News for release 0.38.3

[notmuch-wiki] / news / release-0.18.mdwn

[[!meta date="2014-05-06"]]

Notmuch 0.18 (2014-05-06)
=========================

Overview
--------

This new release includes some enhancements to searching for messages
by filesystem location (`folder:` and `path:` prefixes under *General*
below).  Saved searches in *Emacs* have also been enhanced to allow
distinct search orders for each one.  Another enhancement to the
*Emacs* interface is that replies to encrypted messages are now
encrypted, reducing the risk of unintentional information disclosure.
The default dump output format has changed to the more robust
`batch-tag` format. The previously deprecated parsing of single
message mboxes has been removed. For detailed release notes, see
below.

General
-------

### The `folder:` search prefix now requires an exact match

The `folder:` prefix has been changed to search for email messages
by the exact, case sensitive maildir or MH folder name. Wildcard
matching (`folder:foo*`) is no longer supported. The new behaviour
allows for more accurate mail folder based searches, makes it
possible to search for messages in the top-level folder, and should
lead to less surprising results than the old behaviour. Users are
advised to see the `notmuch-search-terms` manual page for details,
and review how the change affects their existing `folder:` searches.

### There is a new `path:` search prefix

The new `path:` search prefix complements the `folder:` prefix. The
`path:` prefix searches for email messages that are in particular
directories within the mail store, optionally recursively using a
special syntax. See the `notmuch-search-terms` manual page for
details.

### Notmuch database upgrade due to `folder:` and `path:` changes

The above mentioned changes to the `folder:` prefix and the addition
of `path:` prefix require a Notmuch database upgrade. This will be
done automatically, without prompting on the next time `notmuch new`
is run after the upgrade. The upgrade is not reversible, and the
upgraded database will not be readable by older versions of
Notmuch. As a safeguard, a database dump will be created in the
`.notmuch` directory before upgrading.

Library changes
---------------

### Notmuch database upgrade

The libnotmuch consumers are reminded to handle database upgrades
properly, either by relying on running `notmuch new`, or checking
`notmuch_database_needs_upgrade()` and calling
`notmuch_database_upgrade()` as necessary. This has always been the
case, but in practise there have been no database upgrades in any
released version of Notmuch before now.

### Support for indexing mbox files has been dropped

There has never been proper support for mbox files containing
multiple messages, and the support for single-message mbox files has
been deprecated since Notmuch 0.15. The support has now been
dropped, and all mbox files will be rejected during indexing.

### Message header parsing changes

Notmuch previously had an internal parser for message headers. The
parser has now been dropped in favour of letting GMime parse both
the headers and the message MIME structure at the same pass. This is
mostly an internal change, but the GMime parser is stricter in its
interpretation of the headers. This may result in messages with
slightly malformed message headers being now rejected.

Command-Line Interface
----------------------

### `notmuch dump` now defaults to `batch-tag` format

The old format is still available with `--format=sup`.

### `notmuch new` has a --quiet option

This option suppresses the progress and summary reports.

### `notmuch insert` respects maildir.synchronize_flags config option

Do not synchronize tags to maildir flags in `notmuch insert` if the
user does not want it.

### The commands set consistent exit status codes on failures

The cli commands now consistently set exit status of 1 on failures,
except where explicitly otherwise noted. The notable exceptions are
the status codes for format version mismatches for commands that
support formatted output.

### Bug fix for checking configured new.tags for invalid tags

`notmuch new` and `notmuch insert` now check the user configured
new.tags for invalid tags, and refuse to apply them, similar to
`notmuch tag`. Invalid tags are currently the empty string and tags
starting with `-`.

Emacs Interface
---------------

### Init file

If the file pointed by new variable `notmuch-init-file` (typically
`~/.emacs.d/notmuch-config.el`) exists, it is loaded at the end of
`notmuch.el`. Users can put their personal notmuch emacs lisp based
configuration/customization items there instead of filling
`~/.emacs` with these.

### Changed format for saved searches

The format for `notmuch-saved-searches` has changed, but old style
saved searches are still supported. The new style means that a saved
search can store the desired sort order for the search, and it can
store a separate query to use for generating the count notmuch
shows.

The variable is fully customizable and any configuration done
through customize should *just work*, with the additional options
mentioned above. For manual customization see the documentation for
`notmuch-saved-searches`.

IMPORTANT: a new style notmuch-saved-searches variable will break
previous versions of notmuch-emacs (even search will not work); to
fix remove the customization for notmuch-saved-searches.

If you have a custom saved search sort function (not unsorted or
alphabetical) then the sort function will need to be
modified. Replacing (car saved-search) by (notmuch-saved-search-get
saved-search :name) and (cdr saved-search) by
(notmuch-saved-search-get saved-search :query) should be sufficient.

### The keys of `notmuch-tag-formats` are now regexps

Previously, the keys were literal strings.  Customized settings of
`notmuch-tag-formats` will continue to work as before unless tags
contain regexp special characters like `.` or `*`.

### Changed tags are now shown in the buffer

Previously tag changes made in a buffer were shown immediately. In
some cases (particularly automatic tag changes like marking read)
this made it hard to see what had happened (e.g., whether the
message had been unread).

The changes are now shown explicitly in the buffer: by default
deleted tags are displayed with red strike-through and added tags
are displayed underlined in green (inverse video is used for deleted
tags if the terminal does not support strike-through).

The variables `notmuch-tag-deleted-formats` and
`notmuch-tag-added-formats`, which have the same syntax as
`notmuch-tag-formats`, allow this to be customized.

Setting `notmuch-tag-deleted-formats` to `'((".*" nil))` and
`notmuch-tag-added-formats` to `'((".*" tag))` will give the old
behavior of hiding deleted tags and showing added tags identically
to tags already present.

### Version variable

The new, build-time generated variable `notmuch-emacs-version` is used
to distinguish between notmuch cli and notmuch emacs versions.
The function `notmuch-hello-versions` (bound to 'v' in notmuch-hello
window) prints both notmuch cli and notmuch emacs versions in case
these differ from each other.
This is especially useful when using notmuch remotely.

### Ido-completing-read initialization in Emacs 23

`ido-completing-read` in Emacs 23 versions 1 through 3 freezes unless
it is initialized. Defadvice-based *Ido* initialization is defined
for these Emacs versions.

### Bug fix for saved searches with newlines in them

Split lines confuse `notmuch count --batch`, so we remove embedded
newlines before calling notmuch count.

### Bug fixes for sender identities

Previously, Emacs would rewrite some sender identities in unexpected
and undesirable ways.  Now it will use identities exactly as
configured in `notmuch-identities`.

### Replies to encrypted messages will be encrypted by default

In the interest of maintaining confidentiality of communications,
the Notmuch Emacs interface now automatically adds the mml tag to
encrypt replies to encrypted messages. This should make it less
likely to accidentally reply to encrypted messages in plain text.

### Reply pushes mark before signature

We push mark and set point on reply so that the user can easily cut
the quoted text. The mark is now pushed before the signature, if
any, instead of end of buffer so the signature is preserved.

### Message piping uses the originating buffer's working directory

`notmuch-show-pipe-message` now uses the originating buffer's
current default directory instead of that of the `*notmuch-pipe*`
buffer's.

nmbug
-----

nmbug adds a `clone` command for setting up the initial repository and
uses `@{upstream}` instead of `FETCH_HEAD` to track upstream changes.

The `@{upstream}` change reduces ambiguity when fetching multiple
branches, but requires existing users update their `NMBGIT`
repository (usually `~/.nmbug`) to distinguish between local and
remote-tracking branches.  The easiest way to do this is:

  1. If you have any purely local commits (i.e. they aren't in the
     nmbug repository on nmbug.tethera.net), push them to a remote
     repository.  We'll restore them from the backup in step 4.
  2. Remove your `NMBGIT` repository (e.g. `mv .nmbug .nmbug.bak`).
  3. Use the new `clone` command to create a fresh clone:

        nmbug clone https://nmbug.notmuchmail.org/git/nmbug-tags.git

  4. If you had local commits in step 1, add a remote for that
     repository and fetch them into the new repository.