mirror of https://github.com/djcb/mu.git
489 lines
14 KiB
Groff
489 lines
14 KiB
Groff
.TH MU 1 "January 2010" "User Manuals"
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.SH NAME
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mu \- index and search e-mail messages stored in Maildirs
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.SH SYNOPSIS
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.B mu index [options]
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.B mu find [options] <search expression>
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.B mu mkdir [options] <dir> [<dirs>]
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.B mu [options]
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.SH DESCRIPTION
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\fBmu\fR is a set of tools for indexing and searching e-mail messages stored
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in Maildirs. It does so by scanning a Maildir directory tree and analyzing the
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e-mail messages found. The results of this analysis are stored in a database,
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which can then be queried.
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\fBmu\fR can be used from the command line, or can be integrated with e-mail
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clients. This manpage contains examples of both.
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.SH COMMANDS
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\fBmu\fR offers the following commands:
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.TP
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\fBindex\fR
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for indexing (analyzing) the contents of your Maildirs, and storing the
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information in a database
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.TP
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\fBfind\fR
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for finding messages in your database, using certain search parameters (see
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below for details). You can use \fBquery\fR and \fBsearch\fR as synonyms for
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\fBfind\fR.
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.TP
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\fBmkdir\fR
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for creating Maildirs.
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.TP
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The various commands are discussed in more detail below.
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.SH GENERAL OPTIONS
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\fBmu\fR offers a number of general options that apply to all commands:
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.TP
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\fB\-a\fR, \fB\-\-muhome\fR
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causes \fBmu\fR to use an alternative directory to
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store and read its database and logs. By default, \fI~/.mu\fR is used.
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.TP
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\fB\-d\fR, \fB\-\-debug\fR
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makes \fBmu\fR generate extra debug information,
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useful for debugging the program itself. By default, debug information goes to
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the log file, \fI~/.mu/mu.log\fR. It can safely be deleted when \fBmu\fR is
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not running. Note, with the debug option, the log file can grow rather quickly.
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.TP
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\fB\-q\fR, \fB\-\-quiet\fR
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causes \fBmu\fR not to output informational
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messages and progress information to standard output, but only to the log
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file. Error messages will still be sent to standard error. Note that \fBmu
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index\fR is \fBmuch\fR faster with \fB\-\-quiet\fR, so it is recommended you
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use this option when using \fBmu\fR from scripts etc.
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.TP
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\fB\-e\fR, \fB\-\-log-stderr\fR
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causes \fBmu\fR not to output all log messages
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to standard error, in addition to sending them to the log file.
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.TP
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\fB\-v\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR
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outputs the \fBmu\fR-version and copyright
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information.
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.TP
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\fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-help\fR
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list the various command line options, while
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\fB\-\-help\-index\fR, \fB\-\-help\-find\fR and \fB\-\-help\-all\fR list only
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the options for one command, or all of the commands.
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.SH THE INDEX COMMAND
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Using the
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.B index
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command, you can index your Maildir directories, and store the information in
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a Xapian database.
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.B index
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understands Maildirs as defined by Dan Bernstein for qmail(7). In addition, it
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understands recursive Maildirs (Maildirs within Maildirs), Maildir++. It can
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also deal with VFAT-based Maildirs which use '!' as the seperators instead
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of ':' as used by Tinymail/Modest and some other e-mail programs.
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E-mail messages which are not stored in something resembling a maildir leaf
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directory (\fIcur\fR and \fInew\fR) are ignored.
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Currently, symlinks are not followed.
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If there is a file called \fI.noindex\fR in a directory, the contents of that
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directory and all of its subdirectories will be ignored. This can be useful to
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exclude certain directories from the indexing process, for example directories
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with spam-messages.
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The first run of \fBmu index\fR may take a few minutes if you have a lot of
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mail (ten thousands of messages). Fortunately, such a full scan needs to be
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done only once, after that it suffices to index the changes, which goes much
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faster. Also note that a substantial amount of the time goes to printing the
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progress information; if you turn that off (with \fB\-q\fR or
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\fB\-\-quiet\fR), it goes a lot faster. See the 'Note on performance' below
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for more information.
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The optional phase two of the indexing-process is the removal of messages from
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the database for which there is no longer a corresponding file in the
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Maildir. If you do not want this, you can use \fB\-u\fR, \fB\-\-nocleanup\fR.
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.SS Indexing options
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.TP
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\fB\-m\fR, \fB\-\-maildir\fR=\fI<maildir>\fR
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starts searching at \fI<maildir>\fR. By default,
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\fBmu\fR uses whatever the
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.B MAILDIR
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environment variable is set to; if that is not set, it tries
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.B ~/Maildir
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\.
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.TP
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\fB\-r\fR, \fB\-\-reindex\fR
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re-index all mails, even ones that are already in the database.
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.TP
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\fB\-u\fR, \fB\-\-nocleanup\fR
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disables the database cleanup that \fBmu\fR does by default after indexing.
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.TP
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.B NOTE:
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It is probably not a good idea to run multiple instances of
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.B mu index
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concurrently. No data loss should occur, but one or more of the instances may
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experience errors due to database locks.
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Also note that, before indexing is completed, searches for messages may fail,
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even if they have already been indexed, as some of the esssential database
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information will only be written in batches during the indexing process.
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.SS A note on performance
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As a non-scientific benchmark, a simple test on the authors machine (a
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Thinkpad X61s laptop using Linux 2.6.31 and an ext3 file system) with no
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existing database, and a maildir with 14,200 messages:
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.nf
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$ sudo sh -c 'sync && echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches'
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$ time mu index --quiet
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83.36s user 6.49s system 43% cpu 3:26.21 total
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.si
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(about 69 messages per second)
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A second run, which is the more typical use case when there is a database
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already, goes much faster:
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.nf
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$ sudo sh -c 'sync && echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches'
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$ time mu index --quiet
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0.29s user 0.62s system 14% cpu 6.409 total
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.si
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(about 2219 message per second)
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Note that each of test flushes the caches first; a more common use case might
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be to run \fBmu index\fR when new mail has arrived; the cache may stay
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quite 'warm' in that case:
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.nf
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$ time mu index --quiet
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0.19s user 0.21s system 98% cpu 0.402 total
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.si
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which is more than 35,0000 messages per second (there is some variance here,
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but the author has not seen it getting under 30,0000 messages per second).
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.SH THE FIND COMMAND
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The
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.B find
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command starts a search for messages in the database that match the search
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pattern. Currently, the maximum number of matches for any query is 10,000
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messages.
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The search pattern is taken as a command line parameter. If the search
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parameter consists of multiple parts (multiple command line parameters) they
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are treated as if there were a logical \fBAND\fR between them.
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If you want to make your own constructions (using \fBAND\fR, \fBOR\fR,
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\fBNOT\fR etc., you have to put quote them so \fBmu\fR can consider them as a
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unit.
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\fBmu\fR relies on the Xapian database for its searching capabilities, so it
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offers all the search functionality that Xapian offers; please refer to:
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\fIhttp://xapian.org/docs/queryparser.html\fR
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The basic way to search a message is to type some words matching it, as you
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would do in a search engine on the internet, ie.
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.nf
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mu find monkey banana
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.fi
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will find all message that have both 'monkey' and 'banana'. Matching is
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case-insensitive and somewhat intelligent, in that it tries to recognize
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various forms of a word (such as plulars); this is all courtesy of Xapina.
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\fBmu\fR also recognizes prefixes for specific fields in a messages; for
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example:
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.nf
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mu find subject:penguin
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.fi
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to find messages with have the word \fBpenguin\fR in the subject field. You
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can abbreviate \fBsubject:\fR to just \fBs:\fR. Here is the full table of the
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search fields and their abbreviations:
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.nf
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cc,c CC (Carbon-Copy) recipient
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from,f Message sender
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path,p Full path to the message
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subject,s Message subject
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to,t To: recipient
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msgid,m Message-ID
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.fi
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.SS Find options
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The \fBfind\fR-command has various options that influence the way \fBmu\fR
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displays the results. If you don't specify anything, the defaults are
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\fI\-\-fields="d f s"\fR, \fI\-\-sortfield=date\fR and \fI\-\-descending\fR.
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.TP
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\fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-fields\fR=\fI<fields>\fR
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specifies a string that determines which fields are shown in the output. This
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string consists of a number of characters (such as 's' for subject or 'f' for
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from), which will replace with the actual field in the output. Fields that are
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not known will be output as-is, allowing for some simple formatting.
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For example:
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.nf
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mu find subject:snow --fields "d f s"
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.fi
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would list the date, subject and sender of all messages with 'snow' in the
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their subject.
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The table of replacement characters is superset of the list mentions for
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search parameters:
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.nf
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t To: recipient
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c CC (Carbon-Copy) recipient
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d Sent date of the message
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f Message sender (From:)
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F Message flags
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p Full path to the message
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P Message priority (high, normal, low)
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s Message subject
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m Message ID
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t To: recipient
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.fi
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The message-flags output is a string, consisting of zero or more of the
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following characters.
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.nf
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D Draft Message
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F Flagged
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N New message (in new/ Maildir)
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P Passed ('Handled')
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R Replied
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S Seen
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T Marked for deletion
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a Has attachment
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s Signed message
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x Encrypted message
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.fi
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Note that these are theoretical flags, which may or may not be actually in
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use.
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.TP
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\fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-sortfield\fR \fR=\fI<field>\fR and \fB\-z\fR, \fB\-\-descending\fR
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specifies the field to sort the search results by, and the direction. The
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following fields are supported:
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.nf
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cc,c CC (Carbon-Copy) recipient
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date,d message sent date
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from,f message sender
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msgid,m message id
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path,p full path to the message
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prio,P message priority
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subject,s message subject
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to,t To:-recipient
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.fi
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Thus, for example, to sort messages by date, you could specify:
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.nf
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$ mu find fahrrad --fields "d f s" --sortfield=date --descending
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.fi
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Note, if you specify a sortfield, by default, they are sorted in descending
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order (e.g., from lowest to highest). This is usually a good choice, but for
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dates it may be more useful to sort in the opposite direction.
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.TP
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\fB\-x\fR, \fB\-\-xquery\fR
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shows the Xapian query corresponding to your search terms. This is mostly
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useful for debugging.
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.TP
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\fB\-l\fR, \fB\-\-linksdir\fR \fR=\fI<dir>\fR and \fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-clearlinks\fR
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output the results as a maildir with symbolic links to the found
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messages. This enables easy integration with mail-clients (see below for more
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information). \fBmu\fR will create the maildir if it does not exist yet.
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If you specify \fB\-\-clearlinks\fR, all existing symlinks will be cleared
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from the target maildir; this allows for re-use of the same directory. An
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alternative would be to delete the target directory before, but this has a big
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chance of accidentaly removing something that should not be removed.
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.nf
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$ mu find grolsch --linksdir=~/Maildir/search --clearlinks
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.fi
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will store links to found messages in \fI~/Maildir/search\fR. If the directory
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does not exist yet, it will be created.
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Note: when \fBmu\fR creates a Maildir for these links, it automatically
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inserts a \fI.noindex\fR file, to exclude the directory from \fBmu
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index\fR.
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.SS Example queries
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Here are some simple examples of \fBmu\fR search queries; you can make many
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more complicated queries using various logical operators, parentheses and so
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on, but in the author's experience, it's usually faster to find a message with
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a simple query just searching for some words.
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Find all messages with both 'bee' and 'bird' (in any field)
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.nf
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$ mu find 'bee AND bird'
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.fi
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or shorter, because \fBAND\fR is implied:
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.nf
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$ mu find bee bird
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.fi
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Find all messages with either Frodo or Sam:
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.nf
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$ mu find 'Frodo OR Sam'
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.fi
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Find all messages with the 'wombat' as subject, and 'capibara' anywhere:
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.nf
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$ mu find subject:wombat capibara
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.fi
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Find all messages in the 'Archive' folder from Fred:
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.nf
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$ mu find from:fred path:archive
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.fi
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.SS Integrating mu find with mail clients
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.TP
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\fBmutt\fR
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For \fBmutt\fR you can use the following in your \fImuttrc\fR; pressing the F8
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key will start a search, and F9 will take you to the results.
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.nf
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# mutt macros for mu
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macro index <F8> "<shell-escape>mu find -c -l ~/Maildir/search " \
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"mu find"
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macro index <F9> "<change-folder-readonly>~/Maildir/search" \
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"display mu find results"
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.fi
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.TP
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\fBWanderlust\fR
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If you use Wanderlust for \fBemacs\fR, the following definitons can be used;
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typing 'Q' will start a query.
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.nf
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;; mu integration for Wanderlust
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(defvar mu-wl-mu-program "mu")
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(defvar mu-wl-search-folder "search")
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(defun mu-wl-search ()
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"search for messages with `mu', and jump to the results"
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(interactive)
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(let* ((muexpr (read-string "Find messages matching: "))
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(sfldr (concat elmo-maildir-folder-path "/"
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mu-wl-search-folder))
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(cmdline (concat mu-wl-mu-program " find "
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"--clearlinks --linksdir='" sfldr "' "
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muexpr)))
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(= 0 (shell-command cmdline))))
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(defun mu-wl-search-and-goto ()
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"search and jump to the folder with the results"
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(interactive)
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(if (mu-wl-search)
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(wl-summary-goto-folder-subr
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(concat "." mu-wl-search-folder)
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'force-update nil nil t)
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(message "Query failed")))
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.fi
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.SH THE MKDIR COMMAND
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With the
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.B mkdir
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command, you can create new Maildirs with permissions 0755. For example,
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.nf
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mu mkdir tom dick harry
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.fi
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will create three Maildirs \fItom\fR, \fIdick\fR and \fIharry\fR.
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If the creation somehow fails, for safety reasons, \fBno\fR attempt is made to
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remove any parts that were created.
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.SH FILES
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By default, \fBmu index\fR stores its message database in
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\fI~/.mu/xapian-<version>\fR, where \fI<version>\fR is the version of the
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database layout, which is not necessarily the same as the \fBmu\fR version
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number.
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\fBmu\fR stores logs of its operations in \fI~/.mu/mu.log\fR. These can grow
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quite big when using the \fI\-\-debug\fR option, but they can be safely
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delete when \fBmu\fR is not running.
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To store various \fBmu\fR-files elsewhere from their default location, one can
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use the \fI\-\-muhome\fR option, as discussed in the \fBGENERAL OPTIONS\fR
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section.
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.SH ENVIRONMENT
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As mentioned, \fBmu index\fR uses \fBMAILDIR\fR to find the user's Maildir if
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it has not been specified explicitly \fB\-\-maildir\fR=\fI<maildir>\fR. If
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MAILDIR is not set, \fBmu index\fR will try \fI~/Maildir\fR.
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.
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.SH BUGS
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There probably are some; please report bugs when you find them:
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.BR http://code.google.com/p/mu0/issues/list
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.SH AUTHOR
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Dirk-Jan C. Binnema <djcb@djcbsoftware.nl>
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.SH "SEE ALSO"
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.BR maildir(5)
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