+[[!img notmuch-logo.png alt="Notmuch logo" class="left"]]
# Tips and Tricks for using notmuch with Emacs
One of the more popular notmuch message reading clients is
To use the Notmuch emacs mode, first add the following line to your
`.emacs` rc file:
- (require 'notmuch)
+ (autoload 'notmuch "notmuch" "notmuch mail" t)
-or you can load the package via autoload:
+or if you always want to load notmuch when you start emacs:
- (autoload 'notmuch "notmuch" "notmuch mail" t)
+ (require 'notmuch)
Then, either run "emacs -f notmuch", or execute the command `M-x
notmuch` from within a running emacs.
+### <span id="notmuch_init_file"> Notmuch Emacs configuration file: </span>
+
+(Since Notmuch 0.18)
+
+After notmuch is loaded `notmuch-init-file` (typically
+ `~/.emacs.d/notmuch-config.el`) is checked out. If such file exists
+it is loaded. Most emacs lisp based configuration not suitable via
+customization can be put there instead of `~/.emacs`.
+
## Navigating & reading mails
When first starting notmuch in emacs, you will be presented with the
notmuch "hello" page. If it exits with an error after writing
"Welcome to notmutch. You have" you need to do the basic notmuch setup
-first (see above).
+first (see above).
From here you can do searches, see lists of recent
searches, saved searches, message tags, help information, etc.
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.
+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
#!/bin/sh
attach_cmds=""
- while [ "$1" ]; do
+ while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
fullpath=$(readlink --canonicalize "$1")
attach_cmds="$attach_cmds (mml-attach-file \"$fullpath\")"
shift
done
emacsclient -a '' -c -e "(progn (compose-mail) $attach_cmds)"
+## Controlling external handlers for attachements
+
+You can choose e.g. which pdf viewer to invoke from notmuch-show mode by
+adding a .mailcap file in your home directory. Here is an example:
+
+ application/pdf; /usr/bin/mupdf %s; test=test "$DISPLAY" != ""; description=Portable Document Format; nametemplate=%s.pdf
+ application/x-pdf; /usr/bin/mupdf %s; test=test "$DISPLAY" != ""; description=Portable Document Format; nametemplate=%s.pdf
+
## Issues with Emacs 24
If notmuch-show-mode behaves badly for you in emacs 24.x try adding one of
- (setq gnus-inhibit-images nil)
+ (setq gnus-inhibit-images nil)
or
- (require 'gnus-art)
+ (require 'gnus-art)
to your .emacs file.
# Advanced tips and tweaks
-## Use separate emacs lisp file for notmuch configuration
+## Overwriting the sender address
-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`:
+If you want to always use the same sender address, then the following
+defadvice can help you.
- ;;; my-notmuch.el -- my notmuch mail configuration
- ;;;
-
- ;;; add here stuff required to be configured *before*
- ;;; notmuch is loaded;
+ (defadvice notmuch-mua-reply (around notmuch-fix-sender)
+ (let ((sender "Max Monster <max.monster@example.com>"))
+ ad-do-it))
+ (ad-activate 'notmuch-mua-reply)
- ;; uncomment and modify in case some elisp files are not found in load-path
- ;; (add-to-list 'load-path "~/vc/ext/notmuch/emacs")
+## Initial cursor position in notmuch 0.15 hello window
- ;;; load notmuch
- (require 'notmuch)
-
- ;;; add here stuff required to be configured *after*
- ;;; notmuch is loaded;
+In notmuch version 0.15 emacs client the handling of cursor position in
+notmuch hello window has been simplified to a version which suits best
+most cases.
- ;; 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)
- ;; uncomment to debug smtp sending problems
- ;; (setq smtpmail-debug-info t)
+Initially the cursor is positioned at the beginning of buffer.
-Then, add to `.emacs`:
+Some users liked the "ancient" version where cursor was moved to the
+first `Saved searches` button.
- (autoload 'notmuch "~/.emacs.d/my-notmuch" "notmuch mail" t)
+Add the following code to your notmuch emacs configuration file in
+case you want this behaviour:
+ (add-hook 'notmuch-hello-refresh-hook
+ (lambda ()
+ (if (and (eq (point) (point-min))
+ (search-forward "Saved searches:" nil t))
+ (progn
+ (forward-line)
+ (widget-forward 1))
+ (if (eq (widget-type (widget-at)) 'editable-field)
+ (beginning-of-line)))))
## Add a key binding to add/remove/toggle a tag
-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:
-
-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")))
+The `notmuch-{search,show,tree}-tag` functions are very useful for
+making quick tag key bindings. The arguments to these functions have
+changed as notmuch has evolved but the following should work on all
+versions of notmuch from 0.13 on. These functions take a list of
+tag changes as argument. For example, an argument of (list "+spam"
+"-inbox") adds the tag spam and deletes the tag inbox. Note the
+argument must be a list even if there is only a single tag change
+e.g., use (list "+deleted") to add the deleted tag.
-Starting from notmuch 0.12 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:
+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-tag-message "+spam" "-inbox")))
+ (notmuch-show-tag (list "+spam" "-inbox"))))
You can do the same for threads in `notmuch-search-mode` by just
-replacing "show" with "search" in the called functions.
+replacing "show" with "search" in the keymap and called functions, or
+for messages in `notmuch-tree-mode` by replacing "show" by "tree". If
+you want to tag a whole thread in `notmuch-tree-mode` use
+`notmuch-tree-tag-thread` instead of `notmuch-tree-tag`.
-Starting from notmuch 0.12 use `notmuch-search-tag-thread` instead:
+You may also want the function in search mode apply to the all threads
+in the selected region (if there is one). For notmuch prior to 0.17
+this behaviour will occur automatically with the functions given
+above. To get this behaviour on 0.17+ do the following:
(define-key notmuch-search-mode-map "S"
- (lambda ()
- "mark messages in thread as spam"
- (interactive)
- (notmuch-show-tag-thread "+spam" "-inbox")))
+ (lambda (&optional beg end)
+ "mark thread as spam"
+ (interactive (notmuch-search-interactive-region))
+ (notmuch-search-tag (list "+spam" "-inbox") beg end)))
-Starting from notmuch 0.13 use `notmuch-search-tag` -- it has a little
-different usage syntax:
+The analogous functionality in notmuch-tree is currently missing.
- (define-key notmuch-search-mode-map "S"
- (lambda ()
- "mark messages in thread as spam"
- (interactive)
- (notmuch-search-tag '("+spam" "-inbox"))))
-
-The definition above makes use of a lambda function, but you could
+The definitions above make 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)
+ (notmuch-show-add-tag (list "+spam" "-inbox")))
-(See above for analogy how to apply this for notmuch 0.12 and later)
+ (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:
"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
-
- (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"))))
+ (notmuch-show-tag (list "-deleted"))
+ (notmuch-show-tag (list "+deleted")))))
## Adding many tagging keybindings
interface (using the `[save]` button next to a previous search) or by
customising the variable `notmuch-saved-searches`.
-An example setting might be:
+An example setting for notmuch versions up to 0.17.x might be:
(setq notmuch-saved-searches '(("inbox" . "tag:inbox")
("unread" . "tag:inbox AND tag:unread")
("notmuch" . "tag:inbox AND to:notmuchmail.org")))
+Starting from notmuch 0.18 the variable changed. It is backwards
+compatible so the above will still work but the new style will be used
+if you use customize and there are some new features available. The above would become
+
+ (setq notmuch-saved-searches '((:name "inbox" :query "tag:inbox")
+ (:name "unread" :query "tag:inbox AND tag:unread")
+ (:name "notmuch" :query "tag:inbox AND to:notmuchmail.org")))
+
+The additional features are the possibility to set the search order
+for the search, and the possibility to specify a different query for
+displaying the count for the saved-search. For example
+
+ (setq notmuch-saved-searches '((:name "inbox"
+ :query "tag:inbox"
+ :count-query "tag:inbox and tag:unread"
+ :sort-order 'oldest-first)))
+
+specifies a single saved search for inbox, but the number displayed by
+the search will be the number of unread messages in the inbox, and the
+sort order for this search will be oldest-first.
+
Of course, you can have any number of saved searches, each configured
-with any supported search terms (see "notmuch help search-terms").
+with any supported search terms (see "notmuch help search-terms"), and
+in the new style variable they can each have different count-queries
+and sort orders.
Some users find it useful to add `and not tag:delete` to those
searches, as they use the `delete` tag to mark messages as
## 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.
+The Emacs client can generally display HTML messages inline using one of the
+supported HTML renderers. This is controlled by the `mm-text-html-renderer`
+variable.
-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".
-
-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."
+Sometimes it may be necessary to display the message, or a single MIME part, in
+an external browser. This can be done by `(notmuch-show-view-part)`, bound to
+`. v` by default.
## msmtp, message mode and multiple accounts
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 three 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 three
+candidates based on a search string. There are currently four
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 C-based [notmuch-addrlookup](https://github.com/aperezdc/notmuch-addrlookup-c) by [Adrian Perez](http://perezdecastro.org/), which is faster but needs to be compiled.
+
+ git clone https://github.com/aperezdc/notmuch-addrlookup-c
+ cd notmuch-addrlookup-c
+ make
+
* The vala-based
- [addrlookup](http://github.com/spaetz/vala-notmuch) (faster, but
- needs compiling). The addrlookup binary needs to be compiled.
+ [addrlookup](http://github.com/spaetz/vala-notmuch) 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/).
+ * Shell/fgrep/perl combination [nottoomuch-addresses.sh](https://github.com/domo141/nottoomuch/blob/master/nottoomuch-addresses.rst).
This tools maintains it's own address "database" gathered from email
files notmuch knows and search from that "database" is done by `fgrep(1)`.
+ * python/sqlite combination [notmuch-abook](https://github.com/guyzmo/notmuch-abook/)
+ This tools also maintains an address database in sqlite after harvesting
+ from notmuch. It also includes a vim plugin.
+
You can perform tab-completion using any of these programs.
-Just add the following to your .emacs:
+Just add the following to your [notmuch init file](#notmuch_init_file):
(require 'notmuch-address)
(setq notmuch-address-command "/path/to/address_fetching_program")
You can add the sender of a message to Google Contacts by piping the message
(`notmuch-show-pipe-message`) to `goobook add`.
+### Akonadi
+
+ git clone https://github.com/mmehnert/akonadimailsearch
+
+Install the development packages for kdepim on your system.
+Enter the cloned repository and create a build directory:
+
+ mkdir build
+ cd build
+ cmake ..; make;
+
+You will find the akonadimailsearch binary in the build/src directory. Copy it to ~/bin .
+
+You can now add the following settings to your
+[notmuch init file](#notmuch_init_file):
+
+ (require 'notmuch-address)
+ (setq notmuch-address-command "~/bin/akonadimailsearch")
+ (notmuch-address-message-insinuate)
+
+### Completion selection with helm
+
+An address query might return multiple possible matches from which you
+will have to select one. To ease this task, several different
+frameworks in emacs support completion selection. One of them is
+[helm](https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm). The following snippet
+improves the out-of-the-box support for helm in notmuch as it enables
+the required-match option and also does not ignore the first returned
+address.
+
+ (setq notmuch-address-selection-function
+ (lambda (prompt collection initial-input)
+ (completing-read prompt (cons initial-input collection) nil t nil 'notmuch-address-history)))
+
+
## How to sign/encrypt messages with gpg
-Messages can by signed using gpg by invoking
+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
+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:
installed, it will shadow the fixed version of easypg included with
emacs.
+## Reading and verifying encrypted and signed messages
+
+Encrypted and signed mime messages can be read and verified with:
+
+ (notmuch-crypto-process-mime t)
+
+Decrypting or verifying inline pgp messages can be done by selecting
+an the inline pgp area and and using:
+
+ M-x epa-decrypt-region RET
+
## Multiple identities using gnus-alias
[gnus-alias](http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/GnusAlias) allows you to
Looking into `gnus-alias.el` gives a bit more information...
-### Example Configuration
+### Example Configuration
Here is an example configuration.
;; Use "home" identity by default
(setq gnus-alias-default-identity "home")
;; Define rules to match work identity
- (setq gnus-alias-identity-rules
+ (setq gnus-alias-identity-rules)
'(("work" ("any" "john.doe@\\(example\\.com\\|help\\.example.com\\)" both) "work"))
;; Determine identity when message-mode loads
(add-hook 'message-setup-hook 'gnus-alias-determine-identity)
M-x describe-variable RET gnus-alias-default-identity
M-x customize-group RET gnus-alias RET
- or
+ or
M-x gnus-alias-customize RET
The last two do the same thing.
## Resending (or bouncing) messages
-Add the following to your `.emacs` to be able to resend the current message in
-show mode.
+Add the following to your [notmuch init file](#notmuch_init_file) to be able
+to resend the current message in show mode.
(define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "b"
(lambda (&optional address)
## `notmuch-hello` refresh status message
-Add the following to your `.emacs` to get a status message about the change in
-the number of messages in the mail store when refreshing the `notmuch-hello`
-buffer.
+Add the following to your [notmuch init file](#notmuch_init_file) to get a
+status message about the change in the number of messages in the mail store
+when refreshing the `notmuch-hello` buffer.
(defvar notmuch-hello-refresh-count 0)
Mailman mailing list software rewrites and rewraps long message subjects in
a way that causes TABs to appear in the middle of the subject and header
-lines. Add this to your `.emacs` to replace tabs with spaces in subject
-lines:
+lines. Add this to your [notmuch init file](#notmuch_init_file) to replace
+tabs with spaces in subject lines:
- (defun notmuch-show-subject-tabs-to-spaces ()
- "Replace tabs with spaces in subject line."
- (goto-char (point-min))
- (when (re-search-forward "^Subject:" nil t)
- (while (re-search-forward "\t" (line-end-position) t)
- (replace-match " " nil nil))))
+ (defun notmuch-show-subject-tabs-to-spaces ()
+ "Replace tabs with spaces in subject line."
+ (goto-char (point-min))
+ (when (re-search-forward "^Subject:" nil t)
+ (while (re-search-forward "\t" (line-end-position) t)
+ (replace-match " " nil nil))))
- (add-hook 'notmuch-show-markup-headers-hook 'notmuch-show-subject-tabs-to-spaces)
+ (add-hook 'notmuch-show-markup-headers-hook 'notmuch-show-subject-tabs-to-spaces)
And in header lines (this will only work with the yet to be released
notmuch version 0.15):
- (defun notmuch-show-header-tabs-to-spaces ()
- "Replace tabs with spaces in header line."
- (setq header-line-format
- (notmuch-show-strip-re
- (replace-regexp-in-string "\t" " " (notmuch-show-get-subject)))))
+ (defun notmuch-show-header-tabs-to-spaces ()
+ "Replace tabs with spaces in header line."
+ (setq header-line-format
+ (notmuch-show-strip-re
+ (replace-regexp-in-string "\t" " " (notmuch-show-get-subject)))))
- (add-hook 'notmuch-show-hook 'notmuch-show-header-tabs-to-spaces)
+ (add-hook 'notmuch-show-hook 'notmuch-show-header-tabs-to-spaces)
## Hiding unread messages in notmuch-show
(when overlay
(overlay-put overlay 'face '((:inherit bold) (:foreground "green")))))))))))
(add-hook 'notmuch-hello-refresh-hook 'color-inbox-if-unread)
-
+
## Linking to notmuch messages and threads from the Circe IRC client
[Circe](https://github.com/jorgenschaefer/circe/wiki) is an IRC client for emacs.
-To have clickable buttons for notmuch messages and threads, add the following to
+To have clickable buttons for notmuch messages and threads, add the following to
`lui-buttons-list` (using, e.g. M-x customize-variable)
("\\(?:id\\|mid\\|thread\\):[0-9A-Za-z][0-9A-Za-z.@-]*" 0 notmuch-show 0)
-
+
If you have notmuch-pick installed, it works fine for this as well.
+
+## Linking to notmuch messages from org-mode
+
+Support for linking to notmuch messages is distributed with org-mode,
+but as a contrib file, so you might have to work a bit to load it.
+
+In Debian and derivatives,
+
+ (add-to-list 'load-path "/usr/share/org-mode/lisp")
+
+Then
+
+ (require 'org-notmuch)
+
+In general it is nice to have a key for org-links (not just for notmuch). For example
+
+ (define-key global-map "\C-cl" 'org-store-link)
+
+## Viewing diffs in notmuch
+
+The following code allows you to view an inline patch in diff-mode
+directly from notmuch. This means that normal diff-mode commands like
+refine, next hunk etc all work.
+
+ (defun my-notmuch-show-view-as-patch ()
+ "View the the current message as a patch."
+ (interactive)
+ (let* ((id (notmuch-show-get-message-id))
+ (subject (concat "Subject: " (notmuch-show-get-subject) "\n"))
+ (diff-default-read-only t)
+ (buf (get-buffer-create (concat "*notmuch-patch-" id "*")))
+ (map (make-sparse-keymap)))
+ (define-key map "q" 'notmuch-kill-this-buffer)
+ (switch-to-buffer buf)
+ (let ((inhibit-read-only t))
+ (erase-buffer)
+ (insert subject)
+ (insert (notmuch-get-bodypart-internal id 1 nil)))
+ (set-buffer-modified-p nil)
+ (diff-mode)
+ (lexical-let ((new-ro-bind (cons 'buffer-read-only map)))
+ (add-to-list 'minor-mode-overriding-map-alist new-ro-bind))
+ (goto-char (point-min))))
+
+and then this function needs to bound into the keymap with something like
+
+ (define-key 'notmuch-show-mode-map "D" 'my-notmuch-show-view-as-patch)
projects / notmuch-wiki / blobdiff