The first patch looks ok. I like the new API overall.

As far as breaking contrib/notmuch-deliver, I'd rather fix
notmuch-insert than put effort into notmuch-deliver at this point. I
guess it could be a rough transition for people running notmuch-deliver
from git.

Jani Nikula <jani@nikula.org> writes:

> +/*
> + * XXX: error handling should clean up *all* state created!
> + */
is this a warning to future hackers or some current problem?

>  notmuch_status_t
> -notmuch_database_open (const char *path,
> -		       notmuch_database_mode_t mode,
> -		       notmuch_database_t **database)
> +notmuch_database_open (notmuch_database_t *notmuch, const char *path,
> +		       notmuch_database_mode_t mode)
>  
> +/* Initialize a new, empty database handle.
> + *

I wondered about making the new documentation adhere to doxygen?


> +    if (notmuch_database_open (notmuch,
> +			       notmuch_config_get_database_path (config),
> +			       NOTMUCH_DATABASE_MODE_READ_ONLY))

Would it make any sense to migrate the mode argument to an option
setting while we're messing with the API?