6 git-send-email - Send a collection of patches as emails
12 'git send-email' [<options>] <file|directory|rev-list options>...
13 'git send-email' --dump-aliases
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.
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.
28 There are two formats accepted for patch files:
32 This is what linkgit:git-format-patch[1] generates. Most headers and MIME
33 formatting are ignored.
35 2. The original format used by Greg Kroah-Hartman's 'send_lots_of_email.pl'
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.
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`.
54 Specify a "Bcc:" value for each email. Default is the value of
57 This option may be specified multiple times.
60 Specify a starting "Cc:" value for each email.
61 Default is the value of `sendemail.cc`.
63 This option may be specified multiple times.
66 Invoke a text editor (see GIT_EDITOR in linkgit:git-var[1])
67 to edit an introductory message for the patch series.
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.
75 Missing From or In-Reply-To headers will be prompted for.
77 See the CONFIGURATION section for `sendemail.multiEdit`.
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".
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.
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.
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]`:
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
111 Only necessary if --compose is also set. If --compose
112 is not set, this will be prompted for.
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.
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.
125 This option may be specified multiple times.
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.
134 Note that no attempts whatsoever are made to validate the encoding.
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.
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
149 Default is the value of the `sendemail.transferEncoding` configuration
150 value; if that is unspecified, default to `auto`.
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`.
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.
170 --sendmail-cmd=<command>::
171 Specify a command to run to send the email. The command should
172 be sendmail-like; specifically, it must support the `-i` option.
173 The command will be executed in the shell if necessary. Default
174 is the value of `sendemail.sendmailcmd`. If unspecified, and if
175 --smtp-server is also unspecified, git-send-email will search
176 for `sendmail` in `/usr/sbin`, `/usr/lib` and $PATH.
178 --smtp-encryption=<encryption>::
179 Specify the encryption to use, either 'ssl' or 'tls'. Any other
180 value reverts to plain SMTP. Default is the value of
181 `sendemail.smtpEncryption`.
183 --smtp-domain=<FQDN>::
184 Specifies the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) used in the
185 HELO/EHLO command to the SMTP server. Some servers require the
186 FQDN to match your IP address. If not set, git send-email attempts
187 to determine your FQDN automatically. Default is the value of
188 `sendemail.smtpDomain`.
190 --smtp-auth=<mechanisms>::
191 Whitespace-separated list of allowed SMTP-AUTH mechanisms. This setting
192 forces using only the listed mechanisms. Example:
195 $ git send-email --smtp-auth="PLAIN LOGIN GSSAPI" ...
198 If at least one of the specified mechanisms matches the ones advertised by the
199 SMTP server and if it is supported by the utilized SASL library, the mechanism
200 is used for authentication. If neither 'sendemail.smtpAuth' nor `--smtp-auth`
201 is specified, all mechanisms supported by the SASL library can be used. The
202 special value 'none' maybe specified to completely disable authentication
203 independently of `--smtp-user`
205 --smtp-pass[=<password>]::
206 Password for SMTP-AUTH. The argument is optional: If no
207 argument is specified, then the empty string is used as
208 the password. Default is the value of `sendemail.smtpPass`,
209 however `--smtp-pass` always overrides this value.
211 Furthermore, passwords need not be specified in configuration files
212 or on the command line. If a username has been specified (with
213 `--smtp-user` or a `sendemail.smtpUser`), but no password has been
214 specified (with `--smtp-pass` or `sendemail.smtpPass`), then
215 a password is obtained using 'git-credential'.
218 Disable SMTP authentication. Short hand for `--smtp-auth=none`
220 --smtp-server=<host>::
221 If set, specifies the outgoing SMTP server to use (e.g.
222 `smtp.example.com` or a raw IP address). If unspecified, and if
223 `--sendmail-cmd` is also unspecified, the default is to search
224 for `sendmail` in `/usr/sbin`, `/usr/lib` and $PATH if such a
225 program is available, falling back to `localhost` otherwise.
227 For backward compatibility, this option can also specify a full pathname
228 of a sendmail-like program instead; the program must support the `-i`
229 option. This method does not support passing arguments or using plain
230 command names. For those use cases, consider using `--sendmail-cmd`
233 --smtp-server-port=<port>::
234 Specifies a port different from the default port (SMTP
235 servers typically listen to smtp port 25, but may also listen to
236 submission port 587, or the common SSL smtp port 465);
237 symbolic port names (e.g. "submission" instead of 587)
238 are also accepted. The port can also be set with the
239 `sendemail.smtpServerPort` configuration variable.
241 --smtp-server-option=<option>::
242 If set, specifies the outgoing SMTP server option to use.
243 Default value can be specified by the `sendemail.smtpServerOption`
244 configuration option.
246 The --smtp-server-option option must be repeated for each option you want
247 to pass to the server. Likewise, different lines in the configuration files
248 must be used for each option.
251 Legacy alias for '--smtp-encryption ssl'.
253 --smtp-ssl-cert-path::
254 Path to a store of trusted CA certificates for SMTP SSL/TLS
255 certificate validation (either a directory that has been processed
256 by 'c_rehash', or a single file containing one or more PEM format
257 certificates concatenated together: see verify(1) -CAfile and
258 -CApath for more information on these). Set it to an empty string
259 to disable certificate verification. Defaults to the value of the
260 `sendemail.smtpsslcertpath` configuration variable, if set, or the
261 backing SSL library's compiled-in default otherwise (which should
262 be the best choice on most platforms).
265 Username for SMTP-AUTH. Default is the value of `sendemail.smtpUser`;
266 if a username is not specified (with `--smtp-user` or `sendemail.smtpUser`),
267 then authentication is not attempted.
270 Enable (1) or disable (0) debug output. If enabled, SMTP
271 commands and replies will be printed. Useful to debug TLS
272 connection and authentication problems.
275 Some email servers (e.g. smtp.163.com) limit the number emails to be
276 sent per session (connection) and this will lead to a failure when
277 sending many messages. With this option, send-email will disconnect after
278 sending $<num> messages and wait for a few seconds (see --relogin-delay)
279 and reconnect, to work around such a limit. You may want to
280 use some form of credential helper to avoid having to retype
281 your password every time this happens. Defaults to the
282 `sendemail.smtpBatchSize` configuration variable.
284 --relogin-delay=<int>::
285 Waiting $<int> seconds before reconnecting to SMTP server. Used together
286 with --batch-size option. Defaults to the `sendemail.smtpReloginDelay`
287 configuration variable.
293 Clears any list of "To:", "Cc:", "Bcc:" addresses previously
297 Clears the previously read value of `sendemail.identity` set
301 Specify a command to execute once per patch file which
302 should generate patch file specific "To:" entries.
303 Output of this command must be single email address per line.
304 Default is the value of 'sendemail.tocmd' configuration value.
307 Specify a command to execute once per patch file which
308 should generate patch file specific "Cc:" entries.
309 Output of this command must be single email address per line.
310 Default is the value of `sendemail.ccCmd` configuration value.
312 --[no-]chain-reply-to::
313 If this is set, each email will be sent as a reply to the previous
314 email sent. If disabled with "--no-chain-reply-to", all emails after
315 the first will be sent as replies to the first email sent. When using
316 this, it is recommended that the first file given be an overview of the
317 entire patch series. Disabled by default, but the `sendemail.chainReplyTo`
318 configuration variable can be used to enable it.
320 --identity=<identity>::
321 A configuration identity. When given, causes values in the
322 'sendemail.<identity>' subsection to take precedence over
323 values in the 'sendemail' section. The default identity is
324 the value of `sendemail.identity`.
326 --[no-]signed-off-by-cc::
327 If this is set, add emails found in the `Signed-off-by` trailer or Cc: lines to the
328 cc list. Default is the value of `sendemail.signedoffbycc` configuration
329 value; if that is unspecified, default to --signed-off-by-cc.
332 If this is set, emails found in Cc: headers in the first patch of
333 the series (typically the cover letter) are added to the cc list
334 for each email set. Default is the value of 'sendemail.cccover'
335 configuration value; if that is unspecified, default to --no-cc-cover.
338 If this is set, emails found in To: headers in the first patch of
339 the series (typically the cover letter) are added to the to list
340 for each email set. Default is the value of 'sendemail.tocover'
341 configuration value; if that is unspecified, default to --no-to-cover.
343 --suppress-cc=<category>::
344 Specify an additional category of recipients to suppress the
348 - 'author' will avoid including the patch author.
349 - 'self' will avoid including the sender.
350 - 'cc' will avoid including anyone mentioned in Cc lines in the patch header
351 except for self (use 'self' for that).
352 - 'bodycc' will avoid including anyone mentioned in Cc lines in the
353 patch body (commit message) except for self (use 'self' for that).
354 - 'sob' will avoid including anyone mentioned in the Signed-off-by trailers except
355 for self (use 'self' for that).
356 - 'misc-by' will avoid including anyone mentioned in Acked-by,
357 Reviewed-by, Tested-by and other "-by" lines in the patch body,
358 except Signed-off-by (use 'sob' for that).
359 - 'cccmd' will avoid running the --cc-cmd.
360 - 'body' is equivalent to 'sob' + 'bodycc' + 'misc-by'.
361 - 'all' will suppress all auto cc values.
364 Default is the value of `sendemail.suppresscc` configuration value; if
365 that is unspecified, default to 'self' if --suppress-from is
366 specified, as well as 'body' if --no-signed-off-cc is specified.
368 --[no-]suppress-from::
369 If this is set, do not add the From: address to the cc: list.
370 Default is the value of `sendemail.suppressFrom` configuration
371 value; if that is unspecified, default to --no-suppress-from.
374 If this is set, the In-Reply-To and References headers will be
375 added to each email sent. Whether each mail refers to the
376 previous email (`deep` threading per 'git format-patch'
377 wording) or to the first email (`shallow` threading) is
378 governed by "--[no-]chain-reply-to".
380 If disabled with "--no-thread", those headers will not be added
381 (unless specified with --in-reply-to). Default is the value of the
382 `sendemail.thread` configuration value; if that is unspecified,
385 It is up to the user to ensure that no In-Reply-To header already
386 exists when 'git send-email' is asked to add it (especially note that
387 'git format-patch' can be configured to do the threading itself).
388 Failure to do so may not produce the expected result in the
396 Confirm just before sending:
399 - 'always' will always confirm before sending
400 - 'never' will never confirm before sending
401 - 'cc' will confirm before sending when send-email has automatically
402 added addresses from the patch to the Cc list
403 - 'compose' will confirm before sending the first message when using --compose.
404 - 'auto' is equivalent to 'cc' + 'compose'
407 Default is the value of `sendemail.confirm` configuration value; if that
408 is unspecified, default to 'auto' unless any of the suppress options
409 have been specified, in which case default to 'compose'.
412 Do everything except actually send the emails.
414 --[no-]format-patch::
415 When an argument may be understood either as a reference or as a file name,
416 choose to understand it as a format-patch argument (`--format-patch`)
417 or as a file name (`--no-format-patch`). By default, when such a conflict
418 occurs, git send-email will fail.
421 Make git-send-email less verbose. One line per email should be
425 Perform sanity checks on patches.
426 Currently, validation means the following:
429 * Invoke the sendemail-validate hook if present (see linkgit:githooks[5]).
430 * Warn of patches that contain lines longer than
431 998 characters unless a suitable transfer encoding
432 ('auto', 'base64', or 'quoted-printable') is used;
433 this is due to SMTP limits as described by
434 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5322.txt.
437 Default is the value of `sendemail.validate`; if this is not set,
438 default to `--validate`.
441 Send emails even if safety checks would prevent it.
448 Instead of the normal operation, dump the shorthand alias names from
449 the configured alias file(s), one per line in alphabetical order. Note,
450 this only includes the alias name and not its expanded email addresses.
451 See 'sendemail.aliasesfile' for more information about aliases.
457 sendemail.aliasesFile::
458 To avoid typing long email addresses, point this to one or more
459 email aliases files. You must also supply `sendemail.aliasFileType`.
461 sendemail.aliasFileType::
462 Format of the file(s) specified in sendemail.aliasesFile. Must be
463 one of 'mutt', 'mailrc', 'pine', 'elm', or 'gnus', or 'sendmail'.
465 What an alias file in each format looks like can be found in
466 the documentation of the email program of the same name. The
467 differences and limitations from the standard formats are
472 * Quoted aliases and quoted addresses are not supported: lines that
473 contain a `"` symbol are ignored.
474 * Redirection to a file (`/path/name`) or pipe (`|command`) is not
476 * File inclusion (`:include: /path/name`) is not supported.
477 * Warnings are printed on the standard error output for any
478 explicitly unsupported constructs, and any other lines that are not
479 recognized by the parser.
482 sendemail.multiEdit::
483 If true (default), a single editor instance will be spawned to edit
484 files you have to edit (patches when `--annotate` is used, and the
485 summary when `--compose` is used). If false, files will be edited one
486 after the other, spawning a new editor each time.
489 Sets the default for whether to confirm before sending. Must be
490 one of 'always', 'never', 'cc', 'compose', or 'auto'. See `--confirm`
491 in the previous section for the meaning of these values.
495 Use gmail as the smtp server
496 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
497 To use 'git send-email' to send your patches through the GMail SMTP server,
498 edit ~/.gitconfig to specify your account settings:
503 smtpServer = smtp.gmail.com
504 smtpUser = yourname@gmail.com
508 If you have multi-factor authentication set up on your Gmail account, you will
509 need to generate an app-specific password for use with 'git send-email'. Visit
510 https://security.google.com/settings/security/apppasswords to create it.
512 If you do not have multi-factor authentication set up on your Gmail account,
513 you will need to allow less secure app access. Visit
514 https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps to enable it.
516 Once your commits are ready to be sent to the mailing list, run the
519 $ git format-patch --cover-letter -M origin/master -o outgoing/
520 $ edit outgoing/0000-*
521 $ git send-email outgoing/*
523 The first time you run it, you will be prompted for your credentials. Enter the
524 app-specific or your regular password as appropriate. If you have credential
525 helper configured (see linkgit:git-credential[1]), the password will be saved in
526 the credential store so you won't have to type it the next time.
528 Note: the following core Perl modules that may be installed with your
529 distribution of Perl are required:
530 MIME::Base64, MIME::QuotedPrint, Net::Domain and Net::SMTP.
531 These additional Perl modules are also required:
532 Authen::SASL and Mail::Address.
537 linkgit:git-format-patch[1], linkgit:git-imap-send[1], mbox(5)
541 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite