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Randy Dunlapa6cd6bf2007-10-16 23:29:49 -07001Email clients info for Linux
2======================================================================
3
Dan Carpenter7d19e912014-06-27 18:28:46 -07004Git
5----------------------------------------------------------------------
6These days most developers use `git send-email` instead of regular
7email clients. The man page for this is quite good. On the receiving
8end, maintainers use `git am` to apply the patches.
9
10If you are new to git then send your first patch to yourself. Save it
11as raw text including all the headers. Run `git am raw_email.txt` and
12then review the changelog with `git log`. When that works then send
13the patch to the appropriate mailing list(s).
14
Randy Dunlapa6cd6bf2007-10-16 23:29:49 -070015General Preferences
16----------------------------------------------------------------------
17Patches for the Linux kernel are submitted via email, preferably as
18inline text in the body of the email. Some maintainers accept
19attachments, but then the attachments should have content-type
20"text/plain". However, attachments are generally frowned upon because
21it makes quoting portions of the patch more difficult in the patch
22review process.
23
24Email clients that are used for Linux kernel patches should send the
25patch text untouched. For example, they should not modify or delete tabs
26or spaces, even at the beginning or end of lines.
27
28Don't send patches with "format=flowed". This can cause unexpected
29and unwanted line breaks.
30
31Don't let your email client do automatic word wrapping for you.
32This can also corrupt your patch.
33
34Email clients should not modify the character set encoding of the text.
35Emailed patches should be in ASCII or UTF-8 encoding only.
36If you configure your email client to send emails with UTF-8 encoding,
37you avoid some possible charset problems.
38
39Email clients should generate and maintain References: or In-Reply-To:
40headers so that mail threading is not broken.
41
42Copy-and-paste (or cut-and-paste) usually does not work for patches
43because tabs are converted to spaces. Using xclipboard, xclip, and/or
44xcutsel may work, but it's best to test this for yourself or just avoid
45copy-and-paste.
46
47Don't use PGP/GPG signatures in mail that contains patches.
48This breaks many scripts that read and apply the patches.
49(This should be fixable.)
50
51It's a good idea to send a patch to yourself, save the received message,
52and successfully apply it with 'patch' before sending patches to Linux
53mailing lists.
54
55
56Some email client (MUA) hints
57----------------------------------------------------------------------
58Here are some specific MUA configuration hints for editing and sending
59patches for the Linux kernel. These are not meant to be complete
60software package configuration summaries.
61
62Legend:
63TUI = text-based user interface
64GUI = graphical user interface
65
66~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
67Alpine (TUI)
68
69Config options:
70In the "Sending Preferences" section:
71
72- "Do Not Send Flowed Text" must be enabled
73- "Strip Whitespace Before Sending" must be disabled
74
75When composing the message, the cursor should be placed where the patch
76should appear, and then pressing CTRL-R let you specify the patch file
77to insert into the message.
78
79~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
80Evolution (GUI)
81
82Some people use this successfully for patches.
83
84When composing mail select: Preformat
85 from Format->Heading->Preformatted (Ctrl-7)
86 or the toolbar
87
88Then use:
89 Insert->Text File... (Alt-n x)
90to insert the patch.
91
92You can also "diff -Nru old.c new.c | xclip", select Preformat, then
93paste with the middle button.
94
95~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
96Kmail (GUI)
97
98Some people use Kmail successfully for patches.
99
100The default setting of not composing in HTML is appropriate; do not
101enable it.
102
103When composing an email, under options, uncheck "word wrap". The only
104disadvantage is any text you type in the email will not be word-wrapped
105so you will have to manually word wrap text before the patch. The easiest
106way around this is to compose your email with word wrap enabled, then save
107it as a draft. Once you pull it up again from your drafts it is now hard
108word-wrapped and you can uncheck "word wrap" without losing the existing
109wrapping.
110
111At the bottom of your email, put the commonly-used patch delimiter before
112inserting your patch: three hyphens (---).
113
114Then from the "Message" menu item, select insert file and choose your patch.
115As an added bonus you can customise the message creation toolbar menu
116and put the "insert file" icon there.
117
Xishi Qiud9a6ed12013-11-06 13:18:19 -0800118Make the composer window wide enough so that no lines wrap. As of
Lasse Collin5d3687d2011-01-12 17:00:28 -0800119KMail 1.13.5 (KDE 4.5.4), KMail will apply word wrapping when sending
120the email if the lines wrap in the composer window. Having word wrapping
121disabled in the Options menu isn't enough. Thus, if your patch has very
122long lines, you must make the composer window very wide before sending
123the email. See: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=174034
124
Randy Dunlapa6cd6bf2007-10-16 23:29:49 -0700125You can safely GPG sign attachments, but inlined text is preferred for
126patches so do not GPG sign them. Signing patches that have been inserted
127as inlined text will make them tricky to extract from their 7-bit encoding.
128
129If you absolutely must send patches as attachments instead of inlining
130them as text, right click on the attachment and select properties, and
131highlight "Suggest automatic display" to make the attachment inlined to
132make it more viewable.
133
134When saving patches that are sent as inlined text, select the email that
135contains the patch from the message list pane, right click and select
136"save as". You can use the whole email unmodified as a patch if it was
137properly composed. There is no option currently to save the email when you
138are actually viewing it in its own window -- there has been a request filed
139at kmail's bugzilla and hopefully this will be addressed. Emails are saved
140as read-write for user only so you will have to chmod them to make them
141group and world readable if you copy them elsewhere.
142
143~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
144Lotus Notes (GUI)
145
146Run away from it.
147
148~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
149Mutt (TUI)
150
151Plenty of Linux developers use mutt, so it must work pretty well.
152
153Mutt doesn't come with an editor, so whatever editor you use should be
154used in a way that there are no automatic linebreaks. Most editors have
155an "insert file" option that inserts the contents of a file unaltered.
156
157To use 'vim' with mutt:
158 set editor="vi"
159
160 If using xclip, type the command
161 :set paste
162 before middle button or shift-insert or use
163 :r filename
164
165if you want to include the patch inline.
166(a)ttach works fine without "set paste".
167
168Config options:
169It should work with default settings.
170However, it's a good idea to set the "send_charset" to:
171 set send_charset="us-ascii:utf-8"
172
173~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
174Pine (TUI)
175
176Pine has had some whitespace truncation issues in the past, but these
177should all be fixed now.
178
179Use alpine (pine's successor) if you can.
180
181Config options:
182- quell-flowed-text is needed for recent versions
183- the "no-strip-whitespace-before-send" option is needed
184
185
186~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
187Sylpheed (GUI)
188
189- Works well for inlining text (or using attachments).
190- Allows use of an external editor.
Randy Dunlapa6cd6bf2007-10-16 23:29:49 -0700191- Is slow on large folders.
192- Won't do TLS SMTP auth over a non-SSL connection.
193- Has a helpful ruler bar in the compose window.
194- Adding addresses to address book doesn't understand the display name
195 properly.
196
197~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
198Thunderbird (GUI)
199
Rob Landleye0e34e92011-01-12 17:00:29 -0800200Thunderbird is an Outlook clone that likes to mangle text, but there are ways
201to coerce it into behaving.
Randy Dunlapa6cd6bf2007-10-16 23:29:49 -0700202
203- Allows use of an external editor:
204 The easiest thing to do with Thunderbird and patches is to use an
205 "external editor" extension and then just use your favorite $EDITOR
206 for reading/merging patches into the body text. To do this, download
207 and install the extension, then add a button for it using
208 View->Toolbars->Customize... and finally just click on it when in the
209 Compose dialog.
210
Rob Landleye0e34e92011-01-12 17:00:29 -0800211To beat some sense out of the internal editor, do this:
212
Rob Landleye0e34e92011-01-12 17:00:29 -0800213- Edit your Thunderbird config settings so that it won't use format=flowed.
214 Go to "edit->preferences->advanced->config editor" to bring up the
Paul McQuadef9a09742014-05-15 13:54:25 -0700215 thunderbird's registry editor.
Rob Landleye0e34e92011-01-12 17:00:29 -0800216
Paul McQuadef9a09742014-05-15 13:54:25 -0700217- Set "mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed" to "false"
Paul Mcquade6989b5b2011-08-13 12:34:54 -0700218
Paul McQuadef9a09742014-05-15 13:54:25 -0700219- Set "mailnews.wraplength" from "72" to "0"
Paul Mcquade6989b5b2011-08-13 12:34:54 -0700220
Paul McQuadef9a09742014-05-15 13:54:25 -0700221- "View" > "Message Body As" > "Plain Text"
Rob Landleye0e34e92011-01-12 17:00:29 -0800222
Paul McQuadef9a09742014-05-15 13:54:25 -0700223- "View" > "Character Encoding" > "Unicode (UTF-8)"
Rob Landleye0e34e92011-01-12 17:00:29 -0800224
Randy Dunlapa6cd6bf2007-10-16 23:29:49 -0700225~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
226TkRat (GUI)
227
228Works. Use "Insert file..." or external editor.
229
Tim Hockin1b6bcdb2008-11-06 12:53:33 -0800230~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
231Gmail (Web GUI)
232
Dave Young5ce9f072010-03-10 15:22:02 -0800233Does not work for sending patches.
Tim Hockin1b6bcdb2008-11-06 12:53:33 -0800234
Dave Young5ce9f072010-03-10 15:22:02 -0800235Gmail web client converts tabs to spaces automatically.
Tim Hockin1b6bcdb2008-11-06 12:53:33 -0800236
Dave Young5ce9f072010-03-10 15:22:02 -0800237At the same time it wraps lines every 78 chars with CRLF style line breaks
238although tab2space problem can be solved with external editor.
Tim Hockin1b6bcdb2008-11-06 12:53:33 -0800239
Dave Young5ce9f072010-03-10 15:22:02 -0800240Another problem is that Gmail will base64-encode any message that has a
241non-ASCII character. That includes things like European names.
Tim Hockin1b6bcdb2008-11-06 12:53:33 -0800242
Randy Dunlapa6cd6bf2007-10-16 23:29:49 -0700243 ###