diff --git a/src/mu-msg-file.c b/src/mu-msg-file.c
index f18aaa3a..2976c6ad 100644
--- a/src/mu-msg-file.c
+++ b/src/mu-msg-file.c
@@ -49,46 +49,12 @@ static gboolean init_file_metadata (MuMsgFile *self, const char* path,
 static gboolean init_mime_msg (MuMsgFile *msg, const char *path, GError **err);
 
 
-/* note, we do the gmime initialization here rather than in
- * mu-runtime, because this way we don't need mu-runtime for simple
- * cases -- such as our unit tests */
-static gboolean _gmime_initialized = FALSE;
-
-static void
-gmime_init (void)
-{
-	g_return_if_fail (!_gmime_initialized);
-	
-#ifdef GMIME_ENABLE_RFC2047_WORKAROUNDS
-	g_mime_init(GMIME_ENABLE_RFC2047_WORKAROUNDS);
-#else
-	g_mime_init(0);
-#endif /* GMIME_ENABLE_RFC2047_WORKAROUNDS */
-
-	_gmime_initialized = TRUE;
-}
-
-static void
-gmime_uninit (void)
-{
-		g_return_if_fail (_gmime_initialized);
-
-		g_mime_shutdown();
-		_gmime_initialized = FALSE;
-}
-
-
 MuMsgFile*   
 mu_msg_file_new (const char* filepath, const char *mdir, GError **err)
 {
 	MuMsgFile *self;
 
 	g_return_val_if_fail (filepath, NULL);
-	
-	if (G_UNLIKELY(!_gmime_initialized)) {
-		gmime_init ();
-		g_atexit (gmime_uninit);
-	}
 		
 	self = g_slice_new0 (MuMsgFile);	
 	
diff --git a/src/mu-msg.c b/src/mu-msg.c
index 2613f9ee..45a944d3 100644
--- a/src/mu-msg.c
+++ b/src/mu-msg.c
@@ -36,11 +36,47 @@
 
 #include "mu-maildir.h"
 
+/* note, we do the gmime initialization here rather than in
+ * mu-runtime, because this way we don't need mu-runtime for simple
+ * cases -- such as our unit tests. Also note that we need gmime init
+ * even for the doc backend, as we use the address parsing functions
+ * also there. */
+static gboolean _gmime_initialized = FALSE;
+
+static void
+gmime_init (void)
+{
+	g_return_if_fail (!_gmime_initialized);
+	
+#ifdef GMIME_ENABLE_RFC2047_WORKAROUNDS
+	g_mime_init(GMIME_ENABLE_RFC2047_WORKAROUNDS);
+#else
+	g_mime_init(0);
+#endif /* GMIME_ENABLE_RFC2047_WORKAROUNDS */
+	
+	_gmime_initialized = TRUE;
+}
+
+static void
+gmime_uninit (void)
+{
+	g_return_if_fail (_gmime_initialized);
+	
+	g_mime_shutdown();
+	_gmime_initialized = FALSE;
+}
+
+
 static MuMsg*
 msg_new (void)
 {
 	MuMsg *self;
-
+	
+	if (G_UNLIKELY(!_gmime_initialized)) {
+		gmime_init ();
+		g_atexit (gmime_uninit);
+	}
+	
 	self = g_slice_new0 (MuMsg);
 
 	self->_refcount = 1;
@@ -546,7 +582,7 @@ addresses_foreach (const char* addrs, MuMsgContactType ctype,
 		   MuMsgContactForeachFunc func, gpointer user_data)
 {
 	InternetAddressList *addrlist;
-
+	
 	if (!addrs)
 		return;
 	
diff --git a/src/mu-msg.h b/src/mu-msg.h
index 3c47dc56..6c58b104 100644
--- a/src/mu-msg.h
+++ b/src/mu-msg.h
@@ -368,18 +368,23 @@ int mu_msg_cmp (MuMsg *m1, MuMsg *m2, MuMsgFieldId mfid);
 gboolean mu_msg_is_readable (MuMsg *self);
 
 
+struct _MuMsgIterThreadInfo;
+
+
 /**
  * convert the msg to a Lisp symbolic expression (for further processing in
  * e.g. emacs)
  * 
  * @param msg a valid message
+ * @param ti thread info for the current message, or NULL
  * @param dbonly if TRUE, only include message fields which can be
  * obtained from the database (this is much faster if the MuMsg is
  * database-backed, so no file needs to be opened)
  * 
  * @return a string with the sexp (free with g_free) or NULL in case of error
  */
-char* mu_msg_to_sexp (MuMsg *msg, gboolean dbonly);
+char* mu_msg_to_sexp (MuMsg *msg, const struct _MuMsgIterThreadInfo *ti,
+		      gboolean dbonly);
 
 /**
  * move a message to another maildir