Provided by: git-man_2.51.0-1ubuntu1_all 
NAME
git-imap-send - Send a collection of patches from stdin to an IMAP folder
SYNOPSIS
git imap-send [-v] [-q] [--[no-]curl] [(--folder|-f) <folder>]
git imap-send --list
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
Be verbose.
-q, --quiet
Be quiet.
-f <folder>, --folder=<folder>
Specify the folder in which the emails have to saved. For example: --folder=[Gmail]/Drafts or -f
INBOX/Drafts.
--curl
Use libcurl to communicate with the IMAP server, unless tunneling into it. Ignored if Git was built
without the USE_CURL_FOR_IMAP_SEND option set.
--no-curl
Talk to the IMAP server using git’s own IMAP routines instead of using libcurl. Ignored if Git was
built with the NO_OPENSSL option set.
--list
Run the IMAP LIST command to output a list of all the folders present.
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
The folder to drop the mails into, which is typically the Drafts folder. For example: INBOX.Drafts,
INBOX/Drafts or [Gmail]/Drafts. The IMAP folder to interact with MUST be specified; the value of this
configuration variable is used as the fallback default value when the --folder option is not given.
imap.tunnel
Command used to set up a tunnel to the IMAP server through which commands will be piped instead of
using a direct network connection to the server. Required when imap.host is not set.
imap.host
A URL identifying the server. Use an imap:// prefix for non-secure connections and an imaps:// prefix
for secure connections. Ignored when imap.tunnel is set, but required otherwise.
imap.user
The username to use when logging in to the server.
imap.pass
The password to use when logging in to the server.
imap.port
An integer port number to connect to on the server. Defaults to 143 for imap:// hosts and 993 for
imaps:// hosts. Ignored when imap.tunnel is set.
imap.sslverify
A boolean to enable/disable verification of the server certificate used by the SSL/TLS connection.
Default is true. Ignored when imap.tunnel is set.
imap.preformattedHTML
A boolean to enable/disable the use of html encoding when sending a patch. An html encoded patch will
be bracketed with <pre> and have a content type of text/html. Ironically, enabling this option causes
Thunderbird to send the patch as a plain/text, format=fixed email. Default is false.
imap.authMethod
Specify the authentication method for authenticating with the IMAP server. If Git was built with the
NO_CURL option, or if your curl version is older than 7.34.0, or if you’re running git-imap-send with
the --no-curl option, the only supported methods are PLAIN, CRAM-MD5, OAUTHBEARER and XOAUTH2. If
this is not set then git imap-send uses the basic IMAP plaintext LOGIN command.
GETTING A LIST OF AVAILABLE FOLDERS
In order to send an email to a specific folder, you need to know the correct name of intended folder in
your mailbox. The names like "Junk", "Trash" etc. displayed by various email clients need not be the
actual names of the folders stored in the mail server of your email provider.
In order to get the correct folder name to be used with git imap-send, you can run git imap-send --list.
This will display a list of valid folder names. An example of such an output when run on a Gmail account
is:
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" "INBOX"
* LIST (\HasChildren \Noselect) "/" "[Gmail]"
* LIST (\All \HasNoChildren) "/" "[Gmail]/All Mail"
* LIST (\Drafts \HasNoChildren) "/" "[Gmail]/Drafts"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Important) "/" "[Gmail]/Important"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Sent) "/" "[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Junk) "/" "[Gmail]/Spam"
* LIST (\Flagged \HasNoChildren) "/" "[Gmail]/Starred"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Trash) "/" "[Gmail]/Trash"
Here, you can observe that the correct name for the "Junk" folder is [Gmail]/Spam and for the "Trash"
folder is [Gmail]/Trash. Similar logic can be used to determine other folders as well.
EXAMPLES
Using tunnel mode:
[imap]
folder = "INBOX.Drafts"
tunnel = "ssh -q -C user@example.com /usr/bin/imapd ./Maildir 2> /dev/null"
Using direct mode:
[imap]
folder = "INBOX.Drafts"
host = imap://imap.example.com
user = bob
pass = p4ssw0rd
Using direct mode with SSL:
[imap]
folder = "INBOX.Drafts"
host = imaps://imap.example.com
user = bob
pass = p4ssw0rd
port = 123
; sslVerify = false
Note
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]
folder = "[Gmail]/Drafts"
host = imaps://imap.gmail.com
user = user@gmail.com
port = 993
Gmail does not allow using your regular password for git imap-send. If you have multi-factor
authentication set up on your Gmail account, you can generate an app-specific password for use with git
imap-send. Visit https://security.google.com/settings/security/apppasswords to create it. Alternatively,
use OAuth2.0 authentication as described below.
Note
You might need to instead use: folder = "[Google Mail]/Drafts" if you get an error that the "Folder
doesn’t exist". You can also run git imap-send --list to get a list of available folders.
Note
If your Gmail account is set to another language than English, the name of the "Drafts" folder will
be localized.
If you want to use OAuth2.0 based authentication, you can specify OAUTHBEARER or XOAUTH2 mechanism in
your config. It is more secure than using app-specific passwords, and also does not enforce the need of
having multi-factor authentication. You will have to use an OAuth2.0 access token in place of your
password when using this authentication.
[imap]
folder = "[Gmail]/Drafts"
host = imaps://imap.gmail.com
user = user@gmail.com
port = 993
authmethod = OAUTHBEARER
Using Outlook’s IMAP interface:
Unlike Gmail, Outlook only supports OAuth2.0 based authentication. Also, it supports only XOAUTH2 as the
mechanism.
[imap]
folder = "Drafts"
host = imaps://outlook.office365.com
user = user@outlook.com
port = 993
authmethod = XOAUTH2
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).
In case you are using OAuth2.0 authentication, it is easier to use credential helpers to generate tokens.
Credential helpers suggested in git-send-email(1) can be used for git imap-send as well.
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
Git 2.51.0 08/28/2025 GIT-IMAP-SEND(1)