git-imap-send - Man Page

git imap-send [-v] [-q] [--[no-]curl] [--[no-]draft] [(--folder|-f) <folder>]
git imap-send --list

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

-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​.

--draft,  --no-draft

Mark uploaded messages with the IMAP \Draft flag​. The default is --no-draft​.

With libcurl, --draft requires version 8​.13​.0 or later​. Older libcurl still uploads the message but cannot set the flag​.

--list

Run the IMAP LIST command to output a list of all the folders present​.

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​.

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​.

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

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​.

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​.

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

git-format-patch(1), git-send-email(1), mbox(5)

Part of the git(1) suite