Background: if you work on a project like the Linux kernel, rather than make a pull request you will need to submit your commits to a listserv for review. This entry details how to use git-send email with Gmail.

Add the following to your .gitconfig file:

[sendemail]
    smtpserver = smtp.googlemail.com
    smtpencryption = tls
    smtpserverport = 587
    smtpuser = [email protected]

Then on the web: Go to Google -> My Account -> Connected Apps & Sites -> Allow less secure apps -> Switch ON

To create a patch set:

git format-patch HEAD~~~~ --subject-prefix="PATCH <project-name>"

Then send the patches to a listserv:

git send-email --annotate --to [email protected] 00*.patch

To create and send updated version (version 2 in this example) of the patch:

git format-patch -v 2 HEAD~~~~  ......
git send-email --to [email protected] v2-00*.patch

--from * Email From: --[no-]to * Email To: --[no-]cc * Email Cc: --[no-]bcc * Email Bcc: --subject * Email "Subject:" --in-reply-to * Email "In-Reply-To:" --[no-]xmailer * Add "X-Mailer:" header (default). --[no-]annotate * Review each patch that will be sent in an editor. --compose * Open an editor for introduction. --compose-encoding * Encoding to assume for introduction. --8bit-encoding * Encoding to assume 8bit mails if undeclared --transfer-encoding * Transfer encoding to use (quoted-printable, 8bit, base64)

Suppose you’ve got a lot of commit against a project (here ulogd2, official branch is git-svn) and that you wan to send your patchset to the Mailling list [email protected]. To do so, just open a shell at the root of the git directory and use:

git format-patch --stat -p --raw --signoff  --subject-prefix="ULOGD PATCH" -o /tmp/ulogd2/ -n git-svn
git send-email --compose --no-chain-reply-to --to [email protected] /tmp/ulogd2/

First command will create a serie of mail from patches in /tmp/ulogd2/ with statistic report and second will start your editor to compose an introduction mail to the patchset. To avoid awful threaded mail series, one can use :

git config sendemail.chainreplyto false

source (opens new window)

Syntax

• git send-email [options] <file|directory|rev-list options>…​
• git send-email --dump-aliases

Remarks

https://git-scm.com/docs/git-send-email (opens new window)