-[[!img notmuch-logo.png alt="Notmuch logo" class="left"]]
-#Tips and Tricks for using notmuch with Emacs
+# Tips and Tricks for using notmuch with Emacs
-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.
+One of the more popular notmuch message reading clients is
+**notmuch.el**, an [emacs](http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/) major
+mode for interacting with notmuch. It is included in the notmuch
+package (notmuch-emacs in Debian). This page goes over some usage
+tips for using notmuch with Emacs.
+
+[[!toc levels=2]]
## Setup
+Have a look at the [Howto](http://notmuchmail.org/howto/) for
+prerequisites. Be sure you have done the general setup using the
+notmuch cli command!
+
To use the Notmuch emacs mode, first add the following line to your
-.emacs rc file:
+`.emacs` rc file:
+
+ (require 'notmuch)
- (require 'notmuch)
+or you can load the package via autoload:
-Then, either run "emacs -f notmuch", or execute the command "M-x
-notmuch" from within a running emacs.
+ (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.
+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).
+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
+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.
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
+open a new buffer in `notmuch-show-mode`, which will show the actual
message contents of the thread.
## Sending mail
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 move, you can type "C-c ?" for help.
+`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, see the [address
-completion howto](#address_completion)" below.
+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
-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
-inline/attachement) if you want to do that.
-
-For those who prefer graphics, you can also simply drag and drop files
-from a file manager into a mail composition window to have it attached
-(assuming you are using emacs with X support). At least in Ubuntu it
-works by dragging from the file manager without any modifications.
+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)"
+
+## 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)
+
+or
+
+ (require 'gnus-art)
+
+to your .emacs file.
-----
-<h2 id="advanced_tips">Advanced tips and tweaks</h2>
-
-* <span id="custom_keybinding">**Add a keybinding to add/remove/toggle a tag.**</span>
-
- Here's an example of how to add a key binding to notmuch-show-mode
- to toggle a "deleted" tag:
-
- (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"))))
-
- You can do the same for threads in notmuch-search-mode by just
- replacing "show" with "search" in the called functions. This
- definition makes use of a lambda function, but you could just as
- easily defined a separate function first:
-
- (defun notmuch-show-toggle-deleted-tag()
- "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" 'notmuch-show-toggle-deleted-tag)
-
-* <span id="fcc">**How to do FCC/BCC...**</span>
-
- 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. But this doesn't do anything for
- messages that you compose that are not replies.
-
- Another method is to save the file in a folder of your local
- Maildir, usually called FCC (file carbon copy). You can achieve this
- 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 method will even allow you to select different outboxes
- depending on your selected from address, if you need that
- functionality. Please see the documentation on the variable in the
- customization window for how to do so.
-
-* <span id="customize_notmuch_folder">**How to customize notmuch-folders**</span>
-
- 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:
-
- (setq notmuch-folders '(("inbox" . "tag:inbox")
- ("unread" . "tag:inbox AND tag:unread")
- ("notmuch" . "tag:inbox AND to:notmuchmail.org")))
-
- Of course, you can have any number of folders, each configured
- with any supported search terms (see "notmuch help search-terms").
-
- Personally, I find it fairly useful to add "not tag:delete" to those
- views as I use that tag to mark messages as deleted and it
- automatically removes them from my standard views. Use whatever
- seems most useful to you.
-
-* **Viewing HTML messages with an external viewer**
-
- 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).
-
- 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:
-
- #!/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
-
- 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."
-
-* **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 support several account 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.
-
-* <span id="address_completion">**how to get email address completion**</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 two available:
-
- * The python tool notmuch_address.py ('git clone http://jkr.acm.jhu.edu/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). This is how you compile the (3rd party) tool
- "addrlookup" to give you address completion:
-
- - you need the addrlookup binary, first of all. 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`. That should give you
- the binary that you can test already.
-
- - EUDC is integrated into emacs and can be used for tab completion
- of email addresses. The code I use is here
- http://gist.github.com/359425. It was announce in [this
- mail](http://mid.gmane.org/87fx3uflkx.fsf@jhu.edu)
- (id:87fx3uflkx.fsf@jhu.edu) which contains links to the git
- repositories which contain the files.
-
-* <span id="sign_messages_gpg">**how to sign/encrypt my messages with
- gpg**</span>
-
- You can manually sign your messages with gpg by invoking `M-x
- mml-secure-sign-pgpmime` (or `M-x
- mml-secure-encrypt-pgpmime`). These functions are available via the
- convenient (*cough cough*) keybindings `C-c C-m s p` and `C-c C-m c
- p` by default. To sign my outgoing mail by default, I use this hook
- in my .emacs file:
-
- ;;sign messages by default
- (add-hook 'message-setup-hook 'mml-secure-sign-pgpmime)
-
- This inserts the blurb `<#part sign=pgpmime>` into the beginning of
- my mail text body and will be converted into a pgp signature when
- sending (so I can just manually delete that line if I do not want a
- mail to be signed).
+# 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;
+
+ ;; 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)
+
+Then, add to `.emacs`:
+
+ (autoload 'notmuch "~/.emacs.d/my-notmuch" "notmuch mail" t)
+
+## Initial cursor position in notmuch 0.15 hello window
+
+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.
+
+Initially the cursor is positioned at the beginning of buffer.
+
+Some users liked the "ancient" version where cursor was moved to the
+first `Saved searches` button.
+
+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")))
+
+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:
+
+ (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:
+
+ (define-key notmuch-search-mode-map "S"
+ (lambda ()
+ "mark messages in thread as spam"
+ (interactive)
+ (notmuch-show-tag-thread "+spam" "-inbox")))
+
+Starting from notmuch 0.13 use `notmuch-search-tag` -- it has a little
+different usage syntax:
+
+ (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
+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)
+
+(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"))))
+
+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"))))
+
+## Adding many tagging keybindings
+
+If you want to have have many tagging keybindings, you can save the typing
+the few lines of boilerplate for every binding (for versions before 0.12,
+you will need to change notmuch-show-apply-tag-macro).
+
+ (eval-after-load 'notmuch-show
+ '(define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "`" 'notmuch-show-apply-tag-macro))
+
+ (setq notmuch-show-tag-macro-alist
+ (list
+ '("m" "+notmuch::patch" "+notmuch::moreinfo" "-notmuch::needs-review")
+ '("n" "+notmuch::patch" "+notmuch::needs-review" "-notmuch::pushed")
+ '("o" "+notmuch::patch" "+notmuch::obsolete"
+ "-notmuch::needs-review" "-notmuch::moreinfo")
+ '("p" "-notmuch::pushed" "-notmuch::needs-review"
+ "-notmuch::moreinfo" "+pending")
+ '("P" "-pending" "-notmuch::needs-review" "-notmuch::moreinfo" "+notmuch::pushed")
+ '("r" "-notmuch::patch" "+notmuch::review")
+ '("s" "+notmuch::patch" "-notmuch::obsolete" "-notmuch::needs-review" "-notmuch::moreinfo" "+notmuch::stale")
+ '("t" "+notmuch::patch" "-notmuch::needs-review" "+notmuch::trivial")
+ '("w" "+notmuch::patch" "+notmuch::wip" "-notmuch::needs-review")))
+
+ (defun notmuch-show-apply-tag-macro (key)
+ (interactive "k")
+ (let ((macro (assoc key notmuch-show-tag-macro-alist)))
+ (apply 'notmuch-show-tag-message (cdr macro))))
+
+## 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...
+
+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 variable `notmuch-fcc-dirs` which defines the
+subdirectory relative to the `database.path` setting from your
+notmuch configuration in which to save the mail. Enter a directory
+(without the maildir `/cur` ending which will be appended
+automatically). Additional information can be found as usual using:
+
+ M-x describe-variable notmuch-fcc-dirs
+
+An additional variable that can affect FCC settings in some cases is
+`message-directory`. Emacs message-mode uses this variable for
+postponed messages.
+
+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".
+
+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 three solutions to this:
+
+### bbdb
+
+[bbdb](http://bbdb.sourceforge.net) is a contact database for emacs
+that works quite nicely together with message mode, including
+address autocompletion.
+
+### notmuch database as an address book
+
+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](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)`.
+
+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)
+
+### Google Contacts
+
+[GooBook](http://code.google.com/p/goobook/) is a command-line tool for
+accessing Google Contacts. Install and set it up according to its documentation.
+
+To use GooBook with notmuch, use this wrapper script and set it up like the
+programs above.
+
+ #!/bin/sh
+ goobook query "$*" | sed 's/\(.*\)\t\(.*\)\t.*/\2 \<\1\>/' | sed '/^$/d'
+
+You can add the sender of a message to Google Contacts by piping the message
+(`notmuch-show-pipe-message`) to `goobook add`.
+
+## 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)
+
+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).
+
+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.
+
+## Multiple identities using gnus-alias
+
+[gnus-alias](http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/GnusAlias) allows you to
+define multiple identities when using `message-mode`. You can specify
+the from address, organization, extra headers (including *Bcc*), extra
+body text, and signature for each identity. Identities are chosen
+based on a set of rules. When you are in message mode, you can switch
+identities using gnus-alias.
+
+### Installation
+
+- put `gnus-alias.el` on your load Emacs-Lisp load path (add new directory
+ to load path by writing `(add-to-list 'load-path "/some/load/path")` into
+ your `.emacs`.
+
+- Add the following to your `.emacs`
+
+ (autoload 'gnus-alias-determine-identity "gnus-alias" "" t)
+ (add-hook 'message-setup-hook 'gnus-alias-determine-identity)
+
+Looking into `gnus-alias.el` gives a bit more information...
+
+### Example Configuration
+
+Here is an example configuration.
+
+ ;; Define two identities, "home" and "work"
+ (setq gnus-alias-identity-alist
+ '(("home"
+ nil ;; Does not refer to any other identity
+ "John Doe <jdoe@example.net>" ;; Sender address
+ nil ;; No organization header
+ nil ;; No extra headers
+ nil ;; No extra body text
+ "~/.signature")
+ ("work"
+ nil
+ "John Doe <john.doe@example.com>"
+ "Example Corp."
+ (("Bcc" . "john.doe@example.com"))
+ nil
+ "~/.signature.work")))
+ ;; Use "home" identity by default
+ (setq gnus-alias-default-identity "home")
+ ;; Define rules to match work identity
+ (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)
+
+When `gnus-alias` has been loaded (using autoload, require, *M-x load-library*
+or *M-x load-file* (load-file takes file path -- therefore it can be used
+without any `.emacs` changes)) the following commands can be used to get(/set)
+more information (some of these have "extensive documentation"):
+
+ M-x describe-variable RET gnus-alias-identity-alist
+ M-x describe-variable RET gnus-alias-identity-rules
+ M-x describe-variable RET gnus-alias-default-identity
+
+ M-x customize-group RET gnus-alias RET
+ or
+ M-x gnus-alias-customize RET
+
+The last two do the same thing.
+
+See also the **Usage:** section in `gnus-alias.el`.
+
+## Resending (or bouncing) messages
+
+Add the following to your `.emacs` to be able to resend the current message in
+show mode.
+
+ (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "b"
+ (lambda (&optional address)
+ "Bounce the current message."
+ (interactive "sBounce To: ")
+ (notmuch-show-view-raw-message)
+ (message-resend 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.
+
+ (defvar notmuch-hello-refresh-count 0)
+
+ (defun notmuch-hello-refresh-status-message ()
+ (unless no-display
+ (let* ((new-count
+ (string-to-number
+ (car (process-lines notmuch-command "count"))))
+ (diff-count (- new-count notmuch-hello-refresh-count)))
+ (cond
+ ((= notmuch-hello-refresh-count 0)
+ (message "You have %s messages."
+ (notmuch-hello-nice-number new-count)))
+ ((> diff-count 0)
+ (message "You have %s more messages since last refresh."
+ (notmuch-hello-nice-number diff-count)))
+ ((< diff-count 0)
+ (message "You have %s fewer messages since last refresh."
+ (notmuch-hello-nice-number (- diff-count)))))
+ (setq notmuch-hello-refresh-count new-count))))
+
+ (add-hook 'notmuch-hello-refresh-hook 'notmuch-hello-refresh-status-message)
+
+## Replacing tabs with spaces in subject and header
+
+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:
+
+ (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)
+
+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)))))
+
+ (add-hook 'notmuch-show-hook 'notmuch-show-header-tabs-to-spaces)
+
+## Hiding unread messages in notmuch-show
+
+I like to have an inbox saved search, but only show unread messages when they
+view a thread. This takes two steps:
+
+1. Apply
+[this patch from Mark Walters](http://notmuchmail.org/pipermail/notmuch/2012/010817.html)
+to add the `notmuch-show-filter-thread` function.
+1. Add the following hook to your emacs configuration:
+
+ (defun expand-only-unread-hook () (interactive)
+ (let ((unread nil)
+ (open (notmuch-show-get-message-ids-for-open-messages)))
+ (notmuch-show-mapc (lambda ()
+ (when (member "unread" (notmuch-show-get-tags))
+ (setq unread t))))
+ (when unread
+ (let ((notmuch-show-hook (remove 'expand-only-unread-hook notmuch-show-hook)))
+ (notmuch-show-filter-thread "tag:unread")))))
+
+ (add-hook 'notmuch-show-hook 'expand-only-unread-hook)
+
+## Changing the color of a saved search based on some other search
+
+I like to have a saved search for my inbox, but have it change color when there
+are thread with unread messages in the inbox. I accomplish this with the
+following code in my emacs config:
+
+ (defun color-inbox-if-unread () (interactive)
+ (save-excursion
+ (goto-char (point-min))
+ (let ((cnt (car (process-lines "notmuch" "count" "tag:inbox and tag:unread"))))
+ (when (> (string-to-number cnt) 0)
+ (save-excursion
+ (when (search-forward "inbox" (point-max) t)
+ (let* ((overlays (overlays-in (match-beginning 0) (match-end 0)))
+ (overlay (car overlays)))
+ (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
+`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)
projects / obsolete / notmuch-wiki / blobdiff