get

The value of the specified configuration item is printed to stdout. If the item has multiple values (it is a list), each value is separated by a newline character.

set

The specified configuration item is set to the given value. To specify a multiple-value item (a list), provide each value as a separate command-line argument.

If no values are provided, the specified configuration item will be removed from the configuration file.

list

Every configuration item is printed to stdout, each on a separate line of the form:

section.item=value

No additional whitespace surrounds the dot or equals sign characters. In a multiple-value item (a list), the values are separated by semicolon characters.

database.path

The top-level directory where your mail currently exists and to where mail will be delivered in the future. Files should be individual email messages. Notmuch will store its database within a sub-directory of the path configured here named .notmuch.

Default: $MAILDIR variable if set, otherwise $HOME/mail.

user.name

Your full name.

Default: $NAME variable if set, otherwise read from /etc/passwd.

user.primary_email

Your primary email address.

Default: $EMAIL variable if set, otherwise constructed from the username and hostname of the current machine.

user.other_email

A list of other email addresses at which you receive email.

Default: not set.

new.tags

A list of tags that will be added to all messages incorporated by notmuch new.

Default: unread;inbox.

new.ignore

A list to specify files and directories that will not be searched for messages by notmuch new. Each entry in the list is either:

A file or a directory name, without path, that will be ignored, regardless of the location in the mail store directory hierarchy.

Or:

A regular expression delimited with // that will be matched against the path of the file or directory relative to the database path. Matching files and directories will be ignored. The beginning and end of string must be explicitly anchored. For example, /.*/foo$/ would match "bar/foo" and "bar/baz/foo", but not "foo" or "bar/foobar".

Default: empty list.

search.exclude_tags

A list of tags that will be excluded from search results by default. Using an excluded tag in a query will override that exclusion.

Default: empty list. Note that notmuch-setup(1) puts deleted;spam here when creating new configuration file.

maildir.synchronize_flags

If true, then the following maildir flags (in message filenames) will be synchronized with the corresponding notmuch tags:

Flag	Tag
D	draft
F	flagged
P	passed
R	replied
S	unread (added when 'S' flag is not present)

The notmuch new command will notice flag changes in filenames and update tags, while the notmuch tag and notmuch restore commands will notice tag changes and update flags in filenames.

If there have been any changes in the maildir (new messages added, old ones removed or renamed, maildir flags changed, etc.), it is advisable to run notmuch new before notmuch tag or notmuch restore commands to ensure the tag changes are properly synchronized to the maildir flags, as the commands expect the database and maildir to be in sync.

Default: true.

index.decrypt [STORED IN DATABASE]

Policy for decrypting encrypted messages during indexing. Must be one of: false, auto, nostash, or true.

When indexing an encrypted e-mail message, if this variable is set to true, notmuch will try to decrypt the message and index the cleartext, stashing a copy of any discovered session keys for the message. If auto, it will try to index the cleartext if a stashed session key is already known for the message (e.g. from a previous copy), but will not try to access your secret keys. Use false to avoid decrypting even when a stashed session key is already present.

nostash is the same as true except that it will not stash newly-discovered session keys in the database.

From the command line (i.e. during notmuch-new(1), notmuch-insert(1), or notmuch-reindex(1)), the user can override the database's stored decryption policy with the --decrypt= option.

Here is a table that summarizes the functionality of each of these policies:

	false	auto	nostash	true
Index cleartext using stashed session keys		X	X	X
Index cleartext using secret keys			X	X
Stash session keys				X
Delete stashed session keys on reindex	X

Stashed session keys are kept in the database as properties associated with the message. See session-key in notmuch-properties(7) for more details about how they can be useful.

Be aware that the notmuch index is likely sufficient (and a stashed session key is certainly sufficient) to reconstruct the cleartext of the message itself, so please ensure that the notmuch message index is adequately protected. DO NOT USE index.decrypt=true or index.decrypt=nostash without considering the security of your index.

Default: auto.

index.header.<prefix> [STORED IN DATABASE]

Define the query prefix <prefix>, based on a mail header. For example index.header.List=List-Id will add a probabilistic prefix List: that searches the List-Id field. User defined prefixes must not start with 'a'...'z'; in particular adding a prefix with same name as a predefined prefix is not supported. See notmuch-search-terms(7) for a list of existing prefixes, and an explanation of probabilistic prefixes.

built_with.<name>

Compile time feature <name>. Current possibilities include "retry_lock" (configure option, included by default). (since notmuch 0.30, "compact" and "field_processor" are always included.)

query.<name> [STORED IN DATABASE]

Expansion for named query called <name>. See notmuch-search-terms(7) for more information about named queries.

NOTMUCH_CONFIG

Specifies the location of the notmuch configuration file. Notmuch will use ${HOME}/.notmuch-config if this variable is not set.