Added information about mbox, gmane, and mailman format conversion.

[notmuch-wiki] / howto.mdwn

diff --git a/howto.mdwn b/howto.mdwn
index 32072a7e7251f707123cb029f00ee59369862597..6db2a5b48e8fcfe45c269df8d84383ce37042a67 100644 (file)
--- a/howto.mdwn
+++ b/howto.mdwn
@@ -9,10 +9,10 @@ various "third party" notmuch utilities.
   Notmuch requires either [maildir
   flag](http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html) or a "mh"-style
   maildirectory to operate on.  Basically any setup in which each mail
   Notmuch requires either [maildir
   flag](http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html) or a "mh"-style
   maildirectory to operate on.  Basically any setup in which each mail

-  is in a file of it's own will work.  Here are some generally
+  is in a file of its own will work.  Here are some generally

   well-regarded mail retrieval tools:
 
   well-regarded mail retrieval tools:
 

-  * [offlineimap](https://github.com/jgoerzen/offlineimap/wiki/) -
+  * [offlineimap](https://github.com/nicolas33/offlineimap/) -

     quite useful and widely tested, it also offers a handy hook that
     will come in useful a bit later in our setup.  Also supports
     "presynchook" and "postsynchook" command that will get run
     quite useful and widely tested, it also offers a handy hook that
     will come in useful a bit later in our setup.  Also supports
     "presynchook" and "postsynchook" command that will get run


@@ -30,9 +30,9 @@ various "third party" notmuch utilities.
 
 * <span id="print_filenames">**Print only filenames of a search (python bindings)**</span>
 
 
 * <span id="print_filenames">**Print only filenames of a search (python bindings)**</span>
 

-  Notmuch includes python bindings to the notmuch shared library,
-  called [cnotmuch](http://pypi.python.org/pypi/cnotmuch).  Extensive
-  API documentation available.
+  Notmuch includes [python bindings](http://pypi.python.org/pypi/notmuch)
+  to the notmuch shared library. Extensive API documentation
+  [is available](http://packages.python.org/notmuch).

 
   The bindings are very simple to use.  As an example, given you have
   the python bindings installed (or simply set your PYTHONPATH
 
   The bindings are very simple to use.  As an example, given you have
   the python bindings installed (or simply set your PYTHONPATH


@@ -50,8 +50,8 @@ various "third party" notmuch utilities.
 * <span id="sync_maildir_flags">**Sync notmuch tags and maildir flags**</span>
 
   notmuch **since version 0.5** syncs maildir flags and respective
 * <span id="sync_maildir_flags">**Sync notmuch tags and maildir flags**</span>
 
   notmuch **since version 0.5** syncs maildir flags and respective

-  tags in both directions.  This how to applies only to notmuch
-  prior version 0.5:
+  tags in both directions. This part applies only to notmuch prior to
+  version 0.5:

 
   Some IMAP users rely on maildir flags that convey the status "seen",
   "replied", "trashed", in order to synchronize the status of their
 
   Some IMAP users rely on maildir flags that convey the status "seen",
   "replied", "trashed", in order to synchronize the status of their


@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ various "third party" notmuch utilities.
   flag](http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html) is simply a defined part
   of their filename).  Notmuch will by default happily ignore those
   flags and will never modify them either, as there is no built-in
   flag](http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html) is simply a defined part
   of their filename).  Notmuch will by default happily ignore those
   flags and will never modify them either, as there is no built-in

-  support for sunchronizing your notmuch tags with your imap maildir
+  support for synchronizing your notmuch tags with your imap maildir

   flags (seen, replied, trashed, etc). However there are currently 2
   ways in which you can achieve synchronization.
 
   flags (seen, replied, trashed, etc). However there are currently 2
   ways in which you can achieve synchronization.
 


@@ -73,3 +73,69 @@ various "third party" notmuch utilities.
   *id:1267450136-31749-1-git-send-email-Sebastian@SSpaeth.de* and can
   be viewed as a [source diff in this git
   repository](http://github.com/spaetz/notmuch-all-feature/commit/df3b087cefb85e9d16fd17540e348bcb854dd7ee).
   *id:1267450136-31749-1-git-send-email-Sebastian@SSpaeth.de* and can
   be viewed as a [source diff in this git
   repository](http://github.com/spaetz/notmuch-all-feature/commit/df3b087cefb85e9d16fd17540e348bcb854dd7ee).

+
+* <span id="print_filenames">**Using notmuch with Mutt**</span>
+
+  Notmuch is a great mail indexing tool that can also be used *in conjunction*
+  with existing Mail User Agents (MUA) instead of replacing them. The advantage
+  of such mixed solutions is that users can benefit from notmuch features (such
+  as full-text search and thread reconstruction) without *having to* change
+  MUA.
+
+  A popular geek MUA is [the Mutt e-mail client](http://www.mutt.org);
+  integrating notmuch with Mutt is fairly straightforward. An
+  [**how to use Notmuch with Mutt**](http://upsilon.cc/~zack/blog/posts/2011/01/how_to_use_Notmuch_with_Mutt/)
+  has been written by Stefano Zacchiroli, together with some glue code. Check
+  out the
+  [howto](http://upsilon.cc/~zack/blog/posts/2011/01/how_to_use_Notmuch_with_Mutt/)
+  for more information.
+
+  <small>(Note by the howto author: I've linked the howto from this wiki rather
+  than splicing it in, in order to avoid duplication of information. If you
+  think it would be better to have it here, feel free to copy the text
+  here. The howto is
+  [available](http://git.upsilon.cc/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=zack-homepage.git;a=history;f=blog/posts/2011/01/how_to_use_Notmuch_with_Mutt.mdwn)
+  in markdown syntax from the Git repository of my homepage.)</small>
+
+* <span id="reapply_auto">**Automatically retagging the database (e.g., when upgrading versions)**</span>
+
+  Certain versions of notmuch include new automatic tags (for example, between
+  0.3 and 0.10, automatic tagging of signed and encrypted messages was added).
+  However, for users running with databases created in older versions of
+  notmuch, these tags are missing in pre-existing messages and need to be
+  added.  One way to do this is as follows:
+
+                           $ notmuch dump ~/out.nm
+                           $ mv ~/Mail/.notmuch ~/.notmuch.bak
+                           $ notmuch new
+                           $ notmuch tag -inbox -unread '*'
+                           $ notmuch restore --accumulate ~/out.nm
+
+  At this point, one should run a sanity check on the tags, and if everything
+  has merged correctly, the ~/.notmuch.bak directory is expendable, as is
+  ~/out.nm.
+
+* <span id="nbox">**Dealing with mbox and other formats**</span>
+
+  notmuch by itself is unable to handle non-maildir mail archives.  One tool
+  to solve this is called mb2md.  Assuming an mbox in ~/test.mbox and ones
+  mail archives to be in ~/Mail, an invocation would look like
+
+                           $ mb2md -s ~/test.mbox -d ~/Mail/mynewmaildirname
+
+  Note that specifying the paths for -s and -d is necessary.  This will create
+  a new maildir in ~/Mail/mynewmaildirname from the mbox at ~/test.mbox.
+
+  Often the formats are more convoluted, however.  Many lists provide an
+  almost-but-not-quite-mbox format that mailman produces, as can be seen, for
+  example, [here](http://lists.xapian.org/pipermail/xapian-devel/).  These
+  files can be converted with some degree of success to mbox using the script
+  found
+  [here](http://www.hermann-uwe.de/blog/converting-mailman-gzipd-text-archive-files-to-proper-mbox-files),
+  and from mbox to maildir as above.
+
+  However, many of these lists also have a gmane version, which, where it
+  exists, achieves far better results than dealing with the messy mailman
+  output.  Using the instructions from [Gmane's
+  site](http://gmane.org/export.php), we can download an mbox file, which we
+  can then convert to maildir using mb2md or other utility.