1 [[!img notmuch-logo.png alt="Notmuch logo" class="left"]]
2 # Notmuch -- The mail indexer
6 Because dealing with your mail can be so much better.
8 * "Not much mail" is what Notmuch thinks about your email
9 collection. Even if you receive 12000 messages per month or have on
10 the order of millions of messages that you've been saving for
11 decades. Regardless, Notmuch will be able to quickly search all of
12 it. It's just plain not much mail.
14 * "Not much mail" is also what you should have in your inbox at any
15 time. Notmuch gives you what you need, (tags and fast search), so
16 that you can keep your inbox tamed and focus on what really matters
17 in your life, (which is surely not email).
19 * Notmuch is an answer to [Sup](http://sup.rubyforge.org/).
20 Sup is a very good email program written by William Morgan (and
21 others) and is the direct inspiration for Notmuch. Notmuch began as
22 an effort to rewrite performance-critical pieces of Sup in C rather
23 than ruby. From there, it grew into a separate project. One
24 significant contribution Notmuch makes compared to Sup is the
25 separation of the indexer/searcher from the user interface. (Notmuch
26 provides a library interface so that its indexing/searching/tagging
27 features can be integrated into any email program.)
29 * Notmuch is not much of an email program. It doesn't receive messages
30 (no POP or IMAP support). It doesn't send messages (no mail composer,
31 no network code at all). And for what it does do (email search) that
32 work is provided by an external library,
33 [Xapian](http://xapian.org). So if Notmuch provides no user
34 interface and Xapian does all the heavy lifting, then what's left
37 If you've been looking for a fast, global-search and tag-based email
38 reader to use within your text editor or in a terminal, then Notmuch
39 may be exactly what you've been looking for.
41 If you're a developer of an existing email program and would love a
42 good library interface for fast, global search with support for
43 arbitrary tags, then Notmuch also may be exactly what you've been
48 [[The latest news from notmuch|news]]
52 To get started with notmuch, just run "notmuch" at the command line.
53 The configuration wizard will walk you through initial setup,
54 including specifying the location of your mail store and how to start
55 the initial indexing. After that, come back and checkout our docs:
57 * [[Notmuch manual pages|manpages]]
58 * [[General how-tos|howto]]
59 * [[Frequently Asked Questions|faq]]
61 * [[Excluding and deleting messages|excluding]]
62 * [[Initial tagging|Initial_Tagging]]
63 * [[Tips for using notmuch within Emacs|emacstips]]
64 * [[Remote usage|remoteusage]]
65 * [[Performance|performance]]
67 Apart from the wiki, help is available via email and on IRC (see
68 below). Join the mailing list. Read the archives. Ask questions.
70 ## Email clients and front ends
72 Notmuch ships with a powerful set of [[command-line tools|manpages]], an
73 [[email client for Emacs|emacstips]], another
74 [client for vim](http://git.notmuchmail.org/git/notmuch/blob/HEAD:/contrib/notmuch-vim/README),
75 and a [[Mutt integration script|notmuch-mutt]].
77 There are also many other [[email clients and frontends|frontends]] based on
78 Notmuch. And a few tips about integrating it with [[Mutt|mutttips]] and [[Vim|vimtips]].
82 * [[Emacs UI screenshots|screenshots]]
86 [Notmuch source releases](http://notmuchmail.org/releases/) are available as
89 Notmuch is packaged for the following distributions:
91 * [Debian](http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=notmuch) (Please use at
92 least the packages from squeeze-backports, squeeze packages are very
94 * [Fedora](https://apps.fedoraproject.org/packages/notmuch)
95 * [Gentoo](http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-mail/notmuch)
96 * [Slackware](http://slackbuilds.org/repository/13.37/office/notmuch/)
97 * [Ubuntu](http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=notmuch)
98 * [openSUSE](https://build.opensuse.org/search?search_text=notmuch)
100 ## Development and Contributing
102 All of the code for Notmuch is available as [free
103 software](http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-sw.html) released
104 under the GNU [GPL version
105 3](http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html). The latest
106 versions can be checked out via git with this command:
108 git clone git://notmuchmail.org/git/notmuch
111 [Notmuch code history online](http://git.notmuchmail.org/git/notmuch). And
113 [subscribe to the `notmuch-commits` list](http://notmuchmail.org/mailman/listinfo/notmuch-commits)
114 to watch every commit made to notmuch and the notmuchmail.org web
117 We have a [buildbot](http://buildbot.notmuchmail.org/grid) (here's
119 [configuration](https://github.com/tomprince/buildbot-configs/tree/notmuch)).
121 Contributions, such as patches, to Notmuch are most welcome. Please refer to the
122 [[guide to contributing|contributing]].
124 ## Bug and patch tracking
126 The tagging and filtering features of notmuch make it quite suitable
127 for use as a bug- and patch-tracker. We are currently experimenting
128 with using it for this purpose for notmuch development, using a
129 utility called [[nmbug]]. The status of bugs and current patches can also be
130 followed [online](http://nmbug.tethera.net/status).
132 Bug reports should be sent to the Notmuch mailing list notmuch@notmuchmail.org.
134 ## Contact: Email & IRC
136 Comments? Please feel free to email the notmuch mailing list:
137 notmuch@notmuchmail.org (subscription is not required, but you can
138 also subscribe to the
139 [notmuch mailing list](http://notmuchmail.org/mailman/listinfo/notmuch)). You
141 [online list archives](http://notmuchmail.org/pipermail/notmuch/),
143 [web forum (nabble)](http://notmuch.198994.n3.nabble.com/), or
144 download an [mbox file](http://notmuchmail.org/archives/notmuch.mbox)
145 of the entire mailing-list.
147 The `mb2md` utility can be used to convert the archives to maildir
148 format which is convenient for reading the archives within notmuch
151 If you prefer real-time chat, there is often someone on the
152 [#notmuch](irc://chat.freenode.net/#notmuch)@irc.freenode.net IRC
157 If you have a feature idea/request, please send it to the
158 [mailing list](http://notmuchmail.org/mailman/listinfo/notmuch). You
159 don't have to be subscribed to send, although there might be a delay
164 This wiki is maintained using [ikiwiki](http://ikiwiki.info). Here are
165 [[instructions on how to edit the wiki|wikiwriteaccess]].