From: Jani Nikula <jani@nikula.org>
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2016 12:43:49 +0000 (+0200)
Subject: getting-started: backup and restore
X-Git-Url: https://git.cworth.org/git?p=notmuch-wiki;a=commitdiff_plain;h=19816dd3cd51c70e7a86a685b5b60c2e9059867a

getting-started: backup and restore
---

diff --git a/getting-started.mdwn b/getting-started.mdwn
index eb83c4c..09f4993 100644
--- a/getting-started.mdwn
+++ b/getting-started.mdwn
@@ -95,7 +95,21 @@ simply run `notmuch new` to do both. If you always do some tagging after
 indexing of new messages, you may want to set up a `post-new` or `post-insert`
 hook to do that automatically.
 
-## Backing up and Restoring the Database
+## Backing Up and Restoring the Database
+
+The Notmuch database contains a search index of your messages, along with all
+the tags you've added to your messages. The search index can be regenerated by
+indexing the messages again, but the tags will be lost if the database is
+lost. (If you have `maildir.synchronize_flags` configuration option enabled,
+also some of the tags can be regenerated from maildir flags.)
+
+To create a plain-text dump of the tags, run
+
+        notmuch dump --output=dump.txt
+
+To restore the tags from the dump, run
+
+        notmuch restore --input=dump.txt
 
 ## Removing Notmuch
 
@@ -103,6 +117,5 @@ Did not like it after all? All you need to do is remove the database and the
 configuration file. The database is stored in the `.notmuch` directory under
 your mail store. And your mail store is at `notmuch config get database.path`.
 
-Note that the database is where the tags are stored. Everything else can be
-regenerated by indexing again, but the tags will be lost when the database is
-removed. Use the `notmuch dump` command to create a backup of the tags.
+You may want to use the `notmuch dump` command to create a backup of any tags
+you've added before removing the database.