Understanding the "replied" tag

[Xu Wang]

On Thu, Jun 11, 2015 at 2:39 PM, Xu Wang <xuwang762 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 11, 2015 at 2:25 PM, Jani Nikula <jani at nikula.org> wrote:
>> On Thu, 11 Jun 2015, Xu Wang <xuwang762 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Dear all,
>>>
>>> First, I am extremely excited to be a part of this list now. notmuch
>>> has really helped me. Thank you go all individuals working to improve
>>> it and to help others to know how to use it.
>>>
>>> I would really like to know if a message has been replied to (e.g.
>>> using a certain message id). It seems that all I need to do is check
>>> for the "replied" tag. But often this tag is not there, even when
>>> there has been a reply (I have confirmed this through the thread
>>> display and checking the message that replied to the message to make
>>> sure it indeed has header "replied-to:<MSG-ID>").
>>>
>>> I have looked in mutt, and also I see many situations where there is
>>> no 'r' flag, especially for emails sent from me.
>>>
>>> The following returns true:
>>> notmuch config get maildir.synchronize_flags
>>>
>>> So at least both are giving same answer, but I'm not sure why not
>>> saying "replied" thread is correct.
>>>
>>> What is incorrect for my way of thinking about "replied"? Do I
>>> misunderstand what it is supposed to do or am I not updating the flags
>>> correctly?
>>
>> Notmuch deals with the "replied" tag in two ways.
>>
>> First, the tag is synchronized with the maildir flag R, both ways. This
>> is the "R" in the filename after ":2,". See [1] for details.
>>
>> Second, the notmuch-emacs interface adds the "replied" tag upon sending
>> the reply. You can customize this tag, but note that only "replied" gets
>> synchronized to maildir flags.
>>
>> If you use a MUA that doesn't either add the R flag or call notmuch to
>> add the "replied" tag, you'll lose this bit of information.
>>
>> You might also find [2] relevant.
>>
>> BR,
>> Jani.
>>
>>
>> [1] http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html
>> [2] http://notmuchmail.org/special-tags/
>
> Thank you so much, Jani. This is very informative to me. I think I
> have a good understanding now of what is going on.
>
> My question then is this:
>
> I trust notmuch more than mutt, because notmuch is aware of threads
> and all mail boxes. Also note that I often use gmail web interface to
> reply emails.
>
> Am I correct in the following: if notmuch wanted to, when I run
> "notmuch new", notmuch has the information that it could
> (theoretically) update and correct all of the "replied" tags. Is that
> correct? If so, my next question is: why doesn't it do that?
>
> I think I'm close to getting notmuch intution on its goals.
>
> Kind regards,

The following message is in response to Suvayu (I am now finally
subscribed to the list so I will have no future problem):

Thank you. The problem in the end is that I would like 'notmuch new'
to not only schronize the 'reply' tag but to master handle the reply
tag because notmuch knows which messages have been replied to (because
it is aware of threads).

Kind regards,

Xu