git-send-email(1)
NAME
git-send-email - Send a collection of patches as emails
SYNOPSIS
git send-email [options] <file|directory|rev-list options>... git send-email --dump-aliases
DESCRIPTION
Takes the patches given on the command line and emails them out. Patches can be specified as files, directories (which will send all files in the directory), or directly as a revision list. In the last case, any format accepted by git-format-patch(1) can be passed to git send-email. The header of the email is configurable via command-line options. If not specified on the command line, the user will be prompted with a ReadLine enabled interface to provide the necessary information. There are two formats accepted for patch files: 1. mbox format files This is what git-format-patch(1) generates. Most headers and MIME formatting are ignored. 2. The original format used by Greg Kroah-Hartman's send_lots_of_email.pl script This format expects the first line of the file to contain the "Cc:" value and the "Subject:" of the message as the second line.
OPTIONS
Composing
--annotate
Review and edit each patch you're about to send. Default is the
value of sendemail.annotate. See the CONFIGURATION section for
sendemail.multiEdit.
--bcc=<address>,...
Specify a "Bcc:" value for each email. Default is the value of
sendemail.bcc.
This option may be specified multiple times.
--cc=<address>,...
Specify a starting "Cc:" value for each email. Default is the value
of sendemail.cc.
This option may be specified multiple times.
--compose
Invoke a text editor (see GIT_EDITOR in git-var(1)) to edit an
introductory message for the patch series.
When --compose is used, git send-email will use the From, Subject,
and In-Reply-To headers specified in the message. If the body of
the message (what you type after the headers and a blank line) only
contains blank (or Git: prefixed) lines, the summary won't be sent,
but From, Subject, and In-Reply-To headers will be used unless they
are removed.
Missing From or In-Reply-To headers will be prompted for.
See the CONFIGURATION section for sendemail.multiEdit.
--from=<address>
Specify the sender of the emails. If not specified on the command
line, the value of the sendemail.from configuration option is used.
If neither the command-line option nor sendemail.from are set, then
the user will be prompted for the value. The default for the prompt
will be the value of GIT_AUTHOR_IDENT, or GIT_COMMITTER_IDENT if
that is not set, as returned by "git var -l".
--in-reply-to=<identifier>
Make the first mail (or all the mails with --no-thread) appear as a
reply to the given Message-Id, which avoids breaking threads to
provide a new patch series. The second and subsequent emails will
be sent as replies according to the --[no]-chain-reply-to setting.
So for example when --thread and --no-chain-reply-to are specified,
the second and subsequent patches will be replies to the first one
like in the illustration below where [PATCH v2 0/3] is in reply to
[PATCH 0/2]:
[PATCH 0/2] Here is what I did...
[PATCH 1/2] Clean up and tests
[PATCH 2/2] Implementation
[PATCH v2 0/3] Here is a reroll
[PATCH v2 1/3] Clean up
[PATCH v2 2/3] New tests
[PATCH v2 3/3] Implementation
Only necessary if --compose is also set. If --compose is not set,
this will be prompted for.
--subject=<string>
Specify the initial subject of the email thread. Only necessary if
--compose is also set. If --compose is not set, this will be
prompted for.
--to=<address>,...
Specify the primary recipient of the emails generated. Generally,
this will be the upstream maintainer of the project involved.
Default is the value of the sendemail.to configuration value; if
that is unspecified, and --to-cmd is not specified, this will be
prompted for.
This option may be specified multiple times.
--8bit-encoding=<encoding>
When encountering a non-ASCII message or subject that does not
declare its encoding, add headers/quoting to indicate it is encoded
in <encoding>. Default is the value of the
sendemail.assume8bitEncoding; if that is unspecified, this will be
prompted for if any non-ASCII files are encountered.
Note that no attempts whatsoever are made to validate the encoding.
--compose-encoding=<encoding>
Specify encoding of compose message. Default is the value of the
sendemail.composeencoding; if that is unspecified, UTF-8 is
assumed.
--transfer-encoding=(7bit|8bit|quoted-printable|base64)
Specify the transfer encoding to be used to send the message over
SMTP. 7bit will fail upon encountering a non-ASCII message.
quoted-printable can be useful when the repository contains files
that contain carriage returns, but makes the raw patch email file
(as saved from a MUA) much harder to inspect manually. base64 is
even more fool proof, but also even more opaque. Default is the
value of the sendemail.transferEncoding configuration value; if
that is unspecified, git will use 8bit and not add a
Content-Transfer-Encoding header.
--xmailer, --no-xmailer
Add (or prevent adding) the "X-Mailer:" header. By default, the
header is added, but it can be turned off by setting the
sendemail.xmailer configuration variable to false.
Sending
--envelope-sender=<address>
Specify the envelope sender used to send the emails. This is useful
if your default address is not the address that is subscribed to a
list. In order to use the From address, set the value to "auto". If
you use the sendmail binary, you must have suitable privileges for
the -f parameter. Default is the value of the
sendemail.envelopeSender configuration variable; if that is
unspecified, choosing the envelope sender is left to your MTA.
--smtp-encryption=<encryption>
Specify the encryption to use, either ssl or tls. Any other value
reverts to plain SMTP. Default is the value of
sendemail.smtpEncryption.
--smtp-domain=<FQDN>
Specifies the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) used in the
HELO/EHLO command to the SMTP server. Some servers require the FQDN
to match your IP address. If not set, git send-email attempts to
determine your FQDN automatically. Default is the value of
sendemail.smtpDomain.
--smtp-auth=<mechanisms>
Whitespace-separated list of allowed SMTP-AUTH mechanisms. This
setting forces using only the listed mechanisms. Example:
$ git send-email --smtp-auth="PLAIN LOGIN GSSAPI" ...
If at least one of the specified mechanisms matches the ones
advertised by the SMTP server and if it is supported by the
utilized SASL library, the mechanism is used for authentication. If
neither sendemail.smtpAuth nor --smtp-auth is specified, all
mechanisms supported by the SASL library can be used.
--smtp-pass[=<password>]
Password for SMTP-AUTH. The argument is optional: If no argument is
specified, then the empty string is used as the password. Default
is the value of sendemail.smtpPass, however --smtp-pass always
overrides this value.
Furthermore, passwords need not be specified in configuration files
or on the command line. If a username has been specified (with
--smtp-user or a sendemail.smtpUser), but no password has been
specified (with --smtp-pass or sendemail.smtpPass), then a password
is obtained using git-credential.
--smtp-server=<host>
If set, specifies the outgoing SMTP server to use (e.g.
smtp.example.com or a raw IP address). Alternatively it can specify
a full pathname of a sendmail-like program instead; the program
must support the -i option. Default value can be specified by the
sendemail.smtpServer configuration option; the built-in default is
/usr/sbin/sendmail or /usr/lib/sendmail if such program is
available, or localhost otherwise.
--smtp-server-port=<port>
Specifies a port different from the default port (SMTP servers
typically listen to smtp port 25, but may also listen to submission
port 587, or the common SSL smtp port 465); symbolic port names
(e.g. "submission" instead of 587) are also accepted. The port can
also be set with the sendemail.smtpServerPort configuration
variable.
--smtp-server-option=<option>
If set, specifies the outgoing SMTP server option to use. Default
value can be specified by the sendemail.smtpServerOption
configuration option.
The --smtp-server-option option must be repeated for each option
you want to pass to the server. Likewise, different lines in the
configuration files must be used for each option.
--smtp-ssl
Legacy alias for --smtp-encryption ssl.
--smtp-ssl-cert-path
Path to a store of trusted CA certificates for SMTP SSL/TLS
certificate validation (either a directory that has been processed
by c_rehash, or a single file containing one or more PEM format
certificates concatenated together: see verify(1) -CAfile and
-CApath for more information on these). Set it to an empty string
to disable certificate verification. Defaults to the value of the
sendemail.smtpsslcertpath configuration variable, if set, or the
backing SSL library's compiled-in default otherwise (which should
be the best choice on most platforms).
--smtp-user=<user>
Username for SMTP-AUTH. Default is the value of sendemail.smtpUser;
if a username is not specified (with --smtp-user or
sendemail.smtpUser), then authentication is not attempted.
--smtp-debug=0|1
Enable (1) or disable (0) debug output. If enabled, SMTP commands
and replies will be printed. Useful to debug TLS connection and
authentication problems.
Automating
--to-cmd=<command>
Specify a command to execute once per patch file which should
generate patch file specific "To:" entries. Output of this command
must be single email address per line. Default is the value of
sendemail.tocmd configuration value.
--cc-cmd=<command>
Specify a command to execute once per patch file which should
generate patch file specific "Cc:" entries. Output of this command
must be single email address per line. Default is the value of
sendemail.ccCmd configuration value.
--[no-]chain-reply-to
If this is set, each email will be sent as a reply to the previous
email sent. If disabled with "--no-chain-reply-to", all emails
after the first will be sent as replies to the first email sent.
When using this, it is recommended that the first file given be an
overview of the entire patch series. Disabled by default, but the
sendemail.chainReplyTo configuration variable can be used to enable
it.
--identity=<identity>
A configuration identity. When given, causes values in the
sendemail.<identity> subsection to take precedence over values in
the sendemail section. The default identity is the value of
sendemail.identity.
--[no-]signed-off-by-cc
If this is set, add emails found in Signed-off-by: or Cc: lines to
the cc list. Default is the value of sendemail.signedoffbycc
configuration value; if that is unspecified, default to
--signed-off-by-cc.
--[no-]cc-cover
If this is set, emails found in Cc: headers in the first patch of
the series (typically the cover letter) are added to the cc list
for each email set. Default is the value of sendemail.cccover
configuration value; if that is unspecified, default to
--no-cc-cover.
--[no-]to-cover
If this is set, emails found in To: headers in the first patch of
the series (typically the cover letter) are added to the to list
for each email set. Default is the value of sendemail.tocover
configuration value; if that is unspecified, default to
--no-to-cover.
--suppress-cc=<category>
Specify an additional category of recipients to suppress the
auto-cc of:
* author will avoid including the patch author
* self will avoid including the sender
* cc will avoid including anyone mentioned in Cc lines in the
patch header except for self (use self for that).
* bodycc will avoid including anyone mentioned in Cc lines in the
patch body (commit message) except for self (use self for
that).
* sob will avoid including anyone mentioned in Signed-off-by
lines except for self (use self for that).
* cccmd will avoid running the --cc-cmd.
* body is equivalent to sob + bodycc
* all will suppress all auto cc values.
Default is the value of sendemail.suppresscc configuration value;
if that is unspecified, default to self if --suppress-from is
specified, as well as body if --no-signed-off-cc is specified.
--[no-]suppress-from
If this is set, do not add the From: address to the cc: list.
Default is the value of sendemail.suppressFrom configuration value;
if that is unspecified, default to --no-suppress-from.
--[no-]thread
If this is set, the In-Reply-To and References headers will be
added to each email sent. Whether each mail refers to the previous
email (deep threading per git format-patch wording) or to the first
email (shallow threading) is governed by "--[no-]chain-reply-to".
If disabled with "--no-thread", those headers will not be added
(unless specified with --in-reply-to). Default is the value of the
sendemail.thread configuration value; if that is unspecified,
default to --thread.
It is up to the user to ensure that no In-Reply-To header already
exists when git send-email is asked to add it (especially note that
git format-patch can be configured to do the threading itself).
Failure to do so may not produce the expected result in the
recipient's MUA.
Administering
--confirm=<mode>
Confirm just before sending:
* always will always confirm before sending
* never will never confirm before sending
* cc will confirm before sending when send-email has
automatically added addresses from the patch to the Cc list
* compose will confirm before sending the first message when
using --compose.
* auto is equivalent to cc + compose
Default is the value of sendemail.confirm configuration value; if
that is unspecified, default to auto unless any of the suppress
options have been specified, in which case default to compose.
--dry-run
Do everything except actually send the emails.
--[no-]format-patch
When an argument may be understood either as a reference or as a
file name, choose to understand it as a format-patch argument
(--format-patch) or as a file name (--no-format-patch). By default,
when such a conflict occurs, git send-email will fail.
--quiet
Make git-send-email less verbose. One line per email should be all
that is output.
--[no-]validate
Perform sanity checks on patches. Currently, validation means the
following:
* Warn of patches that contain lines longer than 998 characters;
this is due to SMTP limits as described by
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt.
Default is the value of sendemail.validate; if this is not set,
default to --validate.
--force
Send emails even if safety checks would prevent it.
Information
--dump-aliases
Instead of the normal operation, dump the shorthand alias names
from the configured alias file(s), one per line in alphabetical
order. Note, this only includes the alias name and not its expanded
email addresses. See sendemail.aliasesfile for more information
about aliases.
CONFIGURATION
sendemail.aliasesFile
To avoid typing long email addresses, point this to one or more
email aliases files. You must also supply sendemail.aliasFileType.
sendemail.aliasFileType
Format of the file(s) specified in sendemail.aliasesFile. Must be
one of mutt, mailrc, pine, elm, or gnus, or sendmail.
What an alias file in each format looks like can be found in the
documentation of the email program of the same name. The
differences and limitations from the standard formats are described
below:
sendmail
* Quoted aliases and quoted addresses are not supported:
lines that contain a " symbol are ignored.
* Redirection to a file (/path/name) or pipe (|command) is
not supported.
* File inclusion (:include: /path/name) is not supported.
* Warnings are printed on the standard error output for any
explicitly unsupported constructs, and any other lines that
are not recognized by the parser.
sendemail.multiEdit
If true (default), a single editor instance will be spawned to edit
files you have to edit (patches when --annotate is used, and the
summary when --compose is used). If false, files will be edited one
after the other, spawning a new editor each time.
sendemail.confirm
Sets the default for whether to confirm before sending. Must be one
of always, never, cc, compose, or auto. See --confirm in the
previous section for the meaning of these values.
EXAMPLE
Use gmail as the smtp server
To use git send-email to send your patches through the GMail SMTP
server, edit ~/.gitconfig to specify your account settings:
[sendemail]
smtpEncryption = tls
smtpServer = smtp.gmail.com
smtpUser = yourname@gmail.com
smtpServerPort = 587
If you have multifactor authentication setup on your gmail account, you
will need to generate an app-specific password for use with git
send-email. Visit
https://security.google.com/settings/security/apppasswords to setup an
app-specific password. Once setup, you can store it with the
credentials helper:
$ git credential fill
protocol=smtp
host=smtp.gmail.com
username=youname@gmail.com
password=app-password
Once your commits are ready to be sent to the mailing list, run the
following commands:
$ git format-patch --cover-letter -M origin/master -o outgoing/
$ edit outgoing/0000-*
$ git send-email outgoing/*
Note: the following perl modules are required Net::SMTP::SSL,
MIME::Base64 and Authen::SASL
SEE ALSO
git-format-patch(1), git-imap-send(1), mbox(5)
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
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