Merge branch 'master' of git://notmuchmail.org/git/notmuch-wiki

[obsolete/notmuch-wiki] / initial_tagging.mdwn

diff --git a/initial_tagging.mdwn b/initial_tagging.mdwn
index 6239919fa7af2e3a54eb2e1abe117a60e73b8b42..1e0fcc1824623e5325badc5a44349035d8c5c163 100644 (file)
--- a/initial_tagging.mdwn
+++ b/initial_tagging.mdwn
@@ -1,8 +1,41 @@
-# Initial Tagging
+# Approaches to initial tagging of messages

 
 This page collects scripts and strategies for organizing mail using
 notmuch and doing automated initial tagging.
 
 
 This page collects scripts and strategies for organizing mail using
 notmuch and doing automated initial tagging.
 

+Here's a very general and ad-hoc approach to initial message tagging.
+The `[new]` config section allows you to control which tags new messages
+receive.  This sets all new messages to get the *new* tag:
+
+    [new]
+    tags=new;
+
+After running `notmuch new`, all new messages will be marked *new*.
+You can then do various tag post-processing by just acting on messages
+with that tag.  For instance, a post-processing script might do the
+following:
+
+    # immediately archive all messages from "me"
+    notmuch tag -new -- tag:new and from:me@example.com
+
+    # delete all messages from a spammer:
+    notmuch tag +deleted -- from:spam@spam.com
+
+    # tag all message from notmuch mailing list
+    notmuch tag +notmuch -- to:notmuch@notmuchmail.org
+
+    # finally, retag all "new" messages "inbox" and "unread"
+    notmuch tag +inbox +unread -new -- tag:new
+
+Since the post-processing is only acting on a few messages, it is
+generally extremely fast.
+
+You can use the `post-new` hook, which is automatically run after `notmuch new`,
+to do post-processing. See `man notmuch-hooks` for details on hooks.
+
+
+# Other solutions
+

 * [This
   email](http://notmuchmail.org/pipermail/notmuch/2010/001691.html)
   (and related thread) details Carl Worth's approach to tagging. It is
 * [This
   email](http://notmuchmail.org/pipermail/notmuch/2010/001691.html)
   (and related thread) details Carl Worth's approach to tagging. It is


@@ -16,3 +49,27 @@ notmuch and doing automated initial tagging.
   the inbox tag as a "new mail" flag. It is email
   id:87hbp5j9dv.fsf@hackervisions.org in the notmuch mailing list
   archives.
   the inbox tag as a "new mail" flag. It is email
   id:87hbp5j9dv.fsf@hackervisions.org in the notmuch mailing list
   archives.

+
+* [This email](http://notmuchmail.org/pipermail/notmuch/2011/003976.html)
+  details another user's setup, which uses a dedicated tag for marking new mail,
+  which is then sorted with a python script using Bogofilter for spam detection.
+  This is generally a great deal faster than a shell-scripted approach.
+  This approach introduces a workflow built around a "watch" tag. Here, the user
+  is only presented with threads as they are started. At this point the user can
+  choose to watch the thread, in which case future messages will be tagged with
+  "inbox", or ignore it. This provides an excellent means for dealing with a
+  large flux of messages with a low signal-to-noise.  It is email
+  id:"87tyfu3k5a.fsf@gmail.com" in the notmuch mailing list archives.
+
+* [afew](https://github.com/teythoon/afew) is an initial tagging
+  solution that should work out of the box for most basic tagging
+  needs (mailinglist handling, killed thread handling, autoarchiving
+  of sent mails) and has some fancy features (e.g. mail classification
+  using bayesian filters).
+
+# Notmuch Delivery Agent -- `notmuch-deliver`
+
+The [Notmuch Delivery Agent](http://github.com/alip/notmuch-deliver/)
+([announcement](http://notmuchmail.org/pipermail/notmuch/2010/002871.html)) is
+a tool for delivering emails to maildir, add them to the Notmuch database, and
+tag them as desired.