NAME

       notmuch-properties - notmuch message property conventions and documentation

SYNOPSIS

       notmuch count property:<key>=<value>

       notmuch search property:<key>=<value>

       notmuch show property:<key>=<value>

       notmuch reindex property:<key>=<value>

       notmuch tag +<tag> property:<key>=<value>

       notmuch dump --include=properties

       notmuch restore --include=properties

DESCRIPTION

       Several  notmuch commands can search for, modify, add or remove properties associated with
       specific messages.  Properties are key/value pairs, and a message can have more  than  one
       key/value pair for the same key.

       While  users can select based on a specific property in their search terms with the prefix
       property:, the notmuch command-line interface does not provide  mechanisms  for  modifying
       properties directly to the user.

       Instead, message properties are expected to be set and used programmatically, according to
       logic in notmuch itself, or in extensions to it.

       Extensions to notmuch which make use of properties are encouraged to report  the  specific
       properties  used  to  the upstream notmuch project, as a way of avoiding collisions in the
       property namespace.

CONVENTIONS

       Any property with a key that starts with "index." will be removed  (and  possibly  re-set)
       upon reindexing (see notmuch-reindex(1)).

MESSAGE PROPERTIES

       The  following  properties  are  set  by  notmuch  internally  in the course of its normal
       activity.

       index.decryption
              If a message contains encrypted content, and notmuch tries to decrypt that  content
              during  indexing,  it  will  add  the  property  index.decryption=success  when the
              cleartext was successfully indexed.  If notmuch attempts to decrypt any part  of  a
              message during indexing and that decryption attempt fails, it will add the property
              index.decryption=failure to the message.

              Note that it's possible for a single message to have both  index.decryption=success
              and  index.decryption=failure.   Consider an encrypted e-mail message that contains
              another encrypted e-mail message as an attachment -- if the outer  message  can  be
              decrypted,  but  the  attached part cannot, then both properties will be set on the
              message as a whole.

              If notmuch never tried to decrypt an encrypted message during  indexing  (which  is
              the  default,  see index.decrypt in notmuch-config(1)), then this property will not
              be set on that message.

       session-key
          When notmuch-show(1) or nomtuch-reply encounters a message with an encrypted  part,  if
          notmuch  finds  a  session-key  property  associated with the message, it will try that
          stashed session key for decryption.

          If you do not want to use any stashed session keys that might be  present,  you  should
          pass those programs --decrypt=false.

          Using  a  stashed  session  key  with  "notmuch  show"  will speed up rendering of long
          encrypted threads.  It also allows the user to destroy the secret part of  any  expired
          encryption-capable  subkey  while  still  being  able to read any retained messages for
          which they have stashed the session key.  This enables truly  deletable  e-mail,  since
          (once  the session key and asymmetric subkey are both destroyed) there are no keys left
          that can be used to decrypt any copy of the original message previously  stored  by  an
          adversary.

          However,  access  to  the  stashed  session  key  for an encrypted message permits full
          byte-for-byte reconstruction of the  cleartext  message.   This  includes  attachments,
          cryptographic  signatures,  and  other  material  that cannot be reconstructed from the
          index alone.

          See index.decrypt in notmuch-config(1) for more details  about  how  to  set  notmuch's
          policy on when to store session keys.

          The  session key should be in the ASCII text form produced by GnuPG.  For OpenPGP, that
          consists of a decimal representation of the hash algorithm used (identified  by  number
          from  RFC  4880,  e.g.  9 means AES-256) followed by a colon, followed by a hexadecimal
          representation of the algorithm-specific key.  For example, an  AES-128  key  might  be
          stashed in a notmuch property as: session-key=7:14B16AF65536C28AF209828DFE34C9E0.

SEE ALSO

       notmuch(1),   notmuch-config(1),   notmuch-dump(1),   notmuch-insert(1),   notmuch-new(1),
       notmuch-reindex(1),      notmuch-reply(1),      notmuch-restore(1),       notmuch-show(1),
       *notmuch-search-terms(7)

AUTHOR

       Carl Worth and many others

COPYRIGHT

       2009-2020, Carl Worth and many others