Documentation/git-send-email.txt

   1 git-send-email(1)
   2 =================
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-send-email - Send a collection of patches as emails
   7
   8
   9 SYNOPSIS
  10 --------
  11 [verse]
  12 'git send-email' [<options>] <file|directory|rev-list options>...
  13 'git send-email' --dump-aliases
  14
  15
  16 DESCRIPTION
  17 -----------
  18 Takes the patches given on the command line and emails them out.
  19 Patches can be specified as files, directories (which will send all
  20 files in the directory), or directly as a revision list.  In the
  21 last case, any format accepted by linkgit:git-format-patch[1] can
  22 be passed to git send-email.
  23
  24 The header of the email is configurable via command-line options.  If not
  25 specified on the command line, the user will be prompted with a ReadLine
  26 enabled interface to provide the necessary information.
  27
  28 There are two formats accepted for patch files:
  29
  30 1. mbox format files
  31 +
  32 This is what linkgit:git-format-patch[1] generates.  Most headers and MIME
  33 formatting are ignored.
  34
  35 2. The original format used by Greg Kroah-Hartman's 'send_lots_of_email.pl'
  36    script
  37 +
  38 This format expects the first line of the file to contain the "Cc:" value
  39 and the "Subject:" of the message as the second line.
  40
  41
  42 OPTIONS
  43 -------
  44
  45 Composing
  46 ~~~~~~~~~
  47
  48 --annotate::
  49         Review and edit each patch you're about to send. Default is the value
  50         of `sendemail.annotate`. See the CONFIGURATION section for
  51         `sendemail.multiEdit`.
  52
  53 --bcc=<address>,...::
  54         Specify a "Bcc:" value for each email. Default is the value of
  55         `sendemail.bcc`.
  56 +
  57 This option may be specified multiple times.
  58
  59 --cc=<address>,...::
  60         Specify a starting "Cc:" value for each email.
  61         Default is the value of `sendemail.cc`.
  62 +
  63 This option may be specified multiple times.
  64
  65 --compose::
  66         Invoke a text editor (see GIT_EDITOR in linkgit:git-var[1])
  67         to edit an introductory message for the patch series.
  68 +
  69 When `--compose` is used, git send-email will use the From, Subject, and
  70 In-Reply-To headers specified in the message. If the body of the message
  71 (what you type after the headers and a blank line) only contains blank
  72 (or Git: prefixed) lines, the summary won't be sent, but From, Subject,
  73 and In-Reply-To headers will be used unless they are removed.
  74 +
  75 Missing From or In-Reply-To headers will be prompted for.
  76 +
  77 See the CONFIGURATION section for `sendemail.multiEdit`.
  78
  79 --from=<address>::
  80         Specify the sender of the emails.  If not specified on the command line,
  81         the value of the `sendemail.from` configuration option is used.  If
  82         neither the command-line option nor `sendemail.from` are set, then the
  83         user will be prompted for the value.  The default for the prompt will be
  84         the value of GIT_AUTHOR_IDENT, or GIT_COMMITTER_IDENT if that is not
  85         set, as returned by "git var -l".
  86
  87 --reply-to=<address>::
  88         Specify the address where replies from recipients should go to.
  89         Use this if replies to messages should go to another address than what
  90         is specified with the --from parameter.
  91
  92 --in-reply-to=<identifier>::
  93         Make the first mail (or all the mails with `--no-thread`) appear as a
  94         reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to
  95         provide a new patch series.
  96         The second and subsequent emails will be sent as replies according to
  97         the `--[no-]chain-reply-to` setting.
  98 +
  99 So for example when `--thread` and `--no-chain-reply-to` are specified, the
 100 second and subsequent patches will be replies to the first one like in the
 101 illustration below where `[PATCH v2 0/3]` is in reply to `[PATCH 0/2]`:
 102 +
 103   [PATCH 0/2] Here is what I did...
 104     [PATCH 1/2] Clean up and tests
 105     [PATCH 2/2] Implementation
 106     [PATCH v2 0/3] Here is a reroll
 107       [PATCH v2 1/3] Clean up
 108       [PATCH v2 2/3] New tests
 109       [PATCH v2 3/3] Implementation
 110 +
 111 Only necessary if --compose is also set.  If --compose
 112 is not set, this will be prompted for.
 113
 114 --subject=<string>::
 115         Specify the initial subject of the email thread.
 116         Only necessary if --compose is also set.  If --compose
 117         is not set, this will be prompted for.
 118
 119 --to=<address>,...::
 120         Specify the primary recipient of the emails generated. Generally, this
 121         will be the upstream maintainer of the project involved. Default is the
 122         value of the `sendemail.to` configuration value; if that is unspecified,
 123         and --to-cmd is not specified, this will be prompted for.
 124 +
 125 This option may be specified multiple times.
 126
 127 --8bit-encoding=<encoding>::
 128         When encountering a non-ASCII message or subject that does not
 129         declare its encoding, add headers/quoting to indicate it is
 130         encoded in <encoding>.  Default is the value of the
 131         'sendemail.assume8bitEncoding'; if that is unspecified, this
 132         will be prompted for if any non-ASCII files are encountered.
 133 +
 134 Note that no attempts whatsoever are made to validate the encoding.
 135
 136 --compose-encoding=<encoding>::
 137         Specify encoding of compose message. Default is the value of the
 138         'sendemail.composeencoding'; if that is unspecified, UTF-8 is assumed.
 139
 140 --transfer-encoding=(7bit|8bit|quoted-printable|base64|auto)::
 141         Specify the transfer encoding to be used to send the message over SMTP.
 142         7bit will fail upon encountering a non-ASCII message.  quoted-printable
 143         can be useful when the repository contains files that contain carriage
 144         returns, but makes the raw patch email file (as saved from a MUA) much
 145         harder to inspect manually.  base64 is even more fool proof, but also
 146         even more opaque.  auto will use 8bit when possible, and quoted-printable
 147         otherwise.
 148 +
 149 Default is the value of the `sendemail.transferEncoding` configuration
 150 value; if that is unspecified, default to `auto`.
 151
 152 --xmailer::
 153 --no-xmailer::
 154         Add (or prevent adding) the "X-Mailer:" header.  By default,
 155         the header is added, but it can be turned off by setting the
 156         `sendemail.xmailer` configuration variable to `false`.
 157
 158 Sending
 159 ~~~~~~~
 160
 161 --envelope-sender=<address>::
 162         Specify the envelope sender used to send the emails.
 163         This is useful if your default address is not the address that is
 164         subscribed to a list. In order to use the 'From' address, set the
 165         value to "auto". If you use the sendmail binary, you must have
 166         suitable privileges for the -f parameter.  Default is the value of the
 167         `sendemail.envelopeSender` configuration variable; if that is
 168         unspecified, choosing the envelope sender is left to your MTA.
 169
 170 --smtp-encryption=<encryption>::
 171         Specify the encryption to use, either 'ssl' or 'tls'.  Any other
 172         value reverts to plain SMTP.  Default is the value of
 173         `sendemail.smtpEncryption`.
 174
 175 --smtp-domain=<FQDN>::
 176         Specifies the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) used in the
 177         HELO/EHLO command to the SMTP server.  Some servers require the
 178         FQDN to match your IP address.  If not set, git send-email attempts
 179         to determine your FQDN automatically.  Default is the value of
 180         `sendemail.smtpDomain`.
 181
 182 --smtp-auth=<mechanisms>::
 183         Whitespace-separated list of allowed SMTP-AUTH mechanisms. This setting
 184         forces using only the listed mechanisms. Example:
 185 +
 186 ------
 187 $ git send-email --smtp-auth="PLAIN LOGIN GSSAPI" ...
 188 ------
 189 +
 190 If at least one of the specified mechanisms matches the ones advertised by the
 191 SMTP server and if it is supported by the utilized SASL library, the mechanism
 192 is used for authentication. If neither 'sendemail.smtpAuth' nor `--smtp-auth`
 193 is specified, all mechanisms supported by the SASL library can be used. The
 194 special value 'none' maybe specified to completely disable authentication
 195 independently of `--smtp-user`
 196
 197 --smtp-pass[=<password>]::
 198         Password for SMTP-AUTH. The argument is optional: If no
 199         argument is specified, then the empty string is used as
 200         the password. Default is the value of `sendemail.smtpPass`,
 201         however `--smtp-pass` always overrides this value.
 202 +
 203 Furthermore, passwords need not be specified in configuration files
 204 or on the command line. If a username has been specified (with
 205 `--smtp-user` or a `sendemail.smtpUser`), but no password has been
 206 specified (with `--smtp-pass` or `sendemail.smtpPass`), then
 207 a password is obtained using 'git-credential'.
 208
 209 --no-smtp-auth::
 210         Disable SMTP authentication. Short hand for `--smtp-auth=none`
 211
 212 --smtp-server=<host>::
 213         If set, specifies the outgoing SMTP server to use (e.g.
 214         `smtp.example.com` or a raw IP address).  Alternatively it can
 215         specify a full pathname of a sendmail-like program instead;
 216         the program must support the `-i` option.  Default value can
 217         be specified by the `sendemail.smtpServer` configuration
 218         option; the built-in default is to search for `sendmail` in
 219         `/usr/sbin`, `/usr/lib` and $PATH if such program is
 220         available, falling back to `localhost` otherwise.
 221
 222 --smtp-server-port=<port>::
 223         Specifies a port different from the default port (SMTP
 224         servers typically listen to smtp port 25, but may also listen to
 225         submission port 587, or the common SSL smtp port 465);
 226         symbolic port names (e.g. "submission" instead of 587)
 227         are also accepted. The port can also be set with the
 228         `sendemail.smtpServerPort` configuration variable.
 229
 230 --smtp-server-option=<option>::
 231         If set, specifies the outgoing SMTP server option to use.
 232         Default value can be specified by the `sendemail.smtpServerOption`
 233         configuration option.
 234 +
 235 The --smtp-server-option option must be repeated for each option you want
 236 to pass to the server. Likewise, different lines in the configuration files
 237 must be used for each option.
 238
 239 --smtp-ssl::
 240         Legacy alias for '--smtp-encryption ssl'.
 241
 242 --smtp-ssl-cert-path::
 243         Path to a store of trusted CA certificates for SMTP SSL/TLS
 244         certificate validation (either a directory that has been processed
 245         by 'c_rehash', or a single file containing one or more PEM format
 246         certificates concatenated together: see verify(1) -CAfile and
 247         -CApath for more information on these). Set it to an empty string
 248         to disable certificate verification. Defaults to the value of the
 249         `sendemail.smtpsslcertpath` configuration variable, if set, or the
 250         backing SSL library's compiled-in default otherwise (which should
 251         be the best choice on most platforms).
 252
 253 --smtp-user=<user>::
 254         Username for SMTP-AUTH. Default is the value of `sendemail.smtpUser`;
 255         if a username is not specified (with `--smtp-user` or `sendemail.smtpUser`),
 256         then authentication is not attempted.
 257
 258 --smtp-debug=0|1::
 259         Enable (1) or disable (0) debug output. If enabled, SMTP
 260         commands and replies will be printed. Useful to debug TLS
 261         connection and authentication problems.
 262
 263 --batch-size=<num>::
 264         Some email servers (e.g. smtp.163.com) limit the number emails to be
 265         sent per session (connection) and this will lead to a failure when
 266         sending many messages.  With this option, send-email will disconnect after
 267         sending $<num> messages and wait for a few seconds (see --relogin-delay)
 268         and reconnect, to work around such a limit.  You may want to
 269         use some form of credential helper to avoid having to retype
 270         your password every time this happens.  Defaults to the
 271         `sendemail.smtpBatchSize` configuration variable.
 272
 273 --relogin-delay=<int>::
 274         Waiting $<int> seconds before reconnecting to SMTP server. Used together
 275         with --batch-size option.  Defaults to the `sendemail.smtpReloginDelay`
 276         configuration variable.
 277
 278 Automating
 279 ~~~~~~~~~~
 280
 281 --to-cmd=<command>::
 282         Specify a command to execute once per patch file which
 283         should generate patch file specific "To:" entries.
 284         Output of this command must be single email address per line.
 285         Default is the value of 'sendemail.tocmd' configuration value.
 286
 287 --cc-cmd=<command>::
 288         Specify a command to execute once per patch file which
 289         should generate patch file specific "Cc:" entries.
 290         Output of this command must be single email address per line.
 291         Default is the value of `sendemail.ccCmd` configuration value.
 292
 293 --[no-]chain-reply-to::
 294         If this is set, each email will be sent as a reply to the previous
 295         email sent.  If disabled with "--no-chain-reply-to", all emails after
 296         the first will be sent as replies to the first email sent.  When using
 297         this, it is recommended that the first file given be an overview of the
 298         entire patch series. Disabled by default, but the `sendemail.chainReplyTo`
 299         configuration variable can be used to enable it.
 300
 301 --identity=<identity>::
 302         A configuration identity. When given, causes values in the
 303         'sendemail.<identity>' subsection to take precedence over
 304         values in the 'sendemail' section. The default identity is
 305         the value of `sendemail.identity`.
 306
 307 --[no-]signed-off-by-cc::
 308         If this is set, add emails found in Signed-off-by: or Cc: lines to the
 309         cc list. Default is the value of `sendemail.signedoffbycc` configuration
 310         value; if that is unspecified, default to --signed-off-by-cc.
 311
 312 --[no-]cc-cover::
 313         If this is set, emails found in Cc: headers in the first patch of
 314         the series (typically the cover letter) are added to the cc list
 315         for each email set. Default is the value of 'sendemail.cccover'
 316         configuration value; if that is unspecified, default to --no-cc-cover.
 317
 318 --[no-]to-cover::
 319         If this is set, emails found in To: headers in the first patch of
 320         the series (typically the cover letter) are added to the to list
 321         for each email set. Default is the value of 'sendemail.tocover'
 322         configuration value; if that is unspecified, default to --no-to-cover.
 323
 324 --suppress-cc=<category>::
 325         Specify an additional category of recipients to suppress the
 326         auto-cc of:
 327 +
 328 --
 329 - 'author' will avoid including the patch author.
 330 - 'self' will avoid including the sender.
 331 - 'cc' will avoid including anyone mentioned in Cc lines in the patch header
 332   except for self (use 'self' for that).
 333 - 'bodycc' will avoid including anyone mentioned in Cc lines in the
 334   patch body (commit message) except for self (use 'self' for that).
 335 - 'sob' will avoid including anyone mentioned in Signed-off-by lines except
 336   for self (use 'self' for that).
 337 - 'misc-by' will avoid including anyone mentioned in Acked-by,
 338   Reviewed-by, Tested-by and other "-by" lines in the patch body,
 339   except Signed-off-by (use 'sob' for that).
 340 - 'cccmd' will avoid running the --cc-cmd.
 341 - 'body' is equivalent to 'sob' + 'bodycc' + 'misc-by'.
 342 - 'all' will suppress all auto cc values.
 343 --
 344 +
 345 Default is the value of `sendemail.suppresscc` configuration value; if
 346 that is unspecified, default to 'self' if --suppress-from is
 347 specified, as well as 'body' if --no-signed-off-cc is specified.
 348
 349 --[no-]suppress-from::
 350         If this is set, do not add the From: address to the cc: list.
 351         Default is the value of `sendemail.suppressFrom` configuration
 352         value; if that is unspecified, default to --no-suppress-from.
 353
 354 --[no-]thread::
 355         If this is set, the In-Reply-To and References headers will be
 356         added to each email sent.  Whether each mail refers to the
 357         previous email (`deep` threading per 'git format-patch'
 358         wording) or to the first email (`shallow` threading) is
 359         governed by "--[no-]chain-reply-to".
 360 +
 361 If disabled with "--no-thread", those headers will not be added
 362 (unless specified with --in-reply-to).  Default is the value of the
 363 `sendemail.thread` configuration value; if that is unspecified,
 364 default to --thread.
 365 +
 366 It is up to the user to ensure that no In-Reply-To header already
 367 exists when 'git send-email' is asked to add it (especially note that
 368 'git format-patch' can be configured to do the threading itself).
 369 Failure to do so may not produce the expected result in the
 370 recipient's MUA.
 371
 372
 373 Administering
 374 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 375
 376 --confirm=<mode>::
 377         Confirm just before sending:
 378 +
 379 --
 380 - 'always' will always confirm before sending
 381 - 'never' will never confirm before sending
 382 - 'cc' will confirm before sending when send-email has automatically
 383   added addresses from the patch to the Cc list
 384 - 'compose' will confirm before sending the first message when using --compose.
 385 - 'auto' is equivalent to 'cc' + 'compose'
 386 --
 387 +
 388 Default is the value of `sendemail.confirm` configuration value; if that
 389 is unspecified, default to 'auto' unless any of the suppress options
 390 have been specified, in which case default to 'compose'.
 391
 392 --dry-run::
 393         Do everything except actually send the emails.
 394
 395 --[no-]format-patch::
 396         When an argument may be understood either as a reference or as a file name,
 397         choose to understand it as a format-patch argument (`--format-patch`)
 398         or as a file name (`--no-format-patch`). By default, when such a conflict
 399         occurs, git send-email will fail.
 400
 401 --quiet::
 402         Make git-send-email less verbose.  One line per email should be
 403         all that is output.
 404
 405 --[no-]validate::
 406         Perform sanity checks on patches.
 407         Currently, validation means the following:
 408 +
 409 --
 410                 *       Invoke the sendemail-validate hook if present (see linkgit:githooks[5]).
 411                 *       Warn of patches that contain lines longer than
 412                         998 characters unless a suitable transfer encoding
 413                         ('auto', 'base64', or 'quoted-printable') is used;
 414                         this is due to SMTP limits as described by
 415                         http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5322.txt.
 416 --
 417 +
 418 Default is the value of `sendemail.validate`; if this is not set,
 419 default to `--validate`.
 420
 421 --force::
 422         Send emails even if safety checks would prevent it.
 423
 424
 425 Information
 426 ~~~~~~~~~~~
 427
 428 --dump-aliases::
 429         Instead of the normal operation, dump the shorthand alias names from
 430         the configured alias file(s), one per line in alphabetical order. Note,
 431         this only includes the alias name and not its expanded email addresses.
 432         See 'sendemail.aliasesfile' for more information about aliases.
 433
 434
 435 CONFIGURATION
 436 -------------
 437
 438 sendemail.aliasesFile::
 439         To avoid typing long email addresses, point this to one or more
 440         email aliases files.  You must also supply `sendemail.aliasFileType`.
 441
 442 sendemail.aliasFileType::
 443         Format of the file(s) specified in sendemail.aliasesFile. Must be
 444         one of 'mutt', 'mailrc', 'pine', 'elm', or 'gnus', or 'sendmail'.
 445 +
 446 What an alias file in each format looks like can be found in
 447 the documentation of the email program of the same name. The
 448 differences and limitations from the standard formats are
 449 described below:
 450 +
 451 --
 452 sendmail;;
 453 *       Quoted aliases and quoted addresses are not supported: lines that
 454         contain a `"` symbol are ignored.
 455 *       Redirection to a file (`/path/name`) or pipe (`|command`) is not
 456         supported.
 457 *       File inclusion (`:include: /path/name`) is not supported.
 458 *       Warnings are printed on the standard error output for any
 459         explicitly unsupported constructs, and any other lines that are not
 460         recognized by the parser.
 461 --
 462
 463 sendemail.multiEdit::
 464         If true (default), a single editor instance will be spawned to edit
 465         files you have to edit (patches when `--annotate` is used, and the
 466         summary when `--compose` is used). If false, files will be edited one
 467         after the other, spawning a new editor each time.
 468
 469 sendemail.confirm::
 470         Sets the default for whether to confirm before sending. Must be
 471         one of 'always', 'never', 'cc', 'compose', or 'auto'. See `--confirm`
 472         in the previous section for the meaning of these values.
 473
 474 EXAMPLES
 475 --------
 476 Use gmail as the smtp server
 477 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 478 To use 'git send-email' to send your patches through the GMail SMTP server,
 479 edit ~/.gitconfig to specify your account settings:
 480
 481         [sendemail]
 482                 smtpEncryption = tls
 483                 smtpServer = smtp.gmail.com
 484                 smtpUser = yourname@gmail.com
 485                 smtpServerPort = 587
 486
 487 If you have multifactor authentication setup on your gmail account, you will
 488 need to generate an app-specific password for use with 'git send-email'. Visit
 489 https://security.google.com/settings/security/apppasswords to create it.
 490
 491 Once your commits are ready to be sent to the mailing list, run the
 492 following commands:
 493
 494         $ git format-patch --cover-letter -M origin/master -o outgoing/
 495         $ edit outgoing/0000-*
 496         $ git send-email outgoing/*
 497
 498 The first time you run it, you will be prompted for your credentials.  Enter the
 499 app-specific or your regular password as appropriate.  If you have credential
 500 helper configured (see linkgit:git-credential[1]), the password will be saved in
 501 the credential store so you won't have to type it the next time.
 502
 503 Note: the following perl modules are required
 504       Net::SMTP::SSL, MIME::Base64 and Authen::SASL
 505
 506 SEE ALSO
 507 --------
 508 linkgit:git-format-patch[1], linkgit:git-imap-send[1], mbox(5)
 509
 510 GIT
 511 ---
 512 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite