converting from nmh: how to?

converting from nmh: how to?

[Greg Minshall]

hi.  apologies if this is an FAQ.

i'm exploring notmuch (via the emacs front-end).  i have 1.2M e-mail
messages sorted into 200 or so nmh folders.  (*)

after running `notmuch new`, i end up with 1.2M "unread" messages, all
in "inbox".

i would like to end up with the "inbox" tag applied only to messages
actually in my nmh +inbox folder; messages from *other* nmh folders
should end up with a tag derived from that folder name.

and, i would like to have the "unread" tag only apply to messages that
nmh thinks are unseen.

(iiuc, nmh keeps track of unseen messages in ".mh_sequences" local to
each nmh folder; i don't think i care about any other sequences,
including "cur", in any of the ".mh_sequences" files.)

is there a known procedure for accomplishing this?  or, thoughts on
same?

cheers, Greg

(*) for the record, i use mpop and msmtp to receive and send e-mail, and
run things through procmail to sort mail into folders.  (and, another
procmail script to refile messages from, e.g., +inbox to some other
folder.)

Re: converting from nmh: how to?

[inwit]

Maybe afew [0] is what you're looking for.

[0] https://github.com/afewmail/afew

Re: converting from nmh: how to?

[Greg Minshall]

> Maybe afew [0] is what you're looking for.

thanks, that certainly gives me something to chew over.

Re: converting from nmh: how to?

[David Bremner]

Greg Minshall <minshall@umich.edu> writes:

> hi.  apologies if this is an FAQ.
>
> i'm exploring notmuch (via the emacs front-end).  i have 1.2M e-mail
> messages sorted into 200 or so nmh folders.  (*)
>
> after running `notmuch new`, i end up with 1.2M "unread" messages, all
> in "inbox".
>
> i would like to end up with the "inbox" tag applied only to messages
> actually in my nmh +inbox folder; messages from *other* nmh folders
> should end up with a tag derived from that folder name.

If I remember how mh works you should be able to use something like

notmuch tag -inbox '*'
notmuch tag +inbox path:relative/path/to/inbox/folder

you may want to use "notmuch dump > backup.tags" before some bold experiments.

> and, i would like to have the "unread" tag only apply to messages that
> nmh thinks are unseen.
>
> (iiuc, nmh keeps track of unseen messages in ".mh_sequences" local to
> each nmh folder; i don't think i care about any other sequences,
> including "cur", in any of the ".mh_sequences" files.)
>
> is there a known procedure for accomplishing this?  or, thoughts on
> same?

notmuch does not index filenames, so that makes things a bit more
challenging. With a little scripting, you could extract the message-id
for message 'n' and pass that to notmuch. I'd probably write a python
script (and use the 'notmuch2' module), but it's doable as a shell
script also (given some hack to extract the message-id).

Re: converting from nmh: how to?

[Greg Minshall]

David,

> notmuch tag -inbox '*'
> notmuch tag +inbox path:relative/path/to/inbox/folder

also, thanks.  i need to spend more time with =man
notmuch-search-terms=.

> you may want to use "notmuch dump > backup.tags" before some bold
> experiments.

a question: i'm still starting, experimenting, and i assume at some
point i will throw my accumulated notmuch database away, and do a "new"
to re-build from scratch.  given that, are there any dangers i should
worry about while experimenting boldly?

cheers, Greg

Re: converting from nmh: how to?

[David Bremner]

Greg Minshall <minshall@umich.edu> writes:

> David,
>
>> notmuch tag -inbox '*'
>> notmuch tag +inbox path:relative/path/to/inbox/folder
>
> also, thanks.  i need to spend more time with =man
> notmuch-search-terms=.
>
>> you may want to use "notmuch dump > backup.tags" before some bold
>> experiments.
>
> a question: i'm still starting, experimenting, and i assume at some
> point i will throw my accumulated notmuch database away, and do a "new"
> to re-build from scratch.  given that, are there any dangers i should
> worry about while experimenting boldly?

Not that I can think of. But it's nice if throwing everything away is a
choice, rather than something forced upon you.

d