mode, including
415 address autocompletion.
417 ### notmuch database as an address book
419 You can also use the notmuch database as a mail address book itself.
420 To do this you need a command line tool that outputs likely address
421 candidates based on a search string. There are currently three
424 * The python tool `notmuch_address.py` (`git clone
425 http://commonmeasure.org/~jkr/git/notmuch_addresses.git`) (slower, but
426 no compilation required so good for testing the setup)
429 [addrlookup](http://github.com/spaetz/vala-notmuch) (faster, but
430 needs compiling). The addrlookup binary needs to be compiled.
432 `http://github.com/spaetz/vala-notmuch/raw/static-sources/src/addrlookup.c`
435 cc -o addrlookup addrlookup.c `pkg-config --cflags --libs gobject-2.0` -lnotmuch
437 * Shell/fgrep/perl combination [nottoomuch-addresses.sh](http://www.iki.fi/too/nottoomuch/nottoomuch-addresses/).
438 This tools maintains it's own address "database" gathered from email
439 files notmuch knows and search from that "database" is done by `fgrep(1)`.
441 You can perform tab-completion using any of these programs.
442 Just add the following to your .emacs:
444 (require 'notmuch-address)
445 (setq notmuch-address-command "/path/to/address_fetching_program")
446 (notmuch-address-message-insinuate)
450 [GooBook](http://code.google.com/p/goobook/) is a command-line tool for
451 accessing Google Contacts. Install and set it up according to its documentation.
453 To use GooBook with notmuch, use this wrapper script and set it up like the
457 goobook query "$*" | sed 's/\(.*\)\t\(.*\)\t.*/\2 \<\1\>/' | sed '/^$/d'
459 You can add the sender of a message to Google Contacts by piping the message
460 (`notmuch-show-pipe-message`) to `goobook add`.
462 ## How to sign/encrypt messages with gpg
464 Messages can by signed using gpg by invoking
465 `M-x mml-secure-sign-pgpmime` (or `M-x mml-secure-encrypt-pgpmime`).
466 These functions are available via the standard `message-mode` keybindings
467 `C-c C-m s p` and `C-c C-m c p`. To sign outgoing mail by default, use the
468 `message-setup-hook` in your `.emacs` file:
470 ;; Sign messages by default.
471 (add-hook 'message-setup-hook 'mml-secure-sign-pgpmime)
473 This inserts the required `<#part sign=pgpmime>` into the beginning
474 of the mail text body and will be converted into a pgp signature
475 when sending (so one can just manually delete that line if signing
478 Alternatively, you may prefer to use `mml-secure-message-sign-pgpmime` instead
479 of `mml-secure-sign-pgpmime` to sign the whole message instead of just one
482 ### Troubleshooting message-mode gpg support
484 - If you have trouble with expired subkeys, you may have encountered
485 emacs bug #7931. This is fixed in git commit 301ea744c on
486 2011-02-02. Note that if you have the Debian package easypg
487 installed, it will shadow the fixed version of easypg included with
490 ## Multiple identities using gnus-alias
492 [gnus-alias](http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/GnusAlias) allows you to
493 define multiple identities when using `message-mode`. You can specify
494 the from address, organization, extra headers (including *Bcc*), extra
495 body text, and signature for each identity. Identities are chosen
496 based on a set of rules. When you are in message mode, you can switch
497 identities using gnus-alias.
501 - put `gnus-alias.el` on your load Emacs-Lisp load path (add new directory
502 to load path by writing `(add-to-list 'load-path "/some/load/path")` into
505 - Add the following to your `.emacs`
507 (autoload 'gnus-alias-determine-identity "gnus-alias" "" t)
508 (add-hook 'message-setup-hook 'gnus-alias-determine-identity)
510 Looking into `gnus-alias.el` gives a bit more information...
512 ### Example Configuration
514 Here is an example configuration.
516 ;; Define two identities, "home" and "work"
517 (setq gnus-alias-identity-alist
519 nil ;; Does not refer to any other identity
520 "John Doe <jdoe@example.net>" ;; Sender address
521 nil ;; No organization header
522 nil ;; No extra headers
523 nil ;; No extra body text
527 "John Doe <john.doe@example.com>"
529 (("Bcc" . "john.doe@example.com"))
531 "~/.signature.work")))
532 ;; Use "home" identity by default
533 (setq gnus-alias-default-identity "home")
534 ;; Define rules to match work identity
535 (setq gnus-alias-identity-rules
536 '(("work" ("any" "john.doe@\\(example\\.com\\|help\\.example.com\\)" both) "work"))
537 ;; Determine identity when message-mode loads
538 (add-hook 'message-setup-hook 'gnus-alias-determine-identity)
540 When `gnus-alias` has been loaded (using autoload, require, *M-x load-library*
541 or *M-x load-file* (load-file takes file path -- therefore it can be used
542 without any `.emacs` changes)) the following commands can be used to get(/set)
543 more information (some of these have "extensive documentation"):
545 M-x describe-variable RET gnus-alias-identity-alist
546 M-x describe-variable RET gnus-alias-identity-rules
547 M-x describe-variable RET gnus-alias-default-identity
549 M-x customize-group RET gnus-alias RET
551 M-x gnus-alias-customize RET
553 The last two do the same thing.
555 See also the **Usage:** section in `gnus-alias.el`.
557 ## Resending (or bouncing) messages
559 Add the following to your `.emacs` to be able to resend the current message in
562 (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "b"
563 (lambda (&optional address)
564 "Bounce the current message."
565 (interactive "sBounce To: ")
566 (notmuch-show-view-raw-message)
567 (message-resend address)))
569 ## `notmuch-hello` refresh status message
571 Add the following to your `.emacs` to get a status message about the change in
572 the number of messages in the mail store when refreshing the `notmuch-hello`
575 (defvar notmuch-hello-refresh-count 0)
577 (defun notmuch-hello-refresh-status-message ()
581 (car (process-lines notmuch-command "count"))))
582 (diff-count (- new-count notmuch-hello-refresh-count)))
584 ((= notmuch-hello-refresh-count 0)
585 (message "You have %s messages."
586 (notmuch-hello-nice-number new-count)))
588 (message "You have %s more messages since last refresh."
589 (notmuch-hello-nice-number diff-count)))
591 (message "You have %s fewer messages since last refresh."
592 (notmuch-hello-nice-number (- diff-count)))))
593 (setq notmuch-hello-refresh-count new-count))))
595 (add-hook 'notmuch-hello-refresh-hook 'notmuch-hello-refresh-status-message)
597 ## Replacing tabs with spaces in subject and header
599 Mailman mailing list software rewrites and rewraps long message subjects in
600 a way that causes TABs to appear in the middle of the subject and header
601 lines. Add this to your `.emacs` to replace tabs with spaces in subject
604 (defun notmuch-show-subject-tabs-to-spaces ()
605 "Replace tabs with spaces in subject line."
606 (goto-char (point-min))
607 (when (re-search-forward "^Subject:" nil t)
608 (while (re-search-forward "\t" (line-end-position) t)
609 (replace-match " " nil nil))))
611 (add-hook 'notmuch-show-markup-headers-hook 'notmuch-show-subject-tabs-to-spaces)
613 And in header lines (this will only work with the yet to be released
614 notmuch version 0.15):
616 (defun notmuch-show-header-tabs-to-spaces ()
617 "Replace tabs with spaces in header line."
618 (setq header-line-format
619 (notmuch-show-strip-re
620 (replace-regexp-in-string "\t" " " (notmuch-show-get-subject)))))
622 (add-hook 'notmuch-show-hook 'notmuch-show-header-tabs-to-spaces)
624 ## Hiding unread messages in notmuch-show
626 I like to have an inbox saved search, but only show unread messages when they
627 view a thread. This takes two steps:
630 [this patch from Mark Walters](http://notmuchmail.org/pipermail/notmuch/2012/010817.html)
631 to add the `notmuch-show-filter-thread` function.
632 1. Add the following hook to your emacs configuration:
634 (defun expand-only-unread-hook () (interactive)
636 (open (notmuch-show-get-message-ids-for-open-messages)))
637 (notmuch-show-mapc (lambda ()
638 (when (member "unread" (notmuch-show-get-tags))
641 (let ((notmuch-show-hook (remove 'expand-only-unread-hook notmuch-show-hook)))
642 (notmuch-show-filter-thread "tag:unread")))))
644 (add-hook 'notmuch-show-hook 'expand-only-unread-hook)
646 ## Changing the color of a saved search based on some other search
648 I like to have a saved search for my inbox, but have it change color when there
649 are thread with unread messages in the inbox. I accomplish this with the
650 following code in my emacs config:
652 (defun color-inbox-if-unread () (interactive)
654 (goto-char (point-min))
655 (let ((cnt (car (process-lines "notmuch" "count" "tag:inbox and tag:unread"))))
656 (when (> (string-to-number cnt) 0)
658 (when (search-forward "inbox" (point-max) t)
659 (let* ((overlays (overlays-in (match-beginning 0) (match-end 0)))
660 (overlay (car overlays)))
662 (overlay-put overlay 'face '((:inherit bold) (:foreground "green")))))))))))
663 (add-hook 'notmuch-hello-refresh-hook 'color-inbox-if-unread)
665 ## Linking to notmuch messages and threads from the Circe IRC client
667 [Circe](https://github.com/jorgenschaefer/circe/wiki) is an IRC client for emacs.
668 To have clickable buttons for notmuch messages and threads, add the following to
669 `lui-buttons-list` (using, e.g. M-x customize-variable)
671 ("\\(?:id\\|mid\\|thread\\):[0-9A-Za-z][0-9A-Za-z.@-]*" 0 notmuch-show 0)
673 If you have notmuch-pick installed, it works fine for this as well.