[[!img notmuch-logo.png alt="Notmuch logo" class="left"]]
#Tips and Tricks for using notmuch with Emacs
-The main client based on notmuch is notmuch.el, which is included in the notmuch package. It is might, and allows you to configure a lot of things, however, it might not be immediately obvious how, and how the general workflow generally looks like. This first section will describe a typical workflow and setup, while the section [Advanced tips and tweaks] below, focuses on more specific questions.
+The main Notmuch message reading client is **notmuch.el**, which is an
+[emacs](http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/) major mode, and is
+included in the notmuch package.
-##Typical setup and workflow
+## Setup
-notmuch requires either a MailDir or a "mh" -style maildirectory to operate on (It basically simply requires that each mail is in a file of it's own). Most people therefore use "[offlineimap](http://software.complete.org/software/projects/show/offlineimap)" or "mbsync" in order to synchronize their IMAP or pop mail server with a local mail store. offlineimap is quite useful and widely tested, it also offers a handy hook that will come in useful a bit later in our setup. So go install and configure offlineimap so you can simply run offlineimap and have an updated maildir. In the [Account xxx] section of your .offineimaprc file your can specify a "presynchook" and "postsynchook" command that will get run whenever you sync. Point postsynchook to a script that gets run on every sync and that will do the automatic tagging and updating of your notmuch database.
+To use the Notmuch emacs mode, first add the following line to your
+.emacs rc file:
-The script will look somewhat like this:
+ (require 'notmuch)
- #/bin/sh
- # incorporate all new mails in the database
- notmuch new
- #apply some automatic tags
- notmuch tag +notmuch from:notmuch@notmuchmail.org and not tag:notmuch
- ...more tag rules...
+Then, either run "emacs -f notmuch", or execute the command "M-x
+notmuch" from within a running emacs.
-One advanced setup with automatic tagging has been described by James Vasile here (id: _87hbp5j9dv.fsf@hackervisions.org_). Carl Worth has described his script in this mail (id: _87r5o8stbj.fsf@yoom.home.cworth.org_). See more on message ids below.
+## Navigating & reading mails
------
+When first starting notmuch in emacs, you will be presented with the
+notmuch "hello" page. From here you can do searches, see lists of
+recent searches, saved searches, message tags, help information, etc.
+
+Executing a search will open a new buffer in notmuch-search-mode
+displaying the search results. Each line in the search results
+represents a message thread. Hitting the '?' key will show help for
+this mode.
+
+In general, the 'q' will kill the current notmuch buffer and return
+you to the previous buffer (sort of like a 'pop').
+
+In search mode, navigating to a thread and hitting return will then
+open a new buffer in notmuch-show-mode, which will show the actual
+message contents of the thread.
+
+## Sending mail
+
+In any notmuch mode, you can start a new message by hitting the 'm'
+key. To reply to a message or thread, just hit the 'r' key.
+
+When composing new messages, you will be entered in emacs's
+"message-mode", which is a powerful mode for composing and sending
+messages. When in message move, you can type "C-c ?" for help.
+
+If you would like to use address autocompletion, see the [address
+completion howto](#address_completion)" below.
+
+When you are ready to send a message, type "C-c C-c". By default
+message mode will use your sendmail command to send mail, so make sure
+that works. One annoying standard configuration of message mode is
+that it will hide the sent mail in your emacs frame stack, but it will
+not close it. If you type several mails in an emacs session they will
+accumulate and make switching between buffers more annoying. You can
+avoid that behavior by adding `(setq message-kill-buffer-on-exit t)`
+in your .emacs file which will really close the mail window after
+sending it.
+
+## Attaching files
-__A note on message ids__: Confused by those message ids? Get used to it because they are an importance part of the notmuch workflow. Every send message has a unique message id, just like a website has a unique url. On the notmuch mailing list people will throw around message ids and expect people to just find the right mails, as this is what notmuch makes easy. In order to find a specific message, hit 's' for search and type: "id:messageidhere". If you incorporated the notmuch mail archive, you can e.g. try to find id:87r5o8stbj.fsf@yoom.home.cworth.org. Don't have the notmuch archive back to Feb 25, 2010? Fortunately gmane (and probably others allow to search for message id in their archives as well. You'll find this message under [http://mid.gmane.org/87r5o8stbj.fsf@yoom.home.cworth.org] (incidentally, this server seems to be down right now).
+Using the `M-x mml-attach-file` command, you can attach any file to be
+send with your mail. By default this command is bound to the menu item
+`Attachments--Attach File` with the key binding `C-c C-a`. The
+variable `mml-dnd-attach-options` (M-x
+customize-variable<RET>`mml-dnd-attach-options`) can be set to allow
+the prompting for various attachment options (such as
+inline/attachement) if you want to do that.
+
+For those who prefer graphics, you can also simply drag and drop files
+from a file manager into a mail composition window to have it attached
+(assuming you are using emacs with X support). At least in Ubuntu it
+works by dragging from the file manager without any modifications.
-----
-OK, messages are in your maildir and they have the tags you want them to have (of course you will be assigning more tags manually as you parse through your mail.). Now, on to actually using notmuch in emacs. If you added the correct bits to your .emacs file you will be able to start notmuch by typing "M-x notmuch" (or M-x notmuch-folder). If you want to start notmuch immediately when starting emacs you can also call emacs as "emacs -f notmuch" (and create a handy shortcut on your desktop for that).
+<h2 id="advanced_tips">Advanced tips and tweaks</h2>
+
+* <span id="custom_keybinding">**Add a key binding to add/remove/toggle a tag.**</span>
+
+ The notmuch-{search,show}-{add,remove}-tag functions are very useful
+ for making quick tag key bindings. For instance, here's an example
+ of how to make a key binding to add the "spam" tag and remove the
+ "inbox" tag in notmuch-show-mode:
+
+ (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "S"
+ (lambda ()
+ "mark message as spam"
+ (interactive)
+ (notmuch-show-add-tag "spam")
+ (notmuch-show-remove-tag "inbox")))
+
+ You can do the same for threads in notmuch-search-mode by just
+ replacing "show" with "search" in the called functions.
-notmuch (the search view) and notmuch-folder are the 2 main views that can be used to navigate through your mail.
-[TODO: to be continued...]
+ The definition above makes use of a lambda function, but you could
+ also define a separate function first:
-###Sending mail
-Notmuch itself does not provide any facilities for sending mail. Fortunately, emacs comes with "message mode" which offers that functionality. This also means that there are various methods to invoke the mail sending command. One possibility is to use "CTRL-x m" which will invoke a new "message mail" window. The second possibility is to type 'm' when you are in a notmuch window. And finally, when looking at a message or thread in notmuch you can type 'r' to start a reply.
+ (defun notmuch-show-tag-spam()
+ "mark message as spam"
+ (interactive)
+ (notmuch-show-add-tag "spam")
+ (notmuch-show-remove-tag "inbox")))
+ (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "S" 'notmuch-show-tag-spam)
-If you want to use mail address autocompletion, check out [bbdb](http://bbdb.sourceforge.net) which works nicely together with message mode.
+ Here's a more complicated example of how to add a toggle "deleted"
+ key:
-Type your message and send it off with ctrl-c ctrl-c. By default message mode will use your /usr/sbin/sendmail command to send a mail, so make sure that works.
-One annoying standard configuration of message mode is that it will hide the sent mail in your emacs frame stack, but it will not close it. If you type several mails in an emacs session they will accumulate and make switching between buffers more annoying. You can avoid that behavior by adding `(setq message-kill-buffer-on-exit t)` in your .emacs file which will really close the mail window after sending it.
+ (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "d"
+ (lambda ()
+ "toggle deleted tag for message"
+ (interactive)
+ (if (member "deleted" (notmuch-show-get-tags))
+ (notmuch-show-remove-tag "deleted")
+ (notmuch-show-add-tag "deleted"))))
-##Advanced tips and tweaks
-* How to do FCC/BCC...
+* <span id="fcc">**How to do FCC/BCC...**</span>
Any notmuch reply will automatically include your primary email
address in a BCC so that any messages you send will (eventually) end
- up in your mail store as well.
+ up in your mail store as well. But this doesn't do anything for
+ messages that you compose that are not replies.
- But this doesn't do anything for messages that you compose that are
- not replies. So we need to get sane message-mode FCC figured
- out. Some investigation is still needed here.
+ Another method is to save the file in a folder of your local
+ Maildir, usually called FCC (file carbon copy). You can achieve this
+ by setting the variables `message-directory` (which defines a base
+ directory) and `notmuch-fcc-dirs` which defines the subdirectory
+ relative to message-directory in which to save the mail. Enter a
+ directory (without the maildir /cur ending which will be appended
+ automatically). To customize both variables at the same time, use
+ the fancy command:
-* How to customize notmuch-folders
+ M-x customize-apropos<RET>\(notmuch-fcc-dirs\)\|\(message-directory\)
+
+ This method will even allow you to select different outboxes
+ depending on your selected from address, if you need that
+ functionality. Please see the documentation on the variable in the
+ customization window for how to do so.
+
+* <span id="customize_notmuch_folder">**How to customize notmuch-folders**</span>
There's a "notmuch-folder" command available in the emacs client
that displays a list of "folders" and the number of messages in
Of course, you can have any number of folders, each configured
with any supported search terms (see "notmuch help search-terms").
-* Viewing HTML messages with an external viewer
+ Personally, I find it fairly useful to add "not tag:delete" to those
+ views as I use that tag to mark messages as deleted and it
+ automatically removes them from my standard views. Use whatever
+ seems most useful to you.
+
+* **Viewing HTML messages with an external viewer**
The emacs client can often display an HTML message inline, but it
sometimes fails for one reason or another, (or is perhaps inadequate
Keith mentions the following caveat, "Note that if iceweasel isn't
already running, it seems to shut down when the script exits. I
don't know why."
+
+* **msmtp, message mode and multiple accounts**
+
+ As an alternative to running a mail server such as sendmail or
+ postfix just to send email, it is possible to use
+ [msmtp](http://msmtp.sourceforge.net/). This small application will
+ look like /usr/bin/sendmail to a MUA such as emacs message mode, but
+ will just forward the email to an external SMTP server. It's fairly
+ easy to set up and it support several account for using different
+ SMTP servers. The msmtp pages have several examples.
+
+ A typical scenario is that you want to use the company SMTP server
+ for email coming from your company email address, and your personal
+ server for personal email. If msmtp is passed the envelope address
+ on the command line (the -f/--from option) it will automatically
+ pick the matching account. The only trick here seems to be getting
+ emacs to actually pass the envelope from. There are a number of
+ overlapping configuration variables that control this, and it's a
+ little confusion, but setting these three works for me:
+
+ - mail-specify-envelope-from: t
+
+ - message-sendmail-envelope-from: header
+
+ - mail-envelope-from: header
+
+ With that in place, you need a .msmtprc with the accounts configured
+ for the domains you want to send out using specific SMTP servers and
+ the rest will go to the default account.
+
+* <span id="address_completion">**how to get email address completion**</span>
+
+ There are currently two solutions to this:
+
+ [bbdb](http://bbdb.sourceforge.net) is a contact database for emacs
+ that works quite nicely together with message mode, including
+ address autocompletion.
+
+ You can also use the notmuch database as a mail address book itself.
+ To do this you need a command line tool that outputs likely address
+ candidates based on a search string. There are currently two
+ available:
+
+ * The python tool notmuch\_address.py ('git clone
+ http://jkr.acm.jhu.edu/git/notmuch_addresses.git`) (slower, but
+ no compilation required so good for testing the setup)
+
+ * The vala-based
+ [addrlookup](http://github.com/spaetz/vala-notmuch) (faster, but
+ needs compiling). The addrlookup binary needs to be compiled.
+ Grab
+ http://github.com/spaetz/vala-notmuch/raw/static-sources/src/addrlookup.c
+ and build it with:
+
+ cc -o addrlookup addrlookup.c `pkg-config --cflags --libs gobject-2.0` -lnotmuch
+
+ EUDC is integrated into emacs and is needed for tab completion of
+ email addresses. See [this
+ mail](http://mid.gmane.org/87fx3uflkx.fsf@jhu.edu)
+ (id:87fx3uflkx.fsf@jhu.edu) for more information.
+
+* <span id="sign_messages_gpg">**how to sign/encrypt my messages with
+ gpg**</span>
+
+ You can manually sign your messages with gpg by invoking `M-x
+ mml-secure-sign-pgpmime` (or `M-x
+ mml-secure-encrypt-pgpmime`). These functions are available via the
+ convenient (*cough cough*) keybindings `C-c C-m s p` and `C-c C-m c
+ p` by default. To sign my outgoing mail by default, I use this hook
+ in my .emacs file:
+
+ ;;sign messages by default
+ (add-hook 'message-setup-hook 'mml-secure-sign-pgpmime)
+
+ This inserts the blurb `<#part sign=pgpmime>` into the beginning of
+ my mail text body and will be converted into a pgp signature when
+ sending (so I can just manually delete that line if I do not want a
+ mail to be signed).
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