From ae3f51472590e9b094b40fba1b2587ffdeb0c451 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jameson Graef Rollins Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2012 16:32:04 +1700 Subject: [PATCH] Re: Message deletion wisdom --- 0b/7732bbfc2e3f5d956616f9be3322e3259ba947 | 141 ++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 141 insertions(+) create mode 100644 0b/7732bbfc2e3f5d956616f9be3322e3259ba947 diff --git a/0b/7732bbfc2e3f5d956616f9be3322e3259ba947 b/0b/7732bbfc2e3f5d956616f9be3322e3259ba947 new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bf9eefba7 --- /dev/null +++ b/0b/7732bbfc2e3f5d956616f9be3322e3259ba947 @@ -0,0 +1,141 @@ +Return-Path: +X-Original-To: notmuch@notmuchmail.org +Delivered-To: notmuch@notmuchmail.org +Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) + by olra.theworths.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0D39B431FB6 + for ; Tue, 3 Apr 2012 16:32:11 -0700 (PDT) +X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at olra.theworths.org +X-Spam-Flag: NO +X-Spam-Score: -2.29 +X-Spam-Level: +X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.29 tagged_above=-999 required=5 + tests=[RCVD_IN_DNSWL_MED=-2.3, T_MIME_NO_TEXT=0.01] autolearn=disabled +Received: from olra.theworths.org ([127.0.0.1]) + by localhost (olra.theworths.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) + with ESMTP id DRGJGk4PeNSh for ; + Tue, 3 Apr 2012 16:32:10 -0700 (PDT) +Received: from outgoing-mail.its.caltech.edu (outgoing-mail.its.caltech.edu + [131.215.239.19]) + by olra.theworths.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 62839431FAE + for ; Tue, 3 Apr 2012 16:32:10 -0700 (PDT) +Received: from earth-doxen.imss.caltech.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) + by earth-doxen-postvirus (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2194266E0124; + Tue, 3 Apr 2012 16:32:10 -0700 (PDT) +X-Spam-Scanned: at Caltech-IMSS on earth-doxen by amavisd-new +Received: from finestructure.net (gwave-107.ligo.caltech.edu + [131.215.114.107]) (Authenticated sender: jrollins) by earth-doxen-submit + (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3579266E0179; Tue, 3 Apr 2012 16:32:07 -0700 (PDT) +Received: by finestructure.net (Postfix, from userid 1000) + id 19E05888; Tue, 3 Apr 2012 16:32:07 -0700 (PDT) +From: Jameson Graef Rollins +To: Jacek Generowicz , notmuch@notmuchmail.org +Subject: Re: Message deletion wisdom +In-Reply-To: <0cc49af3-5415-419d-97ef-2bec76117d63@CERNFE22.cern.ch> +References: <0cc49af3-5415-419d-97ef-2bec76117d63@CERNFE22.cern.ch> +User-Agent: Notmuch/0.12+87~g3c4c85f (http://notmuchmail.org) Emacs/23.3.1 + (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) +Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:32:04 -0700 +Message-ID: <87sjgk2xzf.fsf@servo.finestructure.net> +MIME-Version: 1.0 +Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="=-=-="; + micalg=pgp-sha256; protocol="application/pgp-signature" +X-BeenThere: notmuch@notmuchmail.org +X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.13 +Precedence: list +List-Id: "Use and development of the notmuch mail system." + +List-Unsubscribe: , + +List-Archive: +List-Post: +List-Help: +List-Subscribe: , + +X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2012 23:32:11 -0000 + +--=-=-= + +On Tue, Apr 03 2012, Jacek Generowicz wrote: +> Looking through the archives of this list, I see that the topic of +> message deletion is, if not controversial, then at least non-trivial. +> +> + Requests for the provision of message deletion mechanisms have +> appeared many times, and that various patches addressing the issue +> have been submitted, and (IIUC) some of these are awaiting review +> and might possibly make it into an official release in the future. +> +> + Having the 'deleted' tag cause messages to be deleted is, +> apparently, fraught with peril of losing mail. + +Hi, Jacek. You are right on both of these points. It has indeed been a +controversial topic. However, I would say that we have reached a stasis +in terms of our response to this issue. I'll try to summarize here. + +I can say with a very high degree of certainly that notmuch will NEVER +gain the capability to actually delete mail files from disk itself. It +is too risky for notmuch to be involved in that, and it's too easy to do +it outside of notmuch (e.g. "notmuch search --output=files tag:deleted | +xargs rm"). This has never really been up for discussion. + +What *has* generated a lot of discussion is whether or not the emacs +interface should by default support key bindings that add a "deleted" +tag to messages, and how that tag should be handled. I think we have +finally settled on notmuch NOT supporting such a key binding by default, +since it's easy enough for users to add the binding themselves if they +wish. + +What we have added (or more accurately "are adding") though (thanks to +the work of Austin Clements and Mark Walters) is the ability to exclude +messages with a certain tag from search results. This is like an +effective deletion, since messages can be completely omitted from search +results without having them actually be deleted from disk. This is +obviously much safer, and a more generally useful functionality. This +functionality is currently in beta, but will be full-featured in the +next release. + +So in summary, if you would like to "delete" messages, you can: + + * add a key binding to emacs (or your favorite ui) to add a "deleted" + tag to messages that you want to delete: + + (define-key notmuch-show-mode-map "d" + (lambda () + (interactive) + (notmuch-show-tag-message "+deleted"))) + + * add exclusion for messages with the "deleted" tag: + + notmuch config set search.exclude_tags deleted + + * and if you really want them purged from disk, delete them manually + with: + + notmuch search --output=files tag:deleted | xargs -l rm + +I'll add a page about this to the wiki, since it comes up enough. + +hth. + +jamie. + +--=-=-= +Content-Type: application/pgp-signature + +-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- +Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux) + +iQIcBAEBCAAGBQJPe4h1AAoJEO00zqvie6q8OSwP/3KUtk0gqmxLnCfWSTLbHCpm +1jhSrJgUa4eo4rHi7tSjVTe0B1dlJArsoAqFmKMCZON3w8KPpdTbnqRUjmNRuqMt +qqwLvL3mOjPQ7339tVzjoro0akCaLm6I8IBdox6saZhWy1jownmUexxtlXDPGc46 +kl6T6novbemFLLeFsqAa46eiVJZZO9nMPmp2xcNgG1KpJ57ILzad+bjgI1ePZx6w +/fPlenG4GELZApKjjqYHfR9HMX7D8EOv4BteOQpNnQNXpGcFxVmW8y4917ZZkMtv ++3D4jqghXflO2/KJvGw6TToD65tlWprVfR4PwqJxRxO+FD1fdTxf3S0gNTUl7dOe +2LxJfYa/t0dZayu1QYnIKJr6jqRsIbe/0GwtP2URNCEP30o9irYn06iaSxurklzB +tkEfwmcQLNy+71aHjjn7zvlzbT29vp9kLx/zzMvnkMhybsKJmpPTA6Qa1teKiqPs +gdBqc2ebh0yLWbnIwwy8WbzwYRmltMyYMYGub8pmJZKrNfommaAbD6I18h7+65uY +Szs4pijzO7qsvOuge3URHPZNFsAd2MTFY/gsFPnAwVjATNmyX+KNPNHq+Uil3Jhg ++KuhRnDZ2stuMtzY1kg4AyPrSc8fMP4t9a+bZ20BgfzOnFrO7CTUMuv0HeX0Nad7 +j++wonmbWQP8uzl7JDr9 +=rfb1 +-----END PGP SIGNATURE----- +--=-=-=-- -- 2.26.2