+<!-- -*- mode: text; indent-tabs-mode: nil -*- -->
+
[[!img notmuch-logo.png alt="Notmuch logo" class="left"]]
#Tips and Tricks for using notmuch with Emacs
-The main client based on notmuch is notmuch.el, which is included in the notmuch package. It is might, and allows you to configure a lot of things, however, it might not be immediately obvious how, and how the general workflow generally looks like. This [first section](#typical_workflow) will describe a typical workflow and setup, while the section [Advanced tips and tweaks](#advanced_tips) below, focuses on more specific questions.
+[[!toc levels=2]]
+
+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)
+
+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.
+
+## 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 mode, you can type `C-c ?` for help.
+
+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
+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 (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
+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<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
+drag and drop files from a file manager into a mail composition window
+to have them attached. In Ubuntu this works without any modifications
+if files are dragged from the file manager.
+
+And for those who prefer working from command line, the following
+script opens new emacs window with empty message and attaches files
+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)"
+
+
+-----
+
+# Advanced tips and tweaks
+
+## Use separate emacs lisp file for notmuch configuration
-<h2 id="typical_workflow">Typical setup and workflow</h2>
+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`:
-### Set up & receiving mails
+ ;; my-notmuch.el -- my notmuch mail configuration
+ ;;
+
+ ;; add here stuff required to be configured *before*
+ ;; notmuch is loaded;
-Notmuch requires either a MailDir or a "mh"-style maildirectory to operate on. (It basically requires any setup in which each mail is in a file of it's own.) Most people use "[offlineimap](http://software.complete.org/software/projects/show/offlineimap)" or "[mbsync](http://isync.sourceforge.net/)" in order to synchronize their IMAP or pop mail server with a local mail store. offlineimap is quite useful and widely tested, it also offers a handy hook that will come in useful a bit later in our setup.
+ ; uncomment and modify in case some elisp files are not found in load-path
+ ; (add-to-list 'load-path "~/vc/ext/notmuch/emacs")
-So go install and configure offlineimap so you can simply run offlineimap and have an updated maildir. In the [Account xxx] section of your .offineimaprc file your can specify a "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 tagging and updating of your notmuch database.
+ ;; load notmuch
+ (require 'notmuch)
-The script will look somewhat like this:
+ ;; add here stuff required to be configured *after*
+ ;; notmuch is loaded;
-> #/bin/sh
-> # incorporate all new mails in the database
-> notmuch new > /dev/null
-> #apply some automatic tags
-> notmuch tag +notmuch from:notmuch@notmuchmail.org and not tag:notmuch
-> ...more tag rules...
+ ;(setq user-mail-address (notmuch-user-primary-email)
+ ; user-full-name (notmuch-user-name))
-If you don't need automatic tagging, just use "notmuch new > /dev/null" as your synchook. One advanced setup with automatic tagging has been described by James Vasile here (id: _87hbp5j9dv.fsf@hackervisions.org_). Carl Worth has described his script in this mail (id: _87r5o8stbj.fsf@yoom.home.cworth.org_) in the same thread. If you are confused by those ids, read more on message ids below.
+ ; 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`:
-> __A note on message ids__: Confused by those message ids? Get used to it because they are an importance part of the notmuch workflow. Every send message has a unique message id, just like a website has a unique url. On the notmuch mailing list people will throw around message ids and expect people to just find the right mails, as this is what notmuch makes easy. In order to find a specific message, hit 's' for search and type: "id:messageidhere". If you incorporated the notmuch mail archive, you can e.g. try to find id:87r5o8stbj.fsf@yoom.home.cworth.org. Don't have the notmuch archive back to Feb 25, 2010? Fortunately gmane (and probably others allow to search for message id in their archives as well. You'll find this message under [http://mid.gmane.org/87r5o8stbj.fsf@yoom.home.cworth.org](http://mid.gmane.org/87r5o8stbj.fsf@yoom.home.cworth.org) (incidentally, this server seems to be down right now).
+ (autoload 'notmuch "~/.emacs.d/my-notmuch" "notmuch mail" t)
-### Synchronizing notmuch tags with maildir flags
-IMAP users rely on their maildir flags that convey the status "seen", "replied", "trashed", and so on in order to synchronize the status of their mail across mail clients. notmuch will by default happily ignore those flags and will never modify them either. If you want to use your mail with non-notmuch clients too, please check out the entry on "[how to sync notmuch tags and maildir flags](#sync_maildir_flags)".
-### Navigating & reading mails
-OK, messages are now in your maildir and they have the tags you want them to have (of course you will be assigning more tags manually as you parse through your mail.). Now, on to actually using notmuch in emacs. If you added the correct bits to your .emacs file you will be able to start notmuch by typing "M-x notmuch" (or M-x notmuch-folder). If you want to start notmuch immediately when starting emacs you can also call emacs as "emacs -f notmuch" (and create a handy shortcut on your desktop for that).
+## Add a key binding to add/remove/toggle a tag
-notmuch (the search view) and notmuch-folder are the 2 main views that can be used to navigate through your mail.
-__[TODO: to be continued...]__
-See information on how to customize your notmuch-folder view [here](#customize_notmuch_folder).
+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:
-###Sending mail
-Notmuch itself does not provide any facilities for sending mail. Fortunately, emacs comes with "message mode" which offers that functionality. This also means that there are various methods to invoke the mail sending command. One possibility is to use "CTRL-x m" which will invoke a new "message mail" window. The second possibility is to type 'm' when you are in a notmuch window. And finally, when looking at a message or thread in notmuch you can type 'r' to start a reply.
+In notmuch versions up to 0.11.x
-If you want to use mail address autocompletion, check out [bbdb](http://bbdb.sourceforge.net) which works nicely together with message mode.
+ (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "S"
+ (lambda ()
+ "mark message as spam"
+ (interactive)
+ (notmuch-show-add-tag "spam")
+ (notmuch-show-remove-tag "inbox")))
-Type your message and send it off with ctrl-c ctrl-c. By default message mode will use your /usr/sbin/sendmail command to send a 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.
+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:
-Currently, there is a slight problem with copying the sent mail into your "outbox". While conventional MUAs will automatically copy your sent mail to a "Sent" folder, notmuch will never touch your mail store and your sent mails will not be searchable by default. When replying with 'r' notmuch will insert a BCC header to yourself, but when sending a mail with 'm' or 'ctrl-x m', it will not (and can not as ctrl-x m does not involve notmuch at all). Please see the specific advice on "[how to do FCC/BCC](fcc)" for more details on how to set up notmuch to obey your preferences.
+ (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "S"
+ (lambda ()
+ "mark message as spam"
+ (interactive)
+ (notmuch-show-tag-message "+spam" "-inbox")))
-<h2 id="advanced_tips">Advanced tips and tweaks</h2>
-* <span id="fcc">How to do FCC/BCC...</span>
+You can do the same for threads in `notmuch-search-mode` by just
+replacing "show" with "search" in the called functions.
- 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.
+(Starting from notmuch 0.12 use `notmuch-search-tag-thread` instead)
- But this doesn't do anything for messages that you compose that are
- not replies. So we need to get sane message-mode FCC figured
- out. Some investigation is still needed here.
+The definition above makes use of a lambda function, but you could
+also define a separate function first:
-* * <span id="customize_notmuch_folder">How to customize notmuch-folders</span>
+ (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)
- 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:
+(See above for analogy how to apply this for notmuch 0.12 and later)
- (setq notmuch-folders '(("inbox" . "tag:inbox")
- ("unread" . "tag:inbox AND tag:unread")
- ("notmuch" . "tag:inbox AND to:notmuchmail.org")))
+Here's a more complicated example of how to add a toggle "deleted"
+key:
- Of course, you can have any number of folders, each configured
- with any supported search terms (see "notmuch help search-terms").
+ (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"))))
-* Viewing HTML messages with an external viewer
+And version for notmuch 0.12 (not released yet)
- 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).
+ (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)
- 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:
+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...
+
+The Emacs interface to notmuch will automatically add an `Fcc`
+header to your outgoing mail so that any messages you send will also
+be saved in your mail store. You can control where this copy of the
+message is saved 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 mechanism also allows you to select different folders to be
+used for the outgoing mail depending on your selected `From`
+address. Please see the documentation for the variable
+`notmuch-fcc-dirs` in the customization window for how to arrange
+this.
+
+## How to customize `notmuch-saved-searches`
+
+When starting notmuch, a list of saved searches and message counts is
+displayed, replacing the older `notmuch-folders` command. The set of
+saved searches displayed can be modified directly from the notmuch
+interface (using the `[save]` button next to a previous search) or by
+customising the variable `notmuch-saved-searches`.
+
+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")))
+
+Of course, you can have any number of saved searches, each configured
+with any supported search terms (see "notmuch help search-terms").
+
+Some users find it useful to add `and not tag:delete` to those
+searches, as they use the `delete` tag to mark messages as
+deleted. This causes messages that are marked as deleted to be removed
+from the commonly used views of messages. Use whatever seems most
+useful to you.
+
+## Viewing HTML messages with an external viewer
+
+The emacs client can display an HTML message inline using either the
+`html2text` library or some text browser, like w3m or lynx. This is
+controlled by the `mm-text-html-renderer` variable.
+
+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
+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.
+
+Among the available browsers, w3m seems to do a better job converting
+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 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
+necessary. Then within the emacs client, press '|' to pipe the
+current message, then type "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
+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 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
+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.
+
+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:
+
+[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 three
+available:
+
+ * The python tool `notmuch_address.py` (`git clone
+ http://commonmeasure.org/~jkr/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
+
+ * 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)
+
+
+## How to sign/encrypt messages with gpg
+
+Messages can by signed using gpg by invoking `M-x
+mml-secure-sign-pgpmime` (or `M-x
+mml-secure-encrypt-pgpmime`). These functions are available via the
+standard `message-mode` keybindings `C-c C-m s p` and `C-c C-m c
+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)
- 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".
+This inserts the required `<#part sign=pgpmime>` into the beginning
+of the mail text body and will be converted into a pgp signature
+when sending (so one can just manually delete that line if signing
+is not required).
- 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."
+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.
-* <span id="sync_maildir_flags">how to sync notmuch tags and maildir flags]</span>
+### Troubleshooting message-mode gpg support
- __[TODO: This is a wiki. write me!]__
- [mention patches that exist to honor maildir tags and notmuchsync.]
\ No newline at end of file
+- 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