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As this file is mentioned at the development-process/ book, let's convert it to ReST markup. Signed-off-by: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@s-opensource.com> Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
320 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
320 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
.. _email_clients:
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Email clients info for Linux
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============================
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Git
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---
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These days most developers use ``git send-email`` instead of regular
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email clients. The man page for this is quite good. On the receiving
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end, maintainers use ``git am`` to apply the patches.
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If you are new to ``git`` then send your first patch to yourself. Save it
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as raw text including all the headers. Run ``git am raw_email.txt`` and
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then review the changelog with ``git log``. When that works then send
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the patch to the appropriate mailing list(s).
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General Preferences
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-------------------
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Patches for the Linux kernel are submitted via email, preferably as
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inline text in the body of the email. Some maintainers accept
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attachments, but then the attachments should have content-type
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``text/plain``. However, attachments are generally frowned upon because
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it makes quoting portions of the patch more difficult in the patch
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review process.
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Email clients that are used for Linux kernel patches should send the
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patch text untouched. For example, they should not modify or delete tabs
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or spaces, even at the beginning or end of lines.
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Don't send patches with ``format=flowed``. This can cause unexpected
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and unwanted line breaks.
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Don't let your email client do automatic word wrapping for you.
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This can also corrupt your patch.
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Email clients should not modify the character set encoding of the text.
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Emailed patches should be in ASCII or UTF-8 encoding only.
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If you configure your email client to send emails with UTF-8 encoding,
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you avoid some possible charset problems.
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Email clients should generate and maintain References: or In-Reply-To:
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headers so that mail threading is not broken.
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Copy-and-paste (or cut-and-paste) usually does not work for patches
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because tabs are converted to spaces. Using xclipboard, xclip, and/or
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xcutsel may work, but it's best to test this for yourself or just avoid
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copy-and-paste.
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Don't use PGP/GPG signatures in mail that contains patches.
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This breaks many scripts that read and apply the patches.
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(This should be fixable.)
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It's a good idea to send a patch to yourself, save the received message,
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and successfully apply it with 'patch' before sending patches to Linux
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mailing lists.
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Some email client (MUA) hints
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-----------------------------
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Here are some specific MUA configuration hints for editing and sending
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patches for the Linux kernel. These are not meant to be complete
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software package configuration summaries.
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Legend:
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- TUI = text-based user interface
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- GUI = graphical user interface
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Alpine (TUI)
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************
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Config options:
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In the :menuselection:`Sending Preferences` section:
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- :menuselection:`Do Not Send Flowed Text` must be ``enabled``
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- :menuselection:`Strip Whitespace Before Sending` must be ``disabled``
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When composing the message, the cursor should be placed where the patch
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should appear, and then pressing :kbd:`CTRL-R` let you specify the patch file
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to insert into the message.
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Claws Mail (GUI)
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****************
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Works. Some people use this successfully for patches.
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To insert a patch use :menuselection:`Message-->Insert` File (:kbd:`CTRL-I`)
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or an external editor.
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If the inserted patch has to be edited in the Claws composition window
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"Auto wrapping" in
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:menuselection:`Configuration-->Preferences-->Compose-->Wrapping` should be
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disabled.
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Evolution (GUI)
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***************
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Some people use this successfully for patches.
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When composing mail select: Preformat
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from :menuselection:`Format-->Paragraph Style-->Preformatted` (:kbd:`CTRL-7`)
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or the toolbar
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Then use:
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:menuselection:`Insert-->Text File...` (:kbd:`ALT-N x`)
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to insert the patch.
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You can also ``diff -Nru old.c new.c | xclip``, select
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:menuselection:`Preformat`, then paste with the middle button.
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Kmail (GUI)
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***********
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Some people use Kmail successfully for patches.
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The default setting of not composing in HTML is appropriate; do not
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enable it.
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When composing an email, under options, uncheck "word wrap". The only
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disadvantage is any text you type in the email will not be word-wrapped
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so you will have to manually word wrap text before the patch. The easiest
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way around this is to compose your email with word wrap enabled, then save
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it as a draft. Once you pull it up again from your drafts it is now hard
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word-wrapped and you can uncheck "word wrap" without losing the existing
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wrapping.
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At the bottom of your email, put the commonly-used patch delimiter before
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inserting your patch: three hyphens (``---``).
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Then from the :menuselection:`Message` menu item, select insert file and
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choose your patch.
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As an added bonus you can customise the message creation toolbar menu
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and put the :menuselection:`insert file` icon there.
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Make the composer window wide enough so that no lines wrap. As of
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KMail 1.13.5 (KDE 4.5.4), KMail will apply word wrapping when sending
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the email if the lines wrap in the composer window. Having word wrapping
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disabled in the Options menu isn't enough. Thus, if your patch has very
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long lines, you must make the composer window very wide before sending
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the email. See: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=174034
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You can safely GPG sign attachments, but inlined text is preferred for
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patches so do not GPG sign them. Signing patches that have been inserted
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as inlined text will make them tricky to extract from their 7-bit encoding.
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If you absolutely must send patches as attachments instead of inlining
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them as text, right click on the attachment and select properties, and
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highlight :menuselection:`Suggest automatic display` to make the attachment
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inlined to make it more viewable.
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When saving patches that are sent as inlined text, select the email that
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contains the patch from the message list pane, right click and select
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:menuselection:`save as`. You can use the whole email unmodified as a patch
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if it was properly composed. There is no option currently to save the email
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when you are actually viewing it in its own window -- there has been a request
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filed at kmail's bugzilla and hopefully this will be addressed. Emails are
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saved as read-write for user only so you will have to chmod them to make them
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group and world readable if you copy them elsewhere.
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Lotus Notes (GUI)
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*****************
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Run away from it.
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Mutt (TUI)
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**********
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Plenty of Linux developers use ``mutt``, so it must work pretty well.
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Mutt doesn't come with an editor, so whatever editor you use should be
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used in a way that there are no automatic linebreaks. Most editors have
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an :menuselection:`insert file` option that inserts the contents of a file
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unaltered.
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To use ``vim`` with mutt::
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set editor="vi"
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If using xclip, type the command::
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:set paste
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before middle button or shift-insert or use::
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:r filename
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if you want to include the patch inline.
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(a)ttach works fine without ``set paste``.
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You can also generate patches with ``git format-patch`` and then use Mutt
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to send them::
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$ mutt -H 0001-some-bug-fix.patch
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Config options:
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It should work with default settings.
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However, it's a good idea to set the ``send_charset`` to::
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set send_charset="us-ascii:utf-8"
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Mutt is highly customizable. Here is a minimum configuration to start
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using Mutt to send patches through Gmail::
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# .muttrc
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# ================ IMAP ====================
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set imap_user = 'yourusername@gmail.com'
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set imap_pass = 'yourpassword'
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set spoolfile = imaps://imap.gmail.com/INBOX
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set folder = imaps://imap.gmail.com/
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set record="imaps://imap.gmail.com/[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
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set postponed="imaps://imap.gmail.com/[Gmail]/Drafts"
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set mbox="imaps://imap.gmail.com/[Gmail]/All Mail"
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# ================ SMTP ====================
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set smtp_url = "smtp://username@smtp.gmail.com:587/"
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set smtp_pass = $imap_pass
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set ssl_force_tls = yes # Require encrypted connection
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# ================ Composition ====================
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set editor = `echo \$EDITOR`
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set edit_headers = yes # See the headers when editing
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set charset = UTF-8 # value of $LANG; also fallback for send_charset
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# Sender, email address, and sign-off line must match
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unset use_domain # because joe@localhost is just embarrassing
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set realname = "YOUR NAME"
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set from = "username@gmail.com"
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set use_from = yes
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The Mutt docs have lots more information:
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http://dev.mutt.org/trac/wiki/UseCases/Gmail
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http://dev.mutt.org/doc/manual.html
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Pine (TUI)
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**********
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Pine has had some whitespace truncation issues in the past, but these
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should all be fixed now.
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Use alpine (pine's successor) if you can.
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Config options:
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- ``quell-flowed-text`` is needed for recent versions
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- the ``no-strip-whitespace-before-send`` option is needed
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Sylpheed (GUI)
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**************
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- Works well for inlining text (or using attachments).
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- Allows use of an external editor.
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- Is slow on large folders.
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- Won't do TLS SMTP auth over a non-SSL connection.
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- Has a helpful ruler bar in the compose window.
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- Adding addresses to address book doesn't understand the display name
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properly.
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Thunderbird (GUI)
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*****************
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Thunderbird is an Outlook clone that likes to mangle text, but there are ways
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to coerce it into behaving.
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- Allow use of an external editor:
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The easiest thing to do with Thunderbird and patches is to use an
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"external editor" extension and then just use your favorite ``$EDITOR``
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for reading/merging patches into the body text. To do this, download
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and install the extension, then add a button for it using
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:menuselection:`View-->Toolbars-->Customize...` and finally just click on it
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when in the :menuselection:`Compose` dialog.
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Please note that "external editor" requires that your editor must not
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fork, or in other words, the editor must not return before closing.
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You may have to pass additional flags or change the settings of your
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editor. Most notably if you are using gvim then you must pass the -f
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option to gvim by putting ``/usr/bin/gvim -f`` (if the binary is in
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``/usr/bin``) to the text editor field in :menuselection:`external editor`
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settings. If you are using some other editor then please read its manual
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to find out how to do this.
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To beat some sense out of the internal editor, do this:
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- Edit your Thunderbird config settings so that it won't use ``format=flowed``.
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Go to :menuselection:`edit-->preferences-->advanced-->config editor` to bring up
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the thunderbird's registry editor.
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- Set ``mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed`` to ``false``
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- Set ``mailnews.wraplength`` from ``72`` to ``0``
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- :menuselection:`View-->Message Body As-->Plain Text`
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- :menuselection:`View-->Character Encoding-->Unicode (UTF-8)`
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TkRat (GUI)
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***********
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Works. Use "Insert file..." or external editor.
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Gmail (Web GUI)
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***************
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Does not work for sending patches.
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Gmail web client converts tabs to spaces automatically.
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At the same time it wraps lines every 78 chars with CRLF style line breaks
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although tab2space problem can be solved with external editor.
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Another problem is that Gmail will base64-encode any message that has a
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non-ASCII character. That includes things like European names.
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