mu4e/man/mu-label.1.org

MU LABEL

• NAME
• SYNOPSIS
• DESCRIPTION
• UPDATE OPTIONS
  • –labels
  • –dry-run
• CLEAR OPTIONS
  • –dry-run
• LIST OPTIONS
• EXPORT OPTIONS
• IMPORT OPTIONS
  • –dry-run
• VALID LABELS
• EXPORT FORMAT
• EXAMPLES
• SEE ALSO

NAME

mu-label - attach labels to messages. Export labels to file, and import them.

SYNOPSIS

mu [​_COMMON-OPTIONS_​] label update [​UPDATE-OPTIONS​] "<query>" –labels [{+,-}<label>]…

mu [​_COMMON-OPTIONS_​] label list [LIST-OPTIONS]

mu [​_COMMON-OPTIONS_​] label clear [CLEAR-OPTIONS] "<query>"

mu [​_COMMON-OPTIONS_​] label export [<file>]

mu [​_COMMON-OPTIONS_​] label import <file>

DESCRIPTION

mu label is the sub-command for adding and removing and listing message labels.

A label is a string associated with a message.

mu label has five sub-commands (i.e., 'sub-sub-commands'):

• update for changing the labels for the messages matching some query
• clear for clearing all labels from messages matching some query
• list to list all labels that are in use in the store
• export to write the label information to a file
• import the read label information from a file

Unlike other message metadata stored by mu, labels cannot be restored by re-indexing messages. Hence, to avoid loosing label information, you must export it before re-indexing, and import afterwards.

UPDATE OPTIONS

The update command changes the labels for messages that match some query. Make sure the query is recognized as a single parameter, i.e., quote it when using from a shell.

–labels

a comma-separated list of labels, each prefixed with either + to add that label, or - to remove it. See VALID LABELS.

–dry-run

only print what would change, but do not change anything

CLEAR OPTIONS

The clear command removes all labels from messages that match some query. Make sure the query is recognized as a single parameter, i.e., quote it when using from a shell.

–dry-run

only print what would change, but do not change anything

LIST OPTIONS

The list command lists all the labels that are currently in use in the store.

EXPORT OPTIONS

The export command outputs all labels in the store to a file, so you can import it later. The command takes a path to a file or a directory (ending in '/') as its argument.

If a file is specified, mu writes the export to it.

If a directory is specified, mu writes to a file in that directory. The directory must already exist.

When neither is specified, mu writes to a file in the current directory.

See EXPORT FORMAT below for details about the format.

IMPORT OPTIONS

The import command is for restoring the labels from a file created through export earlier. The command takes a path to a file as its argument.

See EXPORT FORMAT below for details on the format.

–dry-run

only print what would change, but do not change anything

VALID LABELS

mu does not wish to limit your creativity, but nevertheless puts a few restrictions on what is accepted as a label:

• a valid label character is either a UTF-8 encoded alphanumeric character, or any ASCII character that is not a control-character and is not one of ' ' (SPC), ',', '"', '/', '\' '*', '$'.
• a valid label consists of one or more valid label characters, the first of which must not be either '+' or '-'

Hence, some valid labels are: project-x, capybara, fnorb, while some invalid ones are: holiday plan and +fancy$/dinner.

EXPORT FORMAT

The formats for import/export are UTF-8 encoded text. The first line starts with ;; and some internal data. Empty lines are ignored.

Each entry represents the tags for a message. It consists of three lines. The first starts with path: followed by the file-system path to the message. The second line starts with message-id: followed by the message-id for the message. Finally, the third line starts with tag: followed by space-separated tags for the message

With this, the labels for a message can be restored.

path:/home/user/Maildir/inbox/cur/1720645394.99f64f5d81f42ba4.hyperion:2,S
message-id:669338009127192q7821feh1t826d0c4c90bd8fdf@mail.gmail.com
labels:foo,bar,cuux

Note, the message-id: is only used if the message cannot be found at ~path:. This adds some tolerance for the case where the precise file-system positions have changed since the labels were exported. The upshot of that is that if there are duplicate messages (messages with the same message-id), the tags are applied to all of them.

EXAMPLES

Some examples. For the query parameter, make sure to quote the query to ensure it is recognized as a single parameter.

Remove the label "planet" and add the label "dwarf-planet" to all messages that have "pluto" in their subject:

Clear all labels from messages with the label "boring":

SEE ALSO

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