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 notmuch-reply(1) 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.

       index.repaired
              Some messages arrive in forms that are confusing to view; they can  be  mangled  by
              mail  transport  agents, or the sending mail user agent may structure them in a way
              that is confusing.  If  notmuch  knows  how  to  both  detect  and  repair  such  a
              problematic message, it will do so during indexing.

              If  it  applies  a  message  repair during indexing, it will use the index.repaired
              property to note the type of repair(s) it performed.

              index.repaired=skip-protected-headers-legacy-display indicates that  when  indexing
              the  cleartext  of  an  encrypted  message, notmuch skipped over a "legacy-display"
              text/rfc822-headers part that it found in that message, since it was able to  index
              the built-in protected headers directly.

              index.repaired=mixedup  indicates  the  repair  of  a "Mixed Up" encrypted PGP/MIME
              message,  a  mangling  typically  produced  by  Microsoft's  Exchange   MTA.    See
              https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-dkg-openpgp-pgpmime-message-mangling   for   more
              information.

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-search-terms(7),
       notmuch-show(1)

AUTHOR

       Carl Worth and many others

COPYRIGHT

       2009-2022, Carl Worth and many others