[[!img notmuch-logo.png alt="Notmuch logo" class="left"]] 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 not seamless, but fairly straightforward. There are two principal possibilities, either using a patched mutt that handles internally notmuch, or use a sets of scripts/handler within mutt to achieve something close. [[!toc levels=2]] # Using Notmuch with the good old mutt There's a page about the [[notmuch-mutt]] scripts that are distributed along with notmuch, in its contrib directory. # Using Notmuch with mutt-kz Here is a tip about how to set up [mutt-kz](https://github.com/karelzak/mutt-kz), a fork of the mutt MUA with support of notmuch integrated. ## Install: You'll need to first have notmuch installed and the notmuch library available to configure. Otherwise, it is a good old autoconf setup, so here it goes: git clone https://github.com/karelzak/mutt-kz.git cd mutt-kz ./configure && make && make install ## Configuration: Here is my `.muttrc` I use with `mutt-kz`, explainations as comments: # notmuch set nm_default_uri="notmuch:///PATH/TO/MY/Maildir" # path to the maildir set virtual_spoolfile=yes # enable virtual folders set sendmail="/PATH/TO/bin/nm_sendmail" # enables parsing of outgoing mail virtual-mailboxes \ "INBOX" "notmuch://?query=tag:INBOX and NOT tag:archive"\ "Unread" "notmuch://?query=tag:unread"\ "Starred" "notmuch://?query=tag:*"\ "Sent" "notmuch://?query=tag:sent" # sets up queries for virtual folders # notmuch bindings macro index \\\\ "" # looks up a hand made query macro index A "+archive -unread -inbox\\n" # tag as Archived macro index I "-inbox -unread\\n" # removed from inbox macro index S "-inbox -unread +junk\\n" # tag as Junk mail macro index + "+*\\n" # tag as starred macro index - "-*\\n" # tag as unstarred # sidebar set sidebar_width = 20 set sidebar_visible = yes # set to "no" to disable sidebar view at startup color sidebar_new yellow default # sidebar bindings bind index sidebar-prev # got to previous folder in sidebar bind index sidebar-next # got to next folder in sidebar bind index sidebar-open # open selected folder from sidebar # sidebar toggle macro index ,@) " set sidebar_visible=no; macro index ~ ,@( 'Toggle sidebar'" macro index ,@( " set sidebar_visible=yes; macro index ~ ,@) 'Toggle sidebar'" macro index ~ ,@( 'Toggle sidebar' # toggle the sidebar There is no major difference with the standard mutt. Just a new concept (and URL) the virtual folder, that is addressed as `notmuch://`, a few new settings and commands. ## Using: when you open `mutt` you get the INBOX opened. There you can crawl through your mails, and tag them as appropriate, either manually using the " ` " command, or using the bindings defined in configuration (such as A/I/S/+/-). ## Mail tagging on sending You may have noticed in `mutt-kz`'s configuration that I set the `sendmail` variable of mutt to a `nm_sendmail` script. This is for tagging outgoing mail each time I send a mail. Here is the content of the script (which may be used directly in mutt's variable, I did not try). Source of `nm_sendmail`: #!/bin/bash tee >(notmuch-deliver -t sent -f Sent) | sendmail $* ## Mail filtering/tagging For mail tagging on arrival, I prefer to use a simple procmail delivery along with notmuch-delivery (which can be compiled in the `contrib/` directory of notmuch's sources). Of course, you could use formail or maildrop, instead of procmail, but it is flexible enough for my needs, and here is an example of configuration that can be useful: PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin # ensure each mail is unique :0 Wh: msgid.lock | formail -D 8192 msgid.cache # update addressbook with current mail :0 Wh | /usr/local/bin/notmuch_abook update NOINBOX="-r inbox" TAGS="" # manage dynamic tagging, using the ' + ' token in mail addresses # e.g.: user+TAG@fqdn.tld will generate the tag TAG :0:notmuch.lock * ^TO\/user\+[a-z0-9]+@fqdn\.tld * MATCH ?? ^user\+\/[a-z0-9]+ { TAGS="-t ${MATCH}" } # match all mails from mailing-lists, don't let them go to inbox, but tag them with ml :0:notmuch.lock * ^List-[Ii][dD]:.* { TAGS="${TAGS} -t ml -r inbox" } # tag all mails coming from mutt-kz mailing list :0:notmuch.lock * .*mutt-kz\.lists\.fedoraproject\.org.* | notmuch-deliver $TAGS -t mutt -t notmuch # tag all mails coming from notmuch mailing list :0:notmuch.lock * .*notmuch\.notmuchmail\.org.* | notmuch-deliver $TAGS -t notmuch # Mark all spams as junk mail :0:notmuch.lock * ^X-Spam-Status: Yes | notmuch-deliver -t junk :0:notmuch.lock * ^Subject: .*SPAM.* | notmuch-deliver -t junk ### All unmatched mails :0:notmuch.lock * .* | notmuch-deliver -v $TAGS there's a line that updates the addressbook with addresses of current mail, and you'll be able to read more about it on the [[vimtips]] page.