+<!-- -*- mode: text; indent-tabs-mode: nil -*- -->
+
[[!img notmuch-logo.png alt="Notmuch logo" class="left"]]
#Tips and Tricks for using notmuch with Emacs
To use the Notmuch emacs mode, first add the following line to your
`.emacs` rc file:
- (require 'notmuch)
+ (require 'notmuch)
+
+or you can load the package via autoload:
+
+ (autoload 'notmuch "notmuch" "notmuch mail" t)
Then, either run "emacs -f notmuch", or execute the command `M-x
notmuch` from within a running emacs.
If you would like to use address autocompletion when composing
messages, see [address completion](#address_completion).
-When you are ready to send a message, type `C-c C-c`. By default
+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 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.
+in your `.emacs` file (or doing `M-x
+customize-variable<RET>message-kill-buffer-on-exit<RET>`) 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
+sent 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
+customize-variable<RET>mml-dnd-attach-options<RET>`) can be set to
+allow the prompting for various attachment options (such as
inline/attachment) if you want to do that.
For those who prefer a more graphical interface, you can also simply
mentioned as script arguments. (Note: The script expects that you have
`(server-start)` in your `.emacs` file.)
- #!/bin/sh
- attach_cmds=""
- while [ "$1" ]; do
- fullpath=$(readlink --canonicalize $1)
- attach_cmds="$attach_cmds (mml-attach-file \"$fullpath\")"
- shift
- done
- emacsclient -a '' -c -e "(progn (compose-mail) $attach_cmds)"
+ #!/bin/sh
+ attach_cmds=""
+ while [ "$1" ]; do
+ fullpath=$(readlink --canonicalize "$1")
+ attach_cmds="$attach_cmds (mml-attach-file \"$fullpath\")"
+ shift
+ done
+ emacsclient -a '' -c -e "(progn (compose-mail) $attach_cmds)"
-----
# Advanced tips and tweaks
+## Use separate emacs lisp file for notmuch configuration
+
+Instead of adding notmuch configuration code to `.emacs`, there
+is an option to collect those to a separate file (which is only
+loaded when `notmuch` is invoked). To do this, write, for example
+a file called `~/.emacs.d/my-notmuch.el`:
+
+ ;; my-notmuch.el -- my notmuch mail configuration
+ ;;
+
+ ;; add here stuff required to be configured *before*
+ ;; notmuch is loaded;
+
+ ; uncomment and modify in case some elisp files are not found in load-path
+ ; (add-to-list 'load-path "~/vc/ext/notmuch/emacs")
+
+ ;; load notmuch
+ (require 'notmuch)
+
+ ;; add here stuff required to be configured *after*
+ ;; notmuch is loaded;
+
+ ;(setq user-mail-address (notmuch-user-primary-email)
+ ; user-full-name (notmuch-user-name))
+
+ ; uncomment & modify if you want to use external smtp server to send mail
+ ; (setq smtpmail-smtp-server "smtp.server.tld"
+ ; message-send-mail-function 'message-smtpmail-send-it)
+
+Then, adto `.emacs`:
+
+ (autoload 'notmuch "~/.emacs.d/my-notmuch" "notmuch mail" t)
+
+
## Add a key binding to add/remove/toggle a tag
The `notmuch-{search,show}-{add,remove}-tag` functions are very useful
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")))
+In notmuch versions up to 0.11.x
+
+ (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "S"
+ (lambda ()
+ "mark message as spam"
+ (interactive)
+ (notmuch-show-add-tag "spam")
+ (notmuch-show-remove-tag "inbox")))
+
+Starting from notmuch 0.12 (not released yet) the functions
+`notmuch-show-add-tag` and `notmuch-show-remove-tag` have changed to
+be more versatile and lost noninteractive use. When upgrading to 0.12
+the above needs to be changed to this:
+
+ (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "S"
+ (lambda ()
+ "mark message as spam"
+ (interactive)
+ (notmuch-show-tag-message "+spam" "-inbox")))
You can do the same for threads in `notmuch-search-mode` by just
replacing "show" with "search" in the called functions.
+(Starting from notmuch 0.12 use `notmuch-search-tag-thread` instead)
+
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)
+ (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)
+
+(See above for analogy how to apply this for notmuch 0.12 and later)
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"))))
+ (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"))))
+
+And version for notmuch 0.12 (not released yet)
+
+ (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "d"
+ (lambda ()
+ "toggle deleted tag for message"
+ (interactive)
+ (notmuch-show-tag-message
+ (if (member "deleted" (notmuch-show-get-tags))
+ "-deleted" "+deleted"))))
+
+## Restore reply-to-all key binding to 'r'
+
+Starting from notmuch 0.12 the 'r' key is bound to reply-to-sender instead of
+reply-to-all. Here's how to swap the reply to sender/all bindings in show mode:
+
+ (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "r" 'notmuch-show-reply)
+ (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "R" 'notmuch-show-reply-sender)
+
+And in search mode:
+
+ (define-key notmuch-search-mode-map "r" 'notmuch-search-reply-to-thread)
+ (define-key notmuch-search-mode-map "R" 'notmuch-search-reply-to-thread-sender)
+
## How to do FCC/BCC...
will be appended automatically). To customize both variables at the
same time, use the fancy command:
- M-x customize-apropos<RET>\(notmuch-fcc-dirs\)\|\(message-directory\)
+ M-x customize-apropos<RET>\(notmuch-fcc-dirs\)\|\(message-directory\)
This mechanism also allows you to select different folders to be
used for the outgoing mail depending on your selected `From`
An example setting might be:
- (setq notmuch-saved-searches '(("inbox" . "tag:inbox")
- ("unread" . "tag:inbox AND tag:unread")
- ("notmuch" . "tag:inbox AND to:notmuchmail.org")))
+ (setq notmuch-saved-searches '(("inbox" . "tag:inbox")
+ ("unread" . "tag:inbox AND tag:unread")
+ ("notmuch" . "tag:inbox AND to:notmuchmail.org")))
Of course, you can have any number of saved searches, each configured
with any supported search terms (see "notmuch help search-terms").
The first option is theorically better, because it can generate
strings formatted for emacs and do whatever you want, e.g., substitute
-text inside <b> tags for bold text in the buffer. The library, however
+text inside <b> tags for bold text in the buffer. The library, however
is still in a very early development phase and cannot yet process
properly many elements, like tables and <style> directives, and even
the generated text is often poorly formatted.
the html, and if you have the w3m emacs package, you can use it,
instead of the w3m-standalone, and thus preserve the text formatting.
-But if the rendering fails for one reason or another, (or is perhaps
-inadequate if you really need to see the graphical presentation of the
-HTML message), 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=`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
+But if the rendering fails for one reason or another, or if you really
+need to see the graphical presentation of the HTML message, 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=`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
## 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
+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.
+will just forward the email to an external SMTP server. It's fairly
+easy to set up and it supports several accounts 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
for the domains you want to send out using specific SMTP servers and
the rest will go to the default account.
+If you have a hard time getting the above to work for you, as I did,
+it's also possible to add a message-send-mail-hook in your .emacs to
+send the from header explicitly as an argument to msmtp as described
+[here](http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/GnusMSMTP#toc2) on the
+emacswiki.
+
+
## <span id="address_completion">Address completion when composing</span>
There are currently two solutions to this:
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
+candidates based on a search string. There are currently three
available:
* The python tool `notmuch_address.py` (`git clone
- http://jkr.acm.jhu.edu/git/notmuch_addresses.git`) (slower, but
+ http://commonmeasure.org/~jkr/git/notmuch_addresses.git`) (slower, but
no compilation required so good for testing the setup)
* The vala-based
`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
+ cc -o addrlookup addrlookup.c `pkg-config --cflags --libs gobject-2.0` -lnotmuch
+
+ * Shell/fgrep/perl combination [nottoomuch-addresses.sh](http://www.iki.fi/too/nottoomuch/nottoomuch-addresses/).
+ This tools maintains it's own address "database" gathered from email
+ files notmuch knows and search from that "database" is done by fgrep(1).
+
+You can perform tab-completion using any of these programs. Just add the following to your .emacs:
+
+ (require 'notmuch-address)
+ (setq notmuch-address-command "/path/to/address_fetching_program")
+ (notmuch-address-message-insinuate)
-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.
## How to sign/encrypt messages with gpg
p`. To sign outgoing mail by default, use the `message-setup-hook`
in your `.emacs` file:
- ;; Sign messages by default.
- (add-hook 'message-setup-hook 'mml-secure-sign-pgpmime)
+ ;; Sign messages by default.
+ (add-hook 'message-setup-hook 'mml-secure-sign-pgpmime)
This inserts the required `<#part sign=pgpmime>` into the beginning
of the mail text body and will be converted into a pgp signature
Alternatively, you may prefer to use `mml-secure-message-sign-pgpmime` instead
of `mml-secure-sign-pgpmime` to sign the whole message instead of just one
part.
+
+### Troubleshooting message-mode gpg support
+
+- If you have trouble with expired subkeys, you may have encountered
+ emacs bug #7931. This is fixed in git commit 301ea744c on
+ 2011-02-02. Note that if you have the Debian package easypg
+ installed, it will shadow the fixed version of easypg included with
+ emacs.
projects / notmuch-wiki / blobdiff