1NOTMUCH-PROPERTIES(7) notmuch NOTMUCH-PROPERTIES(7)
2
6 notmuch-properties - notmuch message property conventions and documen‐
7 tation
8
10 notmuch count property:<key>=<value>
11 notmuch search property:<key>=<value>
13 notmuch show property:<key>=<value>
15 notmuch reindex property:<key>=<value>
17 notmuch tag +<tag> property:<key>=<value>
19 notmuch dump --include=properties
21 notmuch restore --include=properties
23
25 Several notmuch commands can search for, modify, add or remove proper‐
26 ties associated with specific messages. Properties are key/value
27 pairs, and a message can have more than one key/value pair for the same
28 key.
29 While users can select based on a specific property in their search
31 terms with the prefix property:, the notmuch command-line interface
32 does not provide mechanisms for modifying properties directly to the
33 user.
34 Instead, message properties are expected to be set and used programmat‐
36 ically, according to logic in notmuch itself, or in extensions to it.
37 Extensions to notmuch which make use of properties are encouraged to
39 report the specific properties used to the upstream notmuch project, as
40 a way of avoiding collisions in the property namespace.
41
43 Any property with a key that starts with "index." will be removed (and
44 possibly re-set) upon reindexing (see notmuch-reindex(1)).
45
47 The following properties are set by notmuch internally in the course of
48 its normal activity.
49 index.decryption
51 If a message contains encrypted content, and notmuch tries to
52 decrypt that content during indexing, it will add the property
53 index.decryption=success when the cleartext was successfully in‐
54 dexed. If notmuch attempts to decrypt any part of a message
55 during indexing and that decryption attempt fails, it will add
56 the property index.decryption=failure to the message.
57 Note that it's possible for a single message to have both in‐
59 dex.decryption=success and index.decryption=failure. Consider
60 an encrypted e-mail message that contains another encrypted
61 e-mail message as an attachment -- if the outer message can be
62 decrypted, but the attached part cannot, then both properties
63 will be set on the message as a whole.
64 If notmuch never tried to decrypt an encrypted message during
66 indexing (which is the default, see index.decrypt in not‐
67 much-config(1)), then this property will not be set on that mes‐
68 sage.
69 session-key
71 When notmuch-show(1) or nomtuch-reply encounters a message with an
72 encrypted part, if notmuch finds a session-key property associated
73 with the message, it will try that stashed session key for decryp‐
74 tion.
75 If you do not want to use any stashed session keys that might be
77 present, you should pass those programs --decrypt=false.
78 Using a stashed session key with "notmuch show" will speed up ren‐
80 dering of long encrypted threads. It also allows the user to de‐
81 stroy the secret part of any expired encryption-capable subkey while
82 still being able to read any retained messages for which they have
83 stashed the session key. This enables truly deletable e-mail, since
84 (once the session key and asymmetric subkey are both destroyed)
85 there are no keys left that can be used to decrypt any copy of the
86 original message previously stored by an adversary.
87 However, access to the stashed session key for an encrypted message
89 permits full byte-for-byte reconstruction of the cleartext message.
90 This includes attachments, cryptographic signatures, and other mate‐
91 rial that cannot be reconstructed from the index alone.
92 See index.decrypt in notmuch-config(1) for more details about how to
94 set notmuch's policy on when to store session keys.
95 The session key should be in the ASCII text form produced by GnuPG.
97 For OpenPGP, that consists of a decimal representation of the hash
98 algorithm used (identified by number from RFC 4880, e.g. 9 means
99 AES-256) followed by a colon, followed by a hexadecimal representa‐
100 tion of the algorithm-specific key. For example, an AES-128 key
101 might be stashed in a notmuch property as: ses‐
102 sion-key=7:14B16AF65536C28AF209828DFE34C9E0.
103 index.repaired
105 Some messages arrive in forms that are confusing to view; they can
106 be mangled by mail transport agents, or the sending mail user agent
107 may structure them in a way that is confusing. If notmuch knows how
108 to both detect and repair such a problematic message, it will do so
109 during indexing.
110 If it applies a message repair during indexing, it will use the in‐
112 dex.repaired property to note the type of repair(s) it performed.
113 index.repaired=skip-protected-headers-legacy-display indicates that
115 when indexing the cleartext of an encrypted message, notmuch skipped
116 over a "legacy-display" text/rfc822-headers part that it found in
117 that message, since it was able to index the built-in protected
118 headers directly.
119 index.repaired=mixedup indicates the repair of a "Mixed Up" en‐
121 crypted PGP/MIME message, a mangling typically produced by Micro‐
122 soft's Exchange MTA. See
123 https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-dkg-openpgp-pgpmime-message-mangling
124 for more information.
125
127 notmuch(1), notmuch-config(1), notmuch-dump(1), notmuch-insert(1), not‐
128 much-new(1), notmuch-reindex(1), notmuch-reply(1), notmuch-restore(1),
129 notmuch-show(1), *notmuch-search-terms(7)
130
132 Carl Worth and many others
133
135 2009-2021, Carl Worth and many others
1360.32.1 May 17, 2021 NOTMUCH-PROPERTIES(7)