1GIT-SEND-EMAIL(1) Git Manual GIT-SEND-EMAIL(1)
2
6 git-send-email - Send a collection of patches as emails
7
9 git send-email [<options>] <file|directory|rev-list options>...
10 git send-email --dump-aliases
11
13 Takes the patches given on the command line and emails them out.
14 Patches can be specified as files, directories (which will send all
15 files in the directory), or directly as a revision list. In the last
16 case, any format accepted by git-format-patch(1) can be passed to git
17 send-email.
18 The header of the email is configurable via command-line options. If
20 not specified on the command line, the user will be prompted with a
21 ReadLine enabled interface to provide the necessary information.
22 There are two formats accepted for patch files:
24 1. mbox format files
26 This is what git-format-patch(1) generates. Most headers and MIME
28 formatting are ignored.
29 2. The original format used by Greg Kroah-Hartman’s
31 send_lots_of_email.pl script
32 This format expects the first line of the file to contain the "Cc:"
34 value and the "Subject:" of the message as the second line.
35
37 Composing
38 --annotate
39 Review and edit each patch you’re about to send. Default is the
40 value of sendemail.annotate. See the CONFIGURATION section for
41 sendemail.multiEdit.
42 --bcc=<address>,...
44 Specify a "Bcc:" value for each email. Default is the value of
45 sendemail.bcc.
46 This option may be specified multiple times.
48 --cc=<address>,...
50 Specify a starting "Cc:" value for each email. Default is the value
51 of sendemail.cc.
52 This option may be specified multiple times.
54 --compose
56 Invoke a text editor (see GIT_EDITOR in git-var(1)) to edit an
57 introductory message for the patch series.
58 When --compose is used, git send-email will use the From, Subject,
60 and In-Reply-To headers specified in the message. If the body of
61 the message (what you type after the headers and a blank line) only
62 contains blank (or Git: prefixed) lines, the summary won’t be sent,
63 but From, Subject, and In-Reply-To headers will be used unless they
64 are removed.
65 Missing From or In-Reply-To headers will be prompted for.
67 See the CONFIGURATION section for sendemail.multiEdit.
69 --from=<address>
71 Specify the sender of the emails. If not specified on the command
72 line, the value of the sendemail.from configuration option is used.
73 If neither the command-line option nor sendemail.from are set, then
74 the user will be prompted for the value. The default for the prompt
75 will be the value of GIT_AUTHOR_IDENT, or GIT_COMMITTER_IDENT if
76 that is not set, as returned by "git var -l".
77 --reply-to=<address>
79 Specify the address where replies from recipients should go to. Use
80 this if replies to messages should go to another address than what
81 is specified with the --from parameter.
82 --in-reply-to=<identifier>
84 Make the first mail (or all the mails with --no-thread) appear as a
85 reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to
86 provide a new patch series. The second and subsequent emails will
87 be sent as replies according to the --[no-]chain-reply-to setting.
88 So for example when --thread and --no-chain-reply-to are specified,
90 the second and subsequent patches will be replies to the first one
91 like in the illustration below where [PATCH v2 0/3] is in reply to
92 [PATCH 0/2]:
93 [PATCH 0/2] Here is what I did...
95 [PATCH 1/2] Clean up and tests
96 [PATCH 2/2] Implementation
97 [PATCH v2 0/3] Here is a reroll
98 [PATCH v2 1/3] Clean up
99 [PATCH v2 2/3] New tests
100 [PATCH v2 3/3] Implementation
101 Only necessary if --compose is also set. If --compose is not set,
103 this will be prompted for.
104 --subject=<string>
106 Specify the initial subject of the email thread. Only necessary if
107 --compose is also set. If --compose is not set, this will be
108 prompted for.
109 --to=<address>,...
111 Specify the primary recipient of the emails generated. Generally,
112 this will be the upstream maintainer of the project involved.
113 Default is the value of the sendemail.to configuration value; if
114 that is unspecified, and --to-cmd is not specified, this will be
115 prompted for.
116 This option may be specified multiple times.
118 --8bit-encoding=<encoding>
120 When encountering a non-ASCII message or subject that does not
121 declare its encoding, add headers/quoting to indicate it is encoded
122 in <encoding>. Default is the value of the
123 sendemail.assume8bitEncoding; if that is unspecified, this will be
124 prompted for if any non-ASCII files are encountered.
125 Note that no attempts whatsoever are made to validate the encoding.
127 --compose-encoding=<encoding>
129 Specify encoding of compose message. Default is the value of the
130 sendemail.composeencoding; if that is unspecified, UTF-8 is
131 assumed.
132 --transfer-encoding=(7bit|8bit|quoted-printable|base64|auto)
134 Specify the transfer encoding to be used to send the message over
135 SMTP. 7bit will fail upon encountering a non-ASCII message.
136 quoted-printable can be useful when the repository contains files
137 that contain carriage returns, but makes the raw patch email file
138 (as saved from a MUA) much harder to inspect manually. base64 is
139 even more fool proof, but also even more opaque. auto will use 8bit
140 when possible, and quoted-printable otherwise.
141 Default is the value of the sendemail.transferEncoding
143 configuration value; if that is unspecified, default to auto.
144 --xmailer, --no-xmailer
146 Add (or prevent adding) the "X-Mailer:" header. By default, the
147 header is added, but it can be turned off by setting the
148 sendemail.xmailer configuration variable to false.
149 Sending
151 --envelope-sender=<address>
152 Specify the envelope sender used to send the emails. This is useful
153 if your default address is not the address that is subscribed to a
154 list. In order to use the From address, set the value to "auto". If
155 you use the sendmail binary, you must have suitable privileges for
156 the -f parameter. Default is the value of the
157 sendemail.envelopeSender configuration variable; if that is
158 unspecified, choosing the envelope sender is left to your MTA.
159 --smtp-encryption=<encryption>
161 Specify the encryption to use, either ssl or tls. Any other value
162 reverts to plain SMTP. Default is the value of
163 sendemail.smtpEncryption.
164 --smtp-domain=<FQDN>
166 Specifies the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) used in the
167 HELO/EHLO command to the SMTP server. Some servers require the FQDN
168 to match your IP address. If not set, git send-email attempts to
169 determine your FQDN automatically. Default is the value of
170 sendemail.smtpDomain.
171 --smtp-auth=<mechanisms>
173 Whitespace-separated list of allowed SMTP-AUTH mechanisms. This
174 setting forces using only the listed mechanisms. Example:
175 $ git send-email --smtp-auth="PLAIN LOGIN GSSAPI" ...
177 If at least one of the specified mechanisms matches the ones
179 advertised by the SMTP server and if it is supported by the
180 utilized SASL library, the mechanism is used for authentication. If
181 neither sendemail.smtpAuth nor --smtp-auth is specified, all
182 mechanisms supported by the SASL library can be used. The special
183 value none maybe specified to completely disable authentication
184 independently of --smtp-user
185 --smtp-pass[=<password>]
187 Password for SMTP-AUTH. The argument is optional: If no argument is
188 specified, then the empty string is used as the password. Default
189 is the value of sendemail.smtpPass, however --smtp-pass always
190 overrides this value.
191 Furthermore, passwords need not be specified in configuration files
193 or on the command line. If a username has been specified (with
194 --smtp-user or a sendemail.smtpUser), but no password has been
195 specified (with --smtp-pass or sendemail.smtpPass), then a password
196 is obtained using git-credential.
197 --no-smtp-auth
199 Disable SMTP authentication. Short hand for --smtp-auth=none
200 --smtp-server=<host>
202 If set, specifies the outgoing SMTP server to use (e.g.
203 smtp.example.com or a raw IP address). Alternatively it can specify
204 a full pathname of a sendmail-like program instead; the program
205 must support the -i option. Default value can be specified by the
206 sendemail.smtpServer configuration option; the built-in default is
207 to search for sendmail in /usr/sbin, /usr/lib and $PATH if such
208 program is available, falling back to localhost otherwise.
209 --smtp-server-port=<port>
211 Specifies a port different from the default port (SMTP servers
212 typically listen to smtp port 25, but may also listen to submission
213 port 587, or the common SSL smtp port 465); symbolic port names
214 (e.g. "submission" instead of 587) are also accepted. The port can
215 also be set with the sendemail.smtpServerPort configuration
216 variable.
217 --smtp-server-option=<option>
219 If set, specifies the outgoing SMTP server option to use. Default
220 value can be specified by the sendemail.smtpServerOption
221 configuration option.
222 The --smtp-server-option option must be repeated for each option
224 you want to pass to the server. Likewise, different lines in the
225 configuration files must be used for each option.
226 --smtp-ssl
228 Legacy alias for --smtp-encryption ssl.
229 --smtp-ssl-cert-path
231 Path to a store of trusted CA certificates for SMTP SSL/TLS
232 certificate validation (either a directory that has been processed
233 by c_rehash, or a single file containing one or more PEM format
234 certificates concatenated together: see verify(1) -CAfile and
235 -CApath for more information on these). Set it to an empty string
236 to disable certificate verification. Defaults to the value of the
237 sendemail.smtpsslcertpath configuration variable, if set, or the
238 backing SSL library’s compiled-in default otherwise (which should
239 be the best choice on most platforms).
240 --smtp-user=<user>
242 Username for SMTP-AUTH. Default is the value of sendemail.smtpUser;
243 if a username is not specified (with --smtp-user or
244 sendemail.smtpUser), then authentication is not attempted.
245 --smtp-debug=0|1
247 Enable (1) or disable (0) debug output. If enabled, SMTP commands
248 and replies will be printed. Useful to debug TLS connection and
249 authentication problems.
250 --batch-size=<num>
252 Some email servers (e.g. smtp.163.com) limit the number emails to
253 be sent per session (connection) and this will lead to a failure
254 when sending many messages. With this option, send-email will
255 disconnect after sending $<num> messages and wait for a few seconds
256 (see --relogin-delay) and reconnect, to work around such a limit.
257 You may want to use some form of credential helper to avoid having
258 to retype your password every time this happens. Defaults to the
259 sendemail.smtpBatchSize configuration variable.
260 --relogin-delay=<int>
262 Waiting $<int> seconds before reconnecting to SMTP server. Used
263 together with --batch-size option. Defaults to the
264 sendemail.smtpReloginDelay configuration variable.
265 Automating
267 --no-[to|cc|bcc]
268 Clears any list of "To:", "Cc:", "Bcc:" addresses previously set
269 via config.
270 --no-identity
272 Clears the previously read value of sendemail.identity set via
273 config, if any.
274 --to-cmd=<command>
276 Specify a command to execute once per patch file which should
277 generate patch file specific "To:" entries. Output of this command
278 must be single email address per line. Default is the value of
279 sendemail.tocmd configuration value.
280 --cc-cmd=<command>
282 Specify a command to execute once per patch file which should
283 generate patch file specific "Cc:" entries. Output of this command
284 must be single email address per line. Default is the value of
285 sendemail.ccCmd configuration value.
286 --[no-]chain-reply-to
288 If this is set, each email will be sent as a reply to the previous
289 email sent. If disabled with "--no-chain-reply-to", all emails
290 after the first will be sent as replies to the first email sent.
291 When using this, it is recommended that the first file given be an
292 overview of the entire patch series. Disabled by default, but the
293 sendemail.chainReplyTo configuration variable can be used to enable
294 it.
295 --identity=<identity>
297 A configuration identity. When given, causes values in the
298 sendemail.<identity> subsection to take precedence over values in
299 the sendemail section. The default identity is the value of
300 sendemail.identity.
301 --[no-]signed-off-by-cc
303 If this is set, add emails found in the Signed-off-by trailer or
304 Cc: lines to the cc list. Default is the value of
305 sendemail.signedoffbycc configuration value; if that is
306 unspecified, default to --signed-off-by-cc.
307 --[no-]cc-cover
309 If this is set, emails found in Cc: headers in the first patch of
310 the series (typically the cover letter) are added to the cc list
311 for each email set. Default is the value of sendemail.cccover
312 configuration value; if that is unspecified, default to
313 --no-cc-cover.
314 --[no-]to-cover
316 If this is set, emails found in To: headers in the first patch of
317 the series (typically the cover letter) are added to the to list
318 for each email set. Default is the value of sendemail.tocover
319 configuration value; if that is unspecified, default to
320 --no-to-cover.
321 --suppress-cc=<category>
323 Specify an additional category of recipients to suppress the
324 auto-cc of:
325 • author will avoid including the patch author.
327 • self will avoid including the sender.
329 • cc will avoid including anyone mentioned in Cc lines in the
331 patch header except for self (use self for that).
332 • bodycc will avoid including anyone mentioned in Cc lines in the
334 patch body (commit message) except for self (use self for
335 that).
336 • sob will avoid including anyone mentioned in the Signed-off-by
338 trailers except for self (use self for that).
339 • misc-by will avoid including anyone mentioned in Acked-by,
341 Reviewed-by, Tested-by and other "-by" lines in the patch body,
342 except Signed-off-by (use sob for that).
343 • cccmd will avoid running the --cc-cmd.
345 • body is equivalent to sob + bodycc + misc-by.
347 • all will suppress all auto cc values.
349 Default is the value of sendemail.suppresscc configuration value;
351 if that is unspecified, default to self if --suppress-from is
352 specified, as well as body if --no-signed-off-cc is specified.
353 --[no-]suppress-from
355 If this is set, do not add the From: address to the cc: list.
356 Default is the value of sendemail.suppressFrom configuration value;
357 if that is unspecified, default to --no-suppress-from.
358 --[no-]thread
360 If this is set, the In-Reply-To and References headers will be
361 added to each email sent. Whether each mail refers to the previous
362 email (deep threading per git format-patch wording) or to the first
363 email (shallow threading) is governed by "--[no-]chain-reply-to".
364 If disabled with "--no-thread", those headers will not be added
366 (unless specified with --in-reply-to). Default is the value of the
367 sendemail.thread configuration value; if that is unspecified,
368 default to --thread.
369 It is up to the user to ensure that no In-Reply-To header already
371 exists when git send-email is asked to add it (especially note that
372 git format-patch can be configured to do the threading itself).
373 Failure to do so may not produce the expected result in the
374 recipient’s MUA.
375 Administering
377 --confirm=<mode>
378 Confirm just before sending:
379 • always will always confirm before sending
381 • never will never confirm before sending
383 • cc will confirm before sending when send-email has
385 automatically added addresses from the patch to the Cc list
386 • compose will confirm before sending the first message when
388 using --compose.
389 • auto is equivalent to cc + compose
391 Default is the value of sendemail.confirm configuration value; if
393 that is unspecified, default to auto unless any of the suppress
394 options have been specified, in which case default to compose.
395 --dry-run
397 Do everything except actually send the emails.
398 --[no-]format-patch
400 When an argument may be understood either as a reference or as a
401 file name, choose to understand it as a format-patch argument
402 (--format-patch) or as a file name (--no-format-patch). By default,
403 when such a conflict occurs, git send-email will fail.
404 --quiet
406 Make git-send-email less verbose. One line per email should be all
407 that is output.
408 --[no-]validate
410 Perform sanity checks on patches. Currently, validation means the
411 following:
412 • Invoke the sendemail-validate hook if present (see
414 githooks(5)).
415 • Warn of patches that contain lines longer than 998 characters
417 unless a suitable transfer encoding (auto, base64, or
418 quoted-printable) is used; this is due to SMTP limits as
419 described by http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5322.txt.
420 Default is the value of sendemail.validate; if this is not set,
422 default to --validate.
423 --force
425 Send emails even if safety checks would prevent it.
426 Information
428 --dump-aliases
429 Instead of the normal operation, dump the shorthand alias names
430 from the configured alias file(s), one per line in alphabetical
431 order. Note, this only includes the alias name and not its expanded
432 email addresses. See sendemail.aliasesfile for more information
433 about aliases.
434
436 sendemail.aliasesFile
437 To avoid typing long email addresses, point this to one or more
438 email aliases files. You must also supply sendemail.aliasFileType.
439 sendemail.aliasFileType
441 Format of the file(s) specified in sendemail.aliasesFile. Must be
442 one of mutt, mailrc, pine, elm, or gnus, or sendmail.
443 What an alias file in each format looks like can be found in the
445 documentation of the email program of the same name. The
446 differences and limitations from the standard formats are described
447 below:
448 sendmail
450 • Quoted aliases and quoted addresses are not supported:
452 lines that contain a " symbol are ignored.
453 • Redirection to a file (/path/name) or pipe (|command) is
455 not supported.
456 • File inclusion (:include: /path/name) is not supported.
458 • Warnings are printed on the standard error output for any
460 explicitly unsupported constructs, and any other lines that
461 are not recognized by the parser.
462 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 sendemail.confirm
470 Sets the default for whether to confirm before sending. Must be one
471 of always, never, cc, compose, or auto. See --confirm in the
472 previous section for the meaning of these values.
473
475 Use gmail as the smtp server
476 To use git send-email to send your patches through the GMail SMTP
477 server, edit ~/.gitconfig to specify your account settings:
478 [sendemail]
480 smtpEncryption = tls
481 smtpServer = smtp.gmail.com
482 smtpUser = yourname@gmail.com
483 smtpServerPort = 587
484 If you have multi-factor authentication set up on your Gmail account,
486 you will need to generate an app-specific password for use with git
487 send-email. Visit
488 https://security.google.com/settings/security/apppasswords to create
489 it.
490 If you do not have multi-factor authentication set up on your Gmail
492 account, you will need to allow less secure app access. Visit
493 https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps to enable it.
494 Once your commits are ready to be sent to the mailing list, run the
496 following commands:
497 $ git format-patch --cover-letter -M origin/master -o outgoing/
499 $ edit outgoing/0000-*
500 $ git send-email outgoing/*
501 The first time you run it, you will be prompted for your credentials.
503 Enter the app-specific or your regular password as appropriate. If you
504 have credential helper configured (see git-credential(1)), the password
505 will be saved in the credential store so you won’t have to type it the
506 next time.
507 Note: the following core Perl modules that may be installed with your
509 distribution of Perl are required: MIME::Base64, MIME::QuotedPrint,
510 Net::Domain and Net::SMTP. These additional Perl modules are also
511 required: Authen::SASL and Mail::Address.
512
514 git-format-patch(1), git-imap-send(1), mbox(5)
515
517 Part of the git(1) suite
518Git 2.31.1 2021-03-26 GIT-SEND-EMAIL(1)