Re: v4 Git remote notmuch

Subject: Re: v4 Git remote notmuch

Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2026 08:22:10 +0900

To: Michael J Gruber

Cc: notmuch@notmuchmail.org

From: David Bremner


Michael J Gruber <michaeljgruber+grubix+git@gmail.com> writes:

> Am Mo., 16. Feb. 2026 um 09:42 Uhr schrieb Michael J Gruber
> <michaeljgruber+grubix+git@gmail.com>:
>>
>> Am So., 15. Feb. 2026 um 23:57 Uhr schrieb David Bremner <david@tethera.net>:
>> >
>> > David Bremner <david@tethera.net> writes:
>> >
>> > >
>> > > I have now used this code daily for 5 months, and I think it is fairly
>> > > solid. Unless someone convinces me otherwise, I plan on shipping this
>> > > as part of notmuch 0.41.
>> > >
>> > > Comments on the man page are particularly welcome.
>> >
>> > I have applied this series to master. Documentation (and other)
>> > improvements are still welcome.
>>
>> Seems I completely missed looking at v4, sorry.
>>
>> I think it's worth spelling out somewhere that this remote helper does
>> not deal with "remote" notmuch databases. Rather, it allows to treat a
>> local notmuch db as a git repository.
>> This may be clear to git users who read "remote helper" as "foreign
>> repo helper", but in many of those cases the helpers allow (and
>> typically are used with) remote URLs for the foreign system (svn and
>> such).
>>
>> If I understand correctly, the typical use case here is different: use
>> the local git repo and git's transport mechanisms in order to "sync" a
>> notmuch database. I.e., notmuch <-> git is purely local (provided by
>> the new "remote helper"), whereas all fetching and pushing is via git.
>> Which is the beauty of it, of course.
>>
>> What would be a good place for a "Usage" section?
>>
>> NB: s/proved//provided/ in patch 9.
>
> ... two more before I forget:
>
> clarify notmuch-git vs git-remote-notmuch

Yes, this is a current doc problem. I hope to convert notmuch-git to be
a front end to git-remote-notmuch, and update the docs at that time.

>
> Package the remote helper in a separate package rather than main? Does
> the helper depend on git bits?

I haven't tested this extensively (just ran the helper, got to the stage
of needing a database), but the git-remote-notmuch binary
should run fine without git being installed on the system. I guess that
is even conceivably useful in some exotic container scenarios.
I decided to package it in the main notmuch package because it does not
(afaik) add any dependencies (unlike notmuch-git). Conceptually it would
also make sense to package it together with notmuch-git, at least once
notmuch-git is migrated to use git-remote-notmuch.

d

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