notmuch-setup(1)

NAME

   notmuch - thread-based email index, search, and tagging

SYNOPSIS

   notmuch [option ...] command [arg ...]

DESCRIPTION

   Notmuch  is  a  command-line  based  program  for  indexing, searching,
   reading, and tagging large collections of email messages.

   This page describes how to get started using notmuch from  the  command
   line,  and  gives  a brief overview of the commands available. For more
   information on e.g. notmuch show consult the notmuch-show(1) man  page,
   also accessible via notmuch help show

   The  quickest  way  to get started with Notmuch is to simply invoke the
   notmuch command with no arguments, which will interactively  guide  you
   through the process of indexing your mail.

NOTE

   While the command-line program notmuch provides powerful functionality,
   it  does  not  provide  the  most   convenient   interface   for   that
   functionality.  More  sophisticated interfaces are expected to be built
   on top of either the command-line interface, or more likely, on top  of
   the  notmuch  library  interface.  See https://notmuchmail.org for more
   about alternate interfaces to notmuch.  The  emacs-based  interface  to
   notmuch  (available under emacs/ in the Notmuch source distribution) is
   probably the most widely used at this time.

OPTIONS

   Supported global options for notmuch include

      --help [command-name]
             Print a synopsis of available commands  and  exit.   With  an
             optional command name, show the man page for that subcommand.

      --version
             Print the installed version of notmuch, and exit.

      --config=FILE
             Specify  the  configuration  file  to use. This overrides any
             configuration file specified by ${NOTMUCH_CONFIG}.

      --uuid=HEX
             Enforce that the database UUID  (a  unique  identifier  which
             persists  until  e.g. the database is compacted) is HEX; exit
             with an error if it is not. This is useful to detect rollover
             in  modification  counts  on messages. You can find this UUID
             using e.g. notmuch count --lastmod

   All global options except --config can  also  be  specified  after  the
   command.  For  example,  notmuch subcommand --uuid=HEX is equivalent to
   notmuch --uuid=HEX subcommand.

COMMANDS

   SETUP
   The notmuch setup command is used to configure Notmuch for  first  use,
   (or to reconfigure it later).

   The  setup  command  will prompt for your full name, your primary email
   address, any alternate email  addresses  you  use,  and  the  directory
   containing  your  email  archives.  Your  answers  will be written to a
   configuration    file    in    ${NOTMUCH_CONFIG}    (if     set)     or
   ${HOME}/.notmuch-config  . This configuration file will be created with
   descriptive comments, making it easy to edit by hand  later  to  change
   the  configuration.  Or  you  can run notmuch setup again to change the
   configuration.

   The  mail  directory  you   specify   can   contain   any   number   of
   sub-directories and should primarily contain only files with individual
   email messages (eg. maildir or mh archives are perfect). If  there  are
   other,  non-email  files  (such  as  indexes  maintained by other email
   programs) then notmuch will do its best  to  detect  those  and  ignore
   them.

   Mail  storage that uses mbox format, (where one mbox file contains many
   messages), will not work with notmuch.  If  that's  how  your  mail  is
   currently  stored,  it  is  recommended you first convert it to maildir
   format with a utility such as mb2md before running notmuch setup .

   Invoking notmuch with no command argument will run setup if  the  setup
   command has not previously been completed.

   OTHER COMMANDS
   Several  of  the  notmuch  commands  accept  search terms with a common
   syntax. See notmuch-search-terms(7) for more details on  the  supported
   syntax.

   The  search,  show,  address  and  count commands are used to query the
   email database.

   The reply command is useful for  preparing  a  template  for  an  email
   reply.

   The tag command is the only command available for manipulating database
   contents.

   The dump and restore commands can be used to create a textual  dump  of
   email tags for backup purposes, and to restore from that dump.

   The  config  command  can be used to get or set settings in the notmuch
   configuration file.

ENVIRONMENT

   The following environment variables can be used to control the behavior
   of notmuch.

   NOTMUCH_CONFIG
          Specifies  the  location  of  the  notmuch  configuration  file.
          Notmuch will use ${HOME}/.notmuch-config if this variable is not
          set.

   NOTMUCH_TALLOC_REPORT
          Location   to   write   a   talloc   memory  usage  report.  See
          talloc_enable_leak_report_full    in    talloc(3)    for    more
          information.

   NOTMUCH_DEBUG_QUERY
          If  set to a non-empty value, the notmuch library will print (to
          stderr) Xapian queries it constructs.

SEE ALSO

   notmuch-address(1),       notmuch-compact(1),        notmuch-config(1),
   notmuch-count(1), notmuch-dump(1), notmuch-hooks(5), notmuch-insert(1),
   notmuch-new(1),          notmuch-reply(1),          notmuch-restore(1),
   notmuch-search(1),       notmuch-search-terms(7),      notmuch-show(1),
   notmuch-tag(1)

   The notmuch website: https://notmuchmail.org

CONTACT

   Feel free to send questions, comments, or kudos to the notmuch  mailing
   list  <[email protected]>  .  Subscription is not required before
   posting, but is available from the notmuchmail.org website.

   Real-time interaction with the Notmuch community is available  via  IRC
   (server: irc.freenode.net, channel: #notmuch).

AUTHOR

   Carl Worth and many others

COPYRIGHT

   2009-2016, Carl Worth and many others

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