git-send-email.md 6.3 KB
How to git send-email
Check if git is able to send-email ;-D
This command should output the manual, then git is ready to use send-email.
$ git send-email --help
If the previous command doesn't show a manual page you must install some dependencies. Check installation options for your distribution.
Install dependencies to use send-email, if not installed
Check the documentation specific to your distribution to do this.
$ sudo pacman -Syu --needed git perl-authen-sasl perl-io-socket-ssl
Configure username and email for git to use it
Global git configuration:
$ git config --global user.name "mi nombre"
$ git config --global user.email "myemail@example.com"
To apply repository local configuration you use --local instead of --global:
$ cd your-git-repo/
$ git config --local user.name "mi nombre"
$ git config --local user.email "myemail@example.com"
You can select this for all configuration options you wish.
Configure send-email options
Check your email provider server settings and fill these configuration options.
$ git config --global sendemail.smtpencryption tls
$ git config --global sendemail.smtpserver smtp.yourprovider.com
$ git config --global sendemail.smtpuser username@yourprovider.com
$ git config --global sendemail.smtpserverport 587
$ git config --global sendemail.smtppass "PASS/GOPASS/SHROUD"
The last option represents a security risk, because you must not save passwords in plain text. You must configure your password store software to provide the password each time you use sendemail.
Configure git to use your password store provider
It is recomended to read git credentials and custom helpers to configure your helper to use your password storage system.
credential.helper=!f() { echo "password=$(pass email/username@yourprovider.com)"; }; f
Send patches using send-email
Send the last parent of commit pointed by HEAD as a patch:
$ git send-email --to="~username/project-repo-name@maillist.gitprovider.com" HEAD^
You can add the previous setting permanently to your configuration and avoid writing it every time:
$ git config sendemail.to "~username/project-repo-name@maillist.gitprovider.com"
$ git send-email HEAD^
Send last commit on current branch as a patch:
$ git send-email -1
Specify which commit to send as a patch:
$ git send-email -1 <commit sha1 object name>
Generate patches using format-patch for later send-email
The git format-patch command is used to generate a series of patches in mbox format that you can use to send to a mailing list properly formatted. This turns each commit into an email message:
Generate a series of patches from previous commits, the -M option searches for renames:
$ git format-patch -M origin/master
0001-modify-something-on-project.patch
0002-modify-something-else-on-project.patch
Send patches to the email box:
$ git send-email *.patch
Send multiple commits as patches
Send last 10 commmits as a patch, sending an explanation mail --cover-letter before the patches emails and open each for editing --annotate before sending all:
$ git send-email -10 --cover-letter --annotate
Send the last three commits as a patch:
$ git send-email HEAD~3
Send all commits since a particular commit as patch:
$ git send-email <commit sha1 object name>
Send second to last commit as a patch:
$ git send-email -1 HEAD^^
Send a "corrected" version of a commit as a patch:
$ git send-email -v2 -1
Change the subject of the email
By default git sends the "[PATCH]" tag as a subject to each patch mail, you can change that with --subject-prefix:
$ git send-email -1 --subject-prefix = "PATCH finalrelease"
Applying patches from email
Given that patches can be created from git diff or format-patch which send-email uses to format patches as mbox file format, there are two different ways to apply those patches: git apply and git am.
Applying patches generated with diff
Check if a patch applies cleanly before applying it. If there is no output the patch applies cleanly:
$ git apply --check 0001-see-if-this-helps-the-gem.patch
error: patch failed: ticgit.gemspec:1
error: ticgit.gemspec: patch does not apply
Apply a patch generated with git diff and you saved it on tmp:
$ git apply /tmp/patch-ruby-client.patch
Applying patches generated with format-patch
Technically, git am is built to read an mbox file, which is a simple, plain-text format for storing one or more email messages in one text file.
The git am command also creates a new commit when you apply the patch.
To apply a patch generated with format-patch:
$ git am 0001-limit-log-function.patch
Applying: Add limit to log function
Or you can pipe the mbox file generated from your email client to git am. In aerc you simply pipe the current email as:
:cd git-project-directory
:pipe git am
Check the applied patch with git log:
$ git log --pretty=fuller -1
If the git am command fails to apply the patch, it will print error messages and it won't generate the new commit.
Other useful configuration options
Supress auto-cc of the sender to avoid including ourselves of the mail list:
$ git config sendemail.suppresscc self
References
- git send-email
- Git Commands - Email
- Customizing Git - Git Configuration
- Git Tools - Revision Selection
- git credentials
- git-rev-parse