git-imap-send(1)

NAME#

git-imap-send - Send a collection of patches from stdin to an IMAP folder

SYNOPSIS#

git imap-send\n [-v] [-q] [--[no-]curl]

DESCRIPTION#

This command uploads a mailbox generated with git format-patch into an IMAP drafts folder. This allows patches to be sent as other email is when using mail clients that cannot read mailbox files directly. The command also works with any general mailbox in which emails have the fields "From", "Date", and "Subject" in that order.

Typical usage is something like:

git format-patch --signoff --stdout --attach origin | git imap-send

OPTIONS#

-v, --verbose

-q, --quiet

--curl

--no-curl

CONFIGURATION#

To use the tool, imap.folder and either imap.tunnel or imap.host must be set to appropriate values.

Everything above this line in this section isn’t included from the git-config(1) documentation. The content that follows is the same as what’s found there:

imap.folder

imap.tunnel

imap.host

imap.user

imap.pass

imap.port

imap.sslverify

imap.preformattedHTML

imap.authMethod

EXAMPLES#

Using tunnel mode:

[imap]
\n
    folder = "INBOX.Drafts"
\n
    tunnel = "ssh -q -C [email protected] /usr/bin/imapd ./Maildir 2> /dev/null"

Using direct mode:

[imap]
\n
    folder = "INBOX.Drafts"
\n
    host = imap://imap.example.com
\n
    user = bob
\n
    pass = p4ssw0rd

Using direct mode with SSL:

[imap]
\n
    folder = "INBOX.Drafts"
\n
    host = imaps://imap.example.com
\n
    user = bob
\n
    pass = p4ssw0rd
\n
    port = 123
\n
    ; sslVerify = false

You may want to use sslVerify=false while troubleshooting, if you suspect that the reason you are having trouble connecting is because the certificate you use at the private server example.com you are trying to set up (or have set up) may not be verified correctly.

Using Gmail’s IMAP interface:

[imap]
\n
        folder = "[Gmail]/Drafts"
\n
        host = imaps://imap.gmail.com
\n
        user = [email protected]
\n
        port = 993

You might need to instead use: folder = "[Google Mail]/Drafts" if you get an error that the "Folder doesn’t exist".

If your Gmail account is set to another language than English, the name of the "Drafts" folder will be localized.

Once the commits are ready to be sent, run the following command:

$ git format-patch --cover-letter -M --stdout origin/master | git imap-send

Just make sure to disable line wrapping in the email client (Gmail’s web interface will wrap lines no matter what, so you need to use a real IMAP client).

CAUTION#

It is still your responsibility to make sure that the email message sent by your email program meets the standards of your project. Many projects do not like patches to be attached. Some mail agents will transform patches (e.g. wrap lines, send them as format=flowed) in ways that make them fail. You will get angry flames ridiculing you if you don’t check this.

Thunderbird in particular is known to be problematic. Thunderbird users may wish to visit this web page for more information: https://kb.mozillazine.org/Plain_text_e-mail_-_Thunderbird#Completely_plain_email

SEE ALSO#

git-format-patch(1), git-send-email(1), mbox(5)

GIT#

Part of the git(1) suite