News for release 0.38.3

[notmuch-wiki] / howto.mdwn

diff --git a/howto.mdwn b/howto.mdwn
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--- a/howto.mdwn
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@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [[!img notmuch-logo.png alt="Notmuch logo" class="left"]]
 [[!img notmuch-logo.png alt="Notmuch logo" class="left"]]

-#How to...
+# How to...

 
 Some tips about how to do some useful things with notmuch, and the
 various "third party" notmuch utilities.
 
 Some tips about how to do some useful things with notmuch, and the
 various "third party" notmuch utilities.


@@ -8,13 +8,19 @@ various "third party" notmuch utilities.
 
 ## <span id="receive_mail">**Receive mail**</span>
 
 
 ## <span id="receive_mail">**Receive mail**</span>
 

-Notmuch requires either [maildir
-flag](http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html) or a "mh"-style
-maildirectory to operate on.  Basically any setup in which each mail
-is in a file of its own will work.  Here are some generally
-well-regarded mail retrieval tools:
+Notmuch does not fetch mail for you.  For that, you need to use an
+external mail syncing utility.  Some recommended utilities are listed
+below.

 
 

-* [offlineimap](https://github.com/nicolas33/offlineimap/) -
+Notmuch requires that every individual message be in its own file.
+The well-supported [maildir](http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html) or
+"mh"-style storage formats are compatible with notmuch.  Basically any
+setup in which each mail is in a file of its own will work.  The older
+mbox mail store formats is not supported, but fortunately it is very
+easy to [[convert mbox to maildir|howto/#mbox]] .  The following
+utilities support these formats:
+
+* [offlineimap](http://offlineimap.org/) -

   quite useful and widely tested, it also offers a handy hook that
   will come in useful a bit later in our setup.  Also supports
   "presynchook" and "postsynchook" command that will get run
   quite useful and widely tested, it also offers a handy hook that
   will come in useful a bit later in our setup.  Also supports
   "presynchook" and "postsynchook" command that will get run


@@ -26,106 +32,63 @@ well-regarded mail retrieval tools:
 
 * [getmail](http://pyropus.ca/software/getmail/)
 
 
 * [getmail](http://pyropus.ca/software/getmail/)
 

-* [fetchmail](http://fetchmail.berlios.de/)
+* [fetchmail](http://www.fetchmail.info/)

 
 

-See the [[initial_tagging]] page for more info on initial tagging of messages.
+* [muchsync](http://www.muchsync.org/) - replicate and synchronize
+  your notmuch database (mail and tags) across machines

 
 

-## <span id="python">**Use notmuch from python**</span>
+* [lieer](https://github.com/gauteh/lieer) - Fast email-fetching and two-way tag
+  synchronization between notmuch and GMail (Note that lieer was formerly known
+  as gmailieer.)
+
+* [mujmap](https://github.com/elizagamedev/mujmap/) - synchronize
+  notmuch mail with a JMAP server, i.e. synchronizing tags with keywords
+  and mailboxes. Analogous to lieer, but for [JMAP](https://jmap.io)
+  supporting mail hosts.
+
+See more exhaustive list of [[software]] notmuch works with and the
+[[initial_tagging]] page for more info on initial tagging of messages.
+
+
+## <span id="send_mail">**Send mail**</span>
+
+Notmuch does not send your mail. The frontends (MUAs) that utilize notmuch
+does that. Often these MUAs use sendmail(8) to send your mail.

 
 

-Notmuch includes python bindings to the notmuch shared
-library. Extensive API documentation [is
-available](http://notmuch.readthedocs.org/).
+If you prefer a simpler solution like msmtp, first
+[install and configure msmtp](http://msmtp.sourceforge.net/).

 
 

-The bindings are very simple to use.  As an example, given you have
-the python bindings installed (or simply set your PYTHONPATH
-environment variable to point to the .../bindings/python directory),
-this snippet will produce a list of mails matching the given
-expression:
+Then create a symbolic link so that msmtp will be called instead of sendmail
+when you press the keyboard shortcut to send your message.
+
+    $ sudo ln -s /usr/bin/msmtp /usr/sbin/sendmail

 
 

-        >>> import notmuch
-        >>> db = notmuch.Database()
-        >>> query = db.create_query('tag:inbox AND NOT tag:killed')
-        >>> list(query.search_messages()) # doctest:+ELLIPSIS
-        [...]

 
 ## <span id="sync_maildir_flags">**Sync notmuch tags and maildir flags**</span>
 
 
 ## <span id="sync_maildir_flags">**Sync notmuch tags and maildir flags**</span>
 

-notmuch **since version 0.5** syncs maildir flags and respective
-tags in both directions. This part applies only to notmuch prior to
-version 0.5 (but please consider updating to a more recent version
-of notmuch; in addition to maildir tag syncing, it contains many
-useful new features, and several important bug fixes):
-
-Some IMAP users rely on maildir flags that convey the status "seen",
-"replied", "trashed", in order to synchronize the status of their
-mail across mail clients (a [maildir
-flag](http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html) is simply a defined part
-of their filename).  Notmuch will by default happily ignore those
-flags and will never modify them either, as there is no built-in
-support for synchronizing your notmuch tags with your imap maildir
-flags (seen, replied, trashed, etc). However there are currently 2
-ways in which you can achieve synchronization.
-
-[notmuchsync](http://spaetz.github.com/notmuchsync/) is a utility
-(based on the cnotmuch python bindings) that allows synchronization
-in either direction, as well as pruning of deleted files.
-
-The second solution allows for fast maildir flag to notmuch tag
-synchronization (and only in that direction) requires patching the
-notmuch source code. The patch has been posted in this mail
-*id:1267450136-31749-1-git-send-email-Sebastian@SSpaeth.de* and can
-be viewed as a [source diff in this git
-repository](http://github.com/spaetz/notmuch-all-feature/commit/df3b087cefb85e9d16fd17540e348bcb854dd7ee).
+notmuch has the ability to synchronize maildir flags and respective tags in both
+directions. For more information on maildir flags see the [maildir
+page](http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html) and [[Special tags|special-tags]], and for the respective tags see your
+notmuch configuration file. This feature is enabled by default, but if you don't
+need it, it is simple to disable it with the 'notmuch config' command:

 
 

-## <span id="print_filenames">**Using notmuch with Mutt**</span>
+        $ notmuch config set maildir.synchronize_flags false
+
+The maildir flags may, in turn, be synchronized with IMAP flags by another tool,
+such as offlineimap.
+
+For safety reasons, and because
+[[notmuch does not support delete operations|deleting]], notmuch does
+not sync the "trashed" flag.  For discussion on this topic please
+refer to the mailing list.
+
+## <span id="python">**Use notmuch from python**</span>
+
+See the [[Notmuch Library Language Bindings|bindings]] page.

 
 

-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, each with its own ups and downs:
-
-* Using mutt-notmuch, which will create a "virtual" maildir folder with
-  search results whenever a search is made. The upside is that you can
-  search all your folders simultanously; the downside is that your
-  modifications in the results listing do not carry over, also having
-  to switch folders comes with some more annoyances.
-
-  An
-  [**how to use Notmuch with Mutt**](http://upsilon.cc/~zack/blog/posts/2011/01/how_to_use_Notmuch_with_Mutt/)
-  has been written by Stefano Zacchiroli. Check out the
-  [howto](http://upsilon.cc/~zack/blog/posts/2011/01/how_to_use_Notmuch_with_Mutt/)
-  for more information.
-
-  <small>(Note by the howto author: I've linked the howto from this wiki rather
-  than splicing it in, in order to avoid duplication of information. If you
-  think it would be better to have it here, feel free to copy the text
-  here. The howto is
-  [available](http://git.upsilon.cc/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=zack-homepage.git;a=history;f=blog/posts/2011/01/how_to_use_Notmuch_with_Mutt.mdwn)
-  in markdown syntax from the Git repository of my homepage.)</small>
-
-* Using a simple macro that will emulate the "limit" mutt functionality
-  using notmuch.
-
-  See the [**alternative notmuch integration**](http://log.or.cz/?p=228)
-  blog post for instructions and details,
-  or simply put these two macros to your muttrc:
-
-                         # 'L' performs a notmuch query, showing only the results
-                         macro index L "<enter-command>unset wait_key<enter><shell-escape>read -p 'notmuch query: ' x; echo \$x >~/.cache/mutt_terms<enter><limit>~i \"\`notmuch search --output=messages \$(cat ~/.cache/mutt_terms) | head -n 600 | perl -le '@a=<>;chomp@a;s/\^id:// for@a;$,=\"|\";print@a'\`\"<enter>" "show only messages matching a notmuch pattern"
-                         # 'a' shows all messages again (supersedes default <alias> binding)
-                         macro index a "<limit>all\n" "show all messages (undo limit)"
-
-  The upside (if you are used to working in the context of a single folder)
-  is that this really does use the limit functionality of mutt
-  and you are still in your original folder.
-  The downside is that this approach has scaling problems
-  and works well only for reasonably specific queries.
+## <span id="print_filenames">**Using notmuch with Mutt**</span>

 
 

+See [[notmuch-mutt]].

 
 ## <span id="reapply_auto">**Automatically retagging the database (e.g., when upgrading versions)**</span>
 
 
 ## <span id="reapply_auto">**Automatically retagging the database (e.g., when upgrading versions)**</span>
 


@@ -135,23 +98,23 @@ However, for users running with databases created in older versions of
 notmuch, these tags are missing in pre-existing messages and need to be
 added.  One way to do this is as follows:
 
 notmuch, these tags are missing in pre-existing messages and need to be
 added.  One way to do this is as follows:
 

-                         $ notmuch dump ~/out.nm
-                         $ mv ~/Mail/.notmuch ~/.notmuch.bak
-                         $ notmuch new
-                         $ notmuch tag -inbox -unread '*'
-                         $ notmuch restore --accumulate ~/out.nm
+        $ notmuch dump --output=$HOME/out.nm
+        $ mv ~/Mail/.notmuch ~/.notmuch.bak
+        $ notmuch new
+        $ notmuch tag -inbox -unread '*'
+        $ notmuch restore --accumulate --input=$HOME/out.nm

 
 At this point, one should run a sanity check on the tags, and if everything
 has merged correctly, the ~/.notmuch.bak directory is expendable, as is
 
 At this point, one should run a sanity check on the tags, and if everything
 has merged correctly, the ~/.notmuch.bak directory is expendable, as is

-~/out.nm.
+$HOME/out.nm.

 
 

-## <span id="nbox">**Dealing with mbox and other formats**</span>
+## <span id="mbox">**Dealing with mbox and other formats**</span>

 
 notmuch by itself is unable to handle non-maildir mail archives.  One tool
 to solve this is called mb2md.  Assuming an mbox in ~/test.mbox and ones
 mail archives to be in ~/Mail, an invocation would look like
 
 
 notmuch by itself is unable to handle non-maildir mail archives.  One tool
 to solve this is called mb2md.  Assuming an mbox in ~/test.mbox and ones
 mail archives to be in ~/Mail, an invocation would look like
 

-                         $ mb2md -s ~/test.mbox -d ~/Mail/mynewmaildirname
+        $ mb2md -s ~/test.mbox -d ~/Mail/mynewmaildirname

 
 Note that specifying the paths for -s and -d is necessary.  This will create
 a new maildir in ~/Mail/mynewmaildirname from the mbox at ~/test.mbox.
 
 Note that specifying the paths for -s and -d is necessary.  This will create
 a new maildir in ~/Mail/mynewmaildirname from the mbox at ~/test.mbox.


@@ -170,6 +133,52 @@ output.  Using the instructions from [Gmane's
 site](http://gmane.org/export.php), we can download an mbox file, which we
 can then convert to maildir using mb2md or other utility.
 
 site](http://gmane.org/export.php), we can download an mbox file, which we
 can then convert to maildir using mb2md or other utility.
 

+Please note that mail delivered by Postfix will have envelope headers
+that may cause notmuch to complain about "single-message mbox files".
+Removing the first line from the message or passing it through
+reformail will solve the problem.
+

 ## <span id="special_tags">**Take advantage of tags that are special to notmuch**</span>
 
 See [[tags special to notmuch|special-tags]].
 ## <span id="special_tags">**Take advantage of tags that are special to notmuch**</span>
 
 See [[tags special to notmuch|special-tags]].

+
+
+## <span id="special_tags">**Index all your gpg-encrypted email**</span>
+
+If you don't mind replacing your encrypted emails with cleartext versions and
+re-indexing them, there are some scripts that do that at
+[github](https://github.com/mmehnert/maildir-decrypt) . That would make sense
+in a scenario where you have encrypted your hard disk anyway and are
+comfortable with the security implications (and until notmuch can index
+encrypted email itself).
+
+## <span id="special_tags">**Index and search emails written in CJK scripts**</span>
+
+CJK (Chinese, Japanese and Korean) languages do not use spaces for word
+separation. The full-text indexer (Xapian) must first perform word segmentation
+on the sentence in its TermGenerator. Otherwise, large amount of long terms
+will be included in the database, leading to extremely slow indexing and
+ineffective searching with CJK search terms.
+
+Xapian supports [N-gram](https://xapian.org/docs/sourcedoc/html/classXapian_1_1TermGenerator.html)
+term generator [since 2011](https://u7fa9.org/memo/HEAD/archives/2012-06/2012-06-01.rst)
+to as a simple substitute for word segmentation. It can be turned on by
+setting the environment variable
+
+        $ export XAPIAN_CJK_NGRAM=1
+        $ notmuch new
+
+For existing databases, one can reindex the database (since notmuch 0.26)
+with
+
+        $ export XAPIAN_CJK_NGRAM=1
+        $ notmuch reindex '*'
+
+Xapian has an on-going [pull-request](https://github.com/xapian/xapian/pull/114)
+that adds support for real CJK word-segmentation based on the ICU library.
+When it gets merged, one probably will gets better indexing and searching
+results with this new method.
+
+## Translations
+
+- A translation of this page into [[Russian|howto-ru]]