1 [[!meta date="2010-11-01"]]
3 Notmuch 0.4 (2010-11-01)
4 ========================
6 New command-line features
7 -------------------------
9 ### `notmuch search --output=(summary|threads|messages|tags|files)`
11 This new option allows for particular items to be returned from
12 notmuch searches. The "summary" option is the default and behaves
13 just as "notmuch search" has historically behaved.
15 The new option values allow for thread IDs, message IDs, lists of
16 tags, and lists of filenames to be returned from searches. It is
17 expected that this new option will be very useful in shell
20 for file in $(notmuch search --output=files <search-terms>); do
21 <operations-on> "$file"
24 ### `notmuch show --format=mbox <search-specification>`
26 This new option allows for the messages matching a search
27 specification to be presented as an mbox. Specifically the "mboxrd"
28 format is used which allows for reversible quoting of lines
29 beginning with "From ". A reader should remove a single '>' from the
30 beginning of all lines beginning with one or more '>' characters
31 followed by the 5 characters "From ".
33 ### `notmuch config [get|set] <section>.<item> [value ...]`
35 The new top-level "config" command allows for any value in the
36 notmuch configuration file to be queried or set to a new value. Both
37 single-valued and multi-valued items are supported, as our any
38 custom items stored in the configuration file.
40 ### Avoid setting Bcc header in "notmuch reply"
42 We decided that this was a bit heavy-handed as the actual mail
43 user-agent should be responsible for setting any Bcc option. Also,
44 see below for the notmuch/emacs user-agent now setting an Fcc by
45 default rather than Bcc.
50 ### Add `notmuch_query_get_query_string` and `notmuch_query_get_sort`
52 These are simply functions for querying properties of a
53 `notmuch_query_t` object.
58 ### Enable Fcc of all sent messages by default (to "sent" directory)
60 All messages sent from the emacs interface will now be saved to the
61 notmuch mail store where they will be incorporated to the database
62 by the next "notmuch new". By default, messages are saved to the
63 "sent" directory at the top-level of the mail store. This directory
64 can be customized by means of the "Notmuch Fcc Dirs" option in the
65 notmuch customize interface.
67 ### Ability to all open messages in a thread to a pipe
69 Historically, the '|' keybinding allows for piping a single message
70 to an external command. Now, by prefixing this key with a prefix
71 argument, (for example, by pressing "Control-U |"), all open
72 messages in the current thread will be sent to the external command.
74 ### Optional support for detecting inline patches
76 This hook is disabled by default but can be enabled with a checkbox
77 under "Notmuch Show Insert Text/Plain Hook" in the notmuch customize
78 interface. It allows for inline patches to be detected and treated
79 as if they were attachments, (with context-sensitive highlighting).
81 ### Automatically tag messages as "replied" when sending a reply
83 Messages replied to within the emacs interface will now be tagged as
84 "replied". This feature can easily be customized to add or remove
85 other tags as well. For example, a user might use a tag of
86 "needs-reply" and can configure this feature to automatically remove
87 that tag when replying. See "Notmuch Message Mark Replied" in the
88 notmuch customize interface.
90 ### Allow search-result color specifications to overlay each other
92 For example, one tag can specify the background color of matching
93 lines, while another can specify the foreground. With this change,
94 both settings will now be visible simultaneously, (which was not the
95 case in previous releases). See "Notmuch Search Line Faces" in the
96 notmuch customize interface.
98 ### Make hidden author names still available for incremental search
100 When there is insufficient space to display all authors of a thread
101 in search results, the names of hidden authors are now still made
102 available to emacs' incremental search commands. As the user
103 searches, matching lines will temporarily expand to show the hidden
106 ### New binding of Control-TAB (works like TAB in reverse)
108 Many notmuch nodes already use TAB to navigate forward through
109 various items allowing actions, (message headers, email attachments,
110 etc.). The new Control-TAB binding operates similarly but in the
113 New build-system features
114 -------------------------
116 ### Various portability fixes have been applied
118 These include fixes for build failures on at least Solaris, FreeBSD,
119 and Fedora systems. We're hopeful that the notmuch code base is now
120 more portable than ever before.
122 ### Arrange for libnotmuch to be found automatically after make install
124 The notmuch build system is now careful to help the user avoid
125 errors of the form "libnotmuch.so could not be found" immediately
126 after installing. This support takes two forms:
128 1. If the library is installed to a system directory,
129 (configured in /etc/ld.so.conf), then "make install" will
130 automatically run ldconfig.
132 2. If the library is installed to a non-system directory, the
133 build system adds a `DR_RUNPATH` entry to the final binary
134 pointing to the directory to which the library is installed.
136 When this support works, the user should be able to run notmuch
137 immediately after "make install", without any errors trying to find
138 the notmuch library, and without having to manually set environment
139 variables such as `LD_LIBRARY_PATH`.
141 ### Check compiler/linker options before using them
143 The configure script now carefully checks that any desired
144 compilation options, (whether for enabling compiler warnings, or for
145 embedding rpath, etc.), are supported. Only supported options are
146 used in the resulting Makefile.
148 New test-suite features
149 -----------------------
151 ### New modularization of test suite
153 Thanks to a gracious relicensing of the test-suite infrastructure
154 from the git project, notmuch now has a modular test suite. This
155 provides the ability to run individual sections of the test suite
156 rather than the whole things. It also provides better summary of
157 test results, with support for tests that are expected to fail
158 (BROKEN and FIXED) in addition to PASS and FAIL. Finally, it makes
159 it easy to run the test suite within valgrind (pass --valgrind to
160 notmuch-test or to any sub-script) which has been very useful.
162 ### New testing of emacs interface
164 The test suite has been augmented to allow automated testing of the
165 emacs interfaces. So far, this includes basic searches, display of
166 threads, and tag manipulation. This also includes a test that a new
167 message can successfully be sent out through a (dummy) SMTP server
168 and that said message is successfully integrated into the notmuch
169 database via the FCC setting.
174 ### Fix potential corruption of database when "notmuch new" is interrupted
176 Previously, an interruption of "notmuch new" would (rarely) result
177 in a corrupt database. The corruption would manifest itself by a
178 persistent error of the form:
180 document ID of 1234 has no thread ID
182 The message-adding code has been carefully audited and reworked to
183 avoid this sort of corruption regardless of when it is interrupted.
185 ### Fix failure with extremely long message ID headers
187 Previously, a message with an extremely long message ID, (say, more
188 than 300 characters), would fail to be added to notmuch, (triggering
189 Xapian exceptions). This has now been fixed.
191 ### Fix for messages with "charset=unknown-8bit"
193 Previously, messages with this charset would cause notmuch to emit a
194 GMime warning, (which would then trip up emacs or other interfaces
195 parsing the notmuch results).
197 ### Fix `notmuch_query_search_threads` function to return NULL on any exception
199 ### Fix "notmuch search" to return non-zero if `notmuch_query_search_threads` fails
201 Previously, this command could confusingly report a Xapian
202 exception, yet still return an error code of 0. It now correctly
203 returns a failing error code of 1 in this case.
208 ### Fix to handle a message with a subject containing, for example "[1234]"
210 Previously, a message subject containing a sequence of digits within
211 square brackets would cause the emacs interface to mis-parse the
212 output of "notmuch search". This would result in the message being
213 mis-displayed and prevent the user from manipulating the message in
216 ### Fix to correctly handle message IDs containing ".."
218 The emacs interface now properly quotes message IDs to avoid a
219 Xapian bug in which the ".." within a message ID would be
220 misinterpreted as a numeric range specification.
225 The python bindings for notmuch have been updated to work with python3.
227 Debian-specific fixes
228 ---------------------
230 ### Fix emacs initialization so "M-x notmuch" works for users by default
232 Now, a new Debian user can immediately run "emacs -f notmuch" after
233 "apt-get install notmuch". Previously, the user would have had to
234 edit the ~/.emacs file to add "(require 'notmuch)" before this would