Provided by: git-email_1.9.1-1ubuntu0.10_all 
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’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.
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’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.
--compose-encoding=<encoding>
Specify encoding of compose message. Default is the value of the
sendemail.composeencoding; if that is unspecified, UTF-8 is assumed.
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 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 ca-certificates (either a directory or a single file). Set it to an empty
string to disable certificate verification. Defaults to the value set to the
sendemail.smtpsslcertpath configuration variable, if set, or /etc/ssl/certs otherwise.
--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.
--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.
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