Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:48:22 +0100
From: Jan Janak <jan@ryngle.com>
To: notmuch@notmuchmail.org
Message-ID: <20091125234822.GH25119@ryngle.com>
References: <1259100630-13673-1-git-send-email-jan@ryngle.com>
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Subject: Re: [notmuch] [PATCH 0/4] Make tags applied by 'notmuch new'
	configurable.
Precedence: list

Hello,

On 24-11 23:10, Jan Janak wrote:
> I would like to propose that we make the list of tags applied by 'notmuch new'
> configurable. Right now notmuch applies two tags to all new messages added to
> the database, 'inbox' and 'unread'. The two tags are added by the C code in
> notmuch-new.c and they cannot be changed without editing the source file and
> recompiling notmuch.
> 
> The four patches that follow this email allow for configuring the tags to be
> added by 'notmuch new' either in the configuration file or on the command
> line.
> 
> This change was motivated by my desire to remove both tags from newly added
> messages. My rules for adding these two tags are more complex and I do it in
> a script run after 'notmuch new'. Instead of 'inbox' and 'unread', I configure
> 'notmuch new' to add a new tag called 'new' (and only that one). This tag
> marks newly added messages that haven't been properly tagged yet by my 
> auto-tagging scripts. The last script I run after 'notmuch new' removes that
> tag. My auto-tagging scripts process only messages with the tag 'new'.
> 
> On a side note; It may seem logical to add/omit the tag 'unread' directly in 
> 'notmuch new' based on the Maildir flags extracted from the filename of the
> message. I suggest that we don't do that in 'notmuch new'. A better way would
> be writing a small script or command that can be run *after* 'notmuch new'.
> We could then distribute it with notmuch (maybe with other small tagging
> scripts for common situations). 
> 
> I think Maildir flags should be processed after 'notmuch new' is because if
> there are multiple copies of a message with different flags, we may need to
> see all flags from all filenames to set corresponding tags properly and we may
> also need to take the directory part into consideration (i.e. the new mail is
> in 'new', not 'cur').
> 
> The list of tags to be applied by notmuch can be configured in the
> configuration file. There is a new section [new] which contains configuration
> options for 'notmuch new'. There is only one option called 'tags'. The option
> contains a semicolon separated list of tags:
> 
>   [new]
>   tags=inbox;unread  # Emulate the original behavior
> 
> One of the patches updates 'notmuch setup' to create the section and add
> the tags option with tags 'inbox' and 'unread', but only if a new
> configuration file is being created. If the configuration file already exists
> then it just copies the contents from the old configuration file to the new
> one.
> 
> We do not ask the user for the list of tags in the interactive part, that would
> have been too much. Users can edit the configuration file manually if they want
> to change the list of tags. If they create a new configuration file then they
> probably want to accept the default anyway.
> 
> There is one catch for users who already have a configuration file and start
> using the patches. They will need to add the new section and the tags option
> manually if they want to preserve current behavior of applying 'inbox' and
> 'unread' automatically by 'notmuch new'.
> 
> The last patch in the set adds a new command line option to 'notmuch new'.
> The name of the option is --tag and it can be used to override any tags
> configured in the configuration file. For example:
> 
>   notmuch new --tag=outbox --tag=read
> 
> adds the tags 'outbox' and 'read' and ignores any tags from the configuration
> file.
> 
> Comments and opinions are welcome!

I updated this patch series, adding features and bug fixes suggested by others
on the list.

The command line option --tag now *adds* tags, so the tags configured in the
configuration file are still applied...unless you use the new option
--no-config-tag. With this option only the tags specified on the command line
will be applied by 'notmuch-new'.

  -- Jan