X-Git-Url: https://git.cworth.org/git?a=blobdiff_plain;f=howto.mdwn;h=0e75acc82bdc4b2aee8f9e957c6e8047a90d07a7;hb=d7c70a64d61ced5fca65ebf0cc998625994da538;hp=30e81348c68c8c35f910953ecfee2f0edc6bdb7b;hpb=49550b8072d0ab354fc7fbe70ba03b79fb133021;p=notmuch-wiki

diff --git a/howto.mdwn b/howto.mdwn
index 30e8134..0e75acc 100644
--- a/howto.mdwn
+++ b/howto.mdwn
@@ -1,13 +1,116 @@
 [[!img notmuch-logo.png alt="Notmuch logo" class="left"]]
 #How to...
 
-##<span id="print_filenames">.. print only filenames of a search</span>
+Some tips about how to do some useful things with notmuch, and the
+various "third party" notmuch utilities.
 
-Given you have the python bindings installed (or simply set your PYTHONPATH environment variable to point to the .../bindings/python directory), this script will print the filenames of a matching search:
+* <span id="receive_mail">**Receive mail**</span>
 
-                                #!/usr/bin/env python
-                                import sys
-                                import notmuch
-                                
-                                q = notmuch.Database().create_query(" ".join(sys.argv[1:]))
-                                for m in q.search_messages(): print m.get_filename()
+  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 its own will work.  Here are some generally
+  well-regarded mail retrieval tools:
+
+  * [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
+    whenever you sync.  Point _postsynchook_ to a script that gets run
+    on every sync and that will do the automatic updating and tagging
+    of your notmuch database.
+
+  * [mbsync](http://isync.sourceforge.net/)
+
+  * [getmail](http://pyropus.ca/software/getmail/)
+
+  * [fetchmail](http://fetchmail.berlios.de/)
+
+  See the [[initial_tagging]] page for more info on intial tagging of messages.
+
+* <span id="print_filenames">**Print only filenames of a search (python bindings)**</span>
+
+  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
+  environment variable to point to the .../bindings/python directory),
+  this script will print the filenames of a matching search:
+
+                             #!/usr/bin/env python
+                             import sys
+                             import notmuch
+                             search = " ".join(sys.argv[1:])
+                             q = notmuch.Database().create_query(search)
+                             for m in q.search_messages():
+                                 print m.get_filename()
+
+* <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 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
+  mail across mail clients (a [maildir
+  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 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.
+
+  [notmuchsync](http://spaetz.github.com/notmuchsync/) is a utility
+  (based on the cnotmuch python bindings) that allows synchronization
+  in either direction, as well as pruning of deleted files.
+
+  The second solution allows for fast maildir flag to notmuch tag
+  synchronization (and only in that direction) requires patching the
+  notmuch source code. The patch has been posted in this mail
+  *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.