GIT-SEND-EMAIL(1)                                            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>...


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 by 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&#8217;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&#8217;re about to send. See the
              CONFIGURATION section for sendemail.multiedit.


       --bcc=<address>
              Specify a "Bcc:" value for each email. Default is the value of
              sendemail.bcc.

              The --bcc option must be repeated for each user you want on the
              bcc list.


       --cc=<address>
              Specify a starting "Cc:" value for each email. Default is the
              value of sendemail.cc.

              The --cc option must be repeated for each user you want on the
              cc list.


       --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&#8217;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.

              The --to option must be repeated for each user you want on the
              to list.


       --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.


   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-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
              the user is prompted for a password while the input is masked
              for privacy.


       --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-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.


   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.


       --suppress-cc=<category>
              Specify an additional category of recipients to suppress the
              auto-cc of:



              o
                  author will avoid including the patch author

              o
                  self will avoid including the sender

              o
                  cc will avoid including anyone mentioned in Cc lines in the
                 patch header except for self (use self for that).

              o
                  bodycc will avoid including anyone mentioned in Cc lines in
                 the patch body (commit message) except for self (use self for
                 that).

              o
                  sob will avoid including anyone mentioned in Signed-off-by
                 lines except for self (use self for that).

              o
                  cccmd will avoid running the --cc-cmd.

              o
                  body is equivalent to sob + bodycc

              o
                  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&#8217;s MUA.


   Administering
       --confirm=<mode>
              Confirm just before sending:



              o
                  always will always confirm before sending

              o
                  never will never confirm before sending

              o
                  cc will confirm before sending when send-email has
                 automatically added addresses from the patch to the Cc list

              o
                  compose will confirm before sending the first message when
                 using --compose.

              o
                  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:



              o  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:
                 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.


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.


       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


       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




                                                             GIT-SEND-EMAIL(1)
