expand the key binding emacstip

[notmuch-wiki] / emacstips.mdwn

[[!img notmuch-logo.png alt="Notmuch logo" class="left"]]
#Tips and Tricks for using notmuch with Emacs

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.

## Setup

To use the Notmuch emacs mode, first add the following line to your
.emacs rc file:

        (require 'notmuch)

Then, either run "emacs -f notmuch", or execute the command "M-x
notmuch" from within a running emacs.

## 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

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.

-----

<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.

  The definition above makes use of a lambda function, but you could
  also define a separate function first:

                (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)

  Here's a more complicated example of how to add a toggle "deleted"
  key:

                (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"))))

* <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. But this doesn't do anything for
  messages that you compose that are not replies.

  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:

                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
  each. Each folder is simply a named search specification. To
  configure this mode, edit your ${HOME}/.emacs file and include text
  something like the following:

                (setq notmuch-folders '(("inbox" . "tag:inbox")
                                        ("unread" . "tag:inbox AND tag:unread")
                                        ("notmuch" . "tag:inbox AND to:notmuchmail.org")))

  Of course, you can have any number of folders, each configured
  with any supported search terms (see "notmuch help search-terms").

  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
  if you really need to see the graphical presentation of the HTML
  message).

  In this case, it can be useful to display the message in an external
  viewer, such as a web browser. Here's a little script that Keith
  Packard wrote, which he calls view-html:

                #!/bin/sh
                dir=3D`mktemp -d`
                trap "rm -r $dir" 0
                cat "$@" > "$dir"/msg
                if munpack -C "$dir" -t < "$dir"/msg 2>&1 | grep 'Did not find'; then
                    sed -n '/[Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll]/,$p' "$dir"/msg > $dir/part1.html
                    rm "$dir"/msg
                fi
                for i in "$dir"/part*; do
                    if grep -q -i -e '<html>' -e 'text/html' "$i"; then
                        iceweasel "$i" &
                        sleep 3
                        exit 0
                    fi
                done

  Save that script somewhere in your ${PATH}, make it executable, and
  change the invocation of iceweasel to any other HTML viewer if
  necessary. Then within the emacs client, press "|" to pipe the
  current message, then type "view-html".

  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).