Maildir searches are quite similar to bookmark searches (see Bookmarks),
with the difference being that the target is always a maildir — maildir
queries provide a ‘traditional’ folder-like interface to a search-based e-mail
client. By default, maildir searches are available in the The main view,
The headers view, and The message view, with the key j
(mu4e-jump-to-maildir). If a prefix argument is given, the maildir
query can be refined before execution.
You can search for maildirs like any other message property
(e.g. with a query like maildir:/myfolder), but since it is so common,
mu4e offers a shortcut for this.
For this to work, you need to set the variable
mu4e-maildir-shortcuts to the list of maildirs you want to have
quick access to, for example:
(setq mu4e-maildir-shortcuts
'( (:maildir "/inbox" :key ?i)
(:maildir "/archive" :key ?a)
(:maildir "/lists" :key ?l)
(:maildir "/work" :key ?w)
(:maildir "/sent" :key ?s)
(:maildir "/lists/project/project_X" :key ?x :name "Project X")))
This sets i as a shortcut for the /inbox folder — effectively a
query maildir:/inbox. There is a special shortcut o or / for
other (so don’t use those for your own shortcuts!), which allows you to
choose from all maildirs that you have. There is support for
autocompletion; note that the list of maildirs is determined when mu4e
starts; if there are changes in the maildirs while mu4e is running, you
need to restart mu4e. Optionally, you can specify a name to be displayed
in the main view.
Each of the folder names is relative to your top-level maildir directory; so
if you keep your mail in ~/Maildir, /inbox would refer to
~/Maildir/inbox. With these shortcuts, you can jump around your
maildirs (folders) very quickly — for example, getting to the /lists
folder only requires you to type jl, then change to /work with
jw.
While in queries you need to quote folder names (maildirs) with spaces in
them, you should not quote them when used in
mu4e-maildir-shortcuts, since mu4e does that automatically for you.
The very same shortcuts are used by M-x mu4e-mark-for-move (default
shortcut m); so, for example, if you want to move a message to the
/archive folder, you can do so by typing ma.