From: "Sebastian Spaeth" <Sebastian@SSpaeth.de>
To: notmuch@notmuchmail.org
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:12:28 +0100
Message-ID: <87pr57jvkz.fsf@SSpaeth.de>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Subject: [notmuch] Introducing notmuchsync
Precedence: list

Dear list,

I really want to sync my maildir flags/folders with notmuch tags and as
I haven't seen a script to do that, I've written (the beginnings of?)
one.

It is probably pre-alpha but I am a fan of release early, release often
and if someone finds it useful to build upon, it was already worth it. I
put the code here: http://github.com/spaetz/notmuchsync

What does it do?
================
 - Synchronizes the "S" flag with the "unread" tag (1-way). The
 synchronization direction is decided by using either --sync (change
 maildir flags according to notmuch) or --revsync (change notmuch tags according to maildir). By default it always checks the mails from the previous 30
 days (but can also do --all mails if you have plenty of RAM and time).
 - Deletes all mail files that have the "delete" tag
 - Quiet/normal/verbose logging 

Workflow
========
1a) start out with notmuchsync -r in order to initialize the notmuch tag
database based on maildir 'S' flags. This is probably what everyone but
Carl Worth wants. :-) If the "--all" command works for you, even better,
but I doubt it as it would store all your mails in RAM.
1b) start out with not

What needs improvment
=====================
 - It's a python script in one file. The architecture might need some
 cleanup. Documentation needs work too.
 - It temporarily slurps in all your mails from the last 30 days into
 RAM. I am waiting for "notmuchs show blah --output filename --output
 tags" to improve that :). Generally the parsing of the output of
 "notmuch show" is a bit hackyish with regexps at the moment.
 - Support parsing "chunks" of "notmuch show" output or do several
   runs for -all, using monthly intervals to make --all work.
 - Support for the "T" (delete), "F" (flag), "D" (draft) tags/flags.
   Should be pretty easy to add.
 - Support syncing of the "inbox" tag if the mail is in a dir different
 than INBOX. No clue yet how to do. Perhaps if a maildir name
 corresponds to a notmuch tag name, we move the mail there?
 - It seems to work for me, but is untested in environments with spaces
 in paths and windows machines.
 - the --doeverything command that prunes and syncs in one go

What else
=========
- It is GPL v2.1+
- Please improve and/or fork this thing.
- If you don't like it, just ignore it. Thanks for your understanding.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Usage:
-p --prune	Prune deleted mails
-s --sync	Sync from notmuch tags to maildir flags.
		By default it will only look for mails from the last 30 days.
		Use --all to look at earlier mails.
		Beware, if timestamps are more than 30 days in the
                future, 
                we won't handle it.
-r --revsync	Sync tags from maildir to notmuch. See also -s.
Options:
-d		 Really verbose debug oputput.
-q		 Log only errors.
--dryrun	 Do not really modify notmuch db or mail files
                 Works together with -p -s -r

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Let me know what you like or don't. If you want github contributor
right, I am willing to hand out access quite liberal. And as always:
patches welcome. :-)

spaetz