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AERC-NOTMUCH(5) 	       File Formats Manual		 AERC-NOTMUCH(5)

NAME
     aerc-notmuch - notmuch configuration for aerc(1)

SYNOPSIS
     aerc  supports using the notmuch email system as a backend, for fast index-
     ing and searching.

     For this to be enabled, aerc needs to be built with notmuch support.  Refer
     to the installation instructions for details.

CONFIGURATION
     Basic Notmuch configuration may be done interactively with the :new-account
     command.

     In accounts.conf (see aerc-accounts(5)), the following notmuch-specific op-
     tions are available:

     check-mail-cmd = <command>
	 Command to run in conjunction with check-mail option.

	 Example:
	     check-mail-cmd = mbsync -a

     check-mail-timeout = <duration>
	 Timeout  for the check-mail-cmd. The command will be stopped if it does
	 not complete in this interval and an error will be displayed.	Increase
	 from the default if repeated errors occur

	 Default: 10s

     source = notmuch://<path>
	 The  source indicates the path to the directory containing your notmuch
	 database (usually a .notmuch/ folder).

	 The path portion of the URL following notmuch:// must be either an  ab-
	 solute  path  prefixed  by  / or a path relative to your home directory
	 prefixed with ~. For example:

	     source = notmuch:///home/me/mail

	     source = notmuch://~/mail

     query-map = <file>
	 Path to a file containing a mapping from display name to notmuch  query
	 in the form of <NAME>=<QUERY>.

	 Multiple  entries can be specified, one per line. Lines starting with #
	 are ignored and serve as comments.

	 e.g. inbox=tag:inbox and not tag:archived

     exclude-tags = <tag1,tag2,tag3...>
	 Comma separated list of tags which will be excluded from query results,
	 unless explicitly mentioned in the query.

	 This can for example be useful if you use an archive or spam tag.

     maildir-store = <path>
	 Path to the maildir store containing the message files backing the not-
	 much database. This is often the same as the notmuch database path.  If
	 specified,  this  option will be used by aerc to list available folders
	 and enable commands such as :delete and :archive.

	 N.B.: aerc will still always show messages and not  files  (under  not-
	 much,	a  single  message  can  be represented by several files), which
	 makes the semantics of certain commands as move ambiguous.  Use  multi-
	 file-strategy to tell aerc how to resolve these ambiguities.

     maildir-account-path = <path>
	 Path to the maildir account relative to the maildir-store.

	 This  could  be used to achieve traditional maildir one tab per account
	 behavior. The note on maildir-store also applies to this option.

     multi-file-strategy = <strategy>
	 Strategy for file operations (e.g., move,  copy,  delete)  on	messages
	 that are backed by multiple files. Possible values:

	 *   refuse (default): Refuse to act.
	 *   act-all: Act on all files.
	 *   act-one:  Act  on	one of the files, arbitrarily chosen, and ignore
	     the
     rest.
	 *   act-one-delete-rest: Like act-one, but delete the remaining files.
	 *   act-dir: Act on all files within the current folder and ignore  the
	     rest.
     Note that this strategy only works within the maildir directories; in other
	 directories, it behaves like refuse.
	 *   act-dir-delete-rest: Like act-dir, but delete the remaining files.

	 Note that the strategy has no effect on cross-account operations. Copy-
	 ing a message across accounts will always copy a single file, arbitrar-
	 ily  chosen. Moving a message across accounts will always copy a single
	 file, arbitrarily chosen, and refuse to delete multiple files from  the
	 source account.

USAGE
     Notmuch  shows slightly different behavior than for example imap. Some com-
     mands are slightly different in semantics and mentioned below:

     cf <notmuch query>
	 The change folder command allows for arbitrary  notmuch  queries.  Per-
	 forming a :cf command will perform a new top-level notmuch query.

     filter <notmuch query>
	 The  filter  command  for  notmuch  backends takes in arbitrary notmuch
	 queries. It applies the query on the set of messages shown in the  mes-
	 sage  list.  This can be used to perform successive filters/queries. It
	 is equivalent to performing a set of queries concatenated with "and".

SEE ALSO
     aerc(1) aerc-accounts(5) aerc-smtp(5) aerc-maildir(5)

AUTHORS
     Originally created by Drew DeVault and maintained by Robin Jarry who is as-
     sisted by other open source contributors. For more information  about  aerc
     development, see https://sr.ht/~rjarry/aerc/.

				   2026-08-30			 AERC-NOTMUCH(5)
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