1
Email clients info for Linux
2
======================================================================
5
----------------------------------------------------------------------
6
Patches for the Linux kernel are submitted via email, preferably as
7
inline text in the body of the email. Some maintainers accept
8
attachments, but then the attachments should have content-type
9
"text/plain". However, attachments are generally frowned upon because
10
it makes quoting portions of the patch more difficult in the patch
13
Email clients that are used for Linux kernel patches should send the
14
patch text untouched. For example, they should not modify or delete tabs
15
or spaces, even at the beginning or end of lines.
17
Don't send patches with "format=flowed". This can cause unexpected
18
and unwanted line breaks.
20
Don't let your email client do automatic word wrapping for you.
21
This can also corrupt your patch.
23
Email clients should not modify the character set encoding of the text.
24
Emailed patches should be in ASCII or UTF-8 encoding only.
25
If you configure your email client to send emails with UTF-8 encoding,
26
you avoid some possible charset problems.
28
Email clients should generate and maintain References: or In-Reply-To:
29
headers so that mail threading is not broken.
31
Copy-and-paste (or cut-and-paste) usually does not work for patches
32
because tabs are converted to spaces. Using xclipboard, xclip, and/or
33
xcutsel may work, but it's best to test this for yourself or just avoid
36
Don't use PGP/GPG signatures in mail that contains patches.
37
This breaks many scripts that read and apply the patches.
38
(This should be fixable.)
40
It's a good idea to send a patch to yourself, save the received message,
41
and successfully apply it with 'patch' before sending patches to Linux
45
Some email client (MUA) hints
46
----------------------------------------------------------------------
47
Here are some specific MUA configuration hints for editing and sending
48
patches for the Linux kernel. These are not meant to be complete
49
software package configuration summaries.
52
TUI = text-based user interface
53
GUI = graphical user interface
55
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
59
In the "Sending Preferences" section:
61
- "Do Not Send Flowed Text" must be enabled
62
- "Strip Whitespace Before Sending" must be disabled
64
When composing the message, the cursor should be placed where the patch
65
should appear, and then pressing CTRL-R let you specify the patch file
66
to insert into the message.
68
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
71
Some people use this successfully for patches.
73
When composing mail select: Preformat
74
from Format->Heading->Preformatted (Ctrl-7)
78
Insert->Text File... (Alt-n x)
81
You can also "diff -Nru old.c new.c | xclip", select Preformat, then
82
paste with the middle button.
84
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
87
Some people use Kmail successfully for patches.
89
The default setting of not composing in HTML is appropriate; do not
92
When composing an email, under options, uncheck "word wrap". The only
93
disadvantage is any text you type in the email will not be word-wrapped
94
so you will have to manually word wrap text before the patch. The easiest
95
way around this is to compose your email with word wrap enabled, then save
96
it as a draft. Once you pull it up again from your drafts it is now hard
97
word-wrapped and you can uncheck "word wrap" without losing the existing
100
At the bottom of your email, put the commonly-used patch delimiter before
101
inserting your patch: three hyphens (---).
103
Then from the "Message" menu item, select insert file and choose your patch.
104
As an added bonus you can customise the message creation toolbar menu
105
and put the "insert file" icon there.
107
Make the the composer window wide enough so that no lines wrap. As of
108
KMail 1.13.5 (KDE 4.5.4), KMail will apply word wrapping when sending
109
the email if the lines wrap in the composer window. Having word wrapping
110
disabled in the Options menu isn't enough. Thus, if your patch has very
111
long lines, you must make the composer window very wide before sending
112
the email. See: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=174034
114
You can safely GPG sign attachments, but inlined text is preferred for
115
patches so do not GPG sign them. Signing patches that have been inserted
116
as inlined text will make them tricky to extract from their 7-bit encoding.
118
If you absolutely must send patches as attachments instead of inlining
119
them as text, right click on the attachment and select properties, and
120
highlight "Suggest automatic display" to make the attachment inlined to
121
make it more viewable.
123
When saving patches that are sent as inlined text, select the email that
124
contains the patch from the message list pane, right click and select
125
"save as". You can use the whole email unmodified as a patch if it was
126
properly composed. There is no option currently to save the email when you
127
are actually viewing it in its own window -- there has been a request filed
128
at kmail's bugzilla and hopefully this will be addressed. Emails are saved
129
as read-write for user only so you will have to chmod them to make them
130
group and world readable if you copy them elsewhere.
132
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
137
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
140
Plenty of Linux developers use mutt, so it must work pretty well.
142
Mutt doesn't come with an editor, so whatever editor you use should be
143
used in a way that there are no automatic linebreaks. Most editors have
144
an "insert file" option that inserts the contents of a file unaltered.
146
To use 'vim' with mutt:
149
If using xclip, type the command
151
before middle button or shift-insert or use
154
if you want to include the patch inline.
155
(a)ttach works fine without "set paste".
158
It should work with default settings.
159
However, it's a good idea to set the "send_charset" to:
160
set send_charset="us-ascii:utf-8"
162
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
165
Pine has had some whitespace truncation issues in the past, but these
166
should all be fixed now.
168
Use alpine (pine's successor) if you can.
171
- quell-flowed-text is needed for recent versions
172
- the "no-strip-whitespace-before-send" option is needed
175
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
178
- Works well for inlining text (or using attachments).
179
- Allows use of an external editor.
180
- Is slow on large folders.
181
- Won't do TLS SMTP auth over a non-SSL connection.
182
- Has a helpful ruler bar in the compose window.
183
- Adding addresses to address book doesn't understand the display name
186
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
189
Thunderbird is an Outlook clone that likes to mangle text, but there are ways
190
to coerce it into behaving.
192
- Allows use of an external editor:
193
The easiest thing to do with Thunderbird and patches is to use an
194
"external editor" extension and then just use your favorite $EDITOR
195
for reading/merging patches into the body text. To do this, download
196
and install the extension, then add a button for it using
197
View->Toolbars->Customize... and finally just click on it when in the
200
To beat some sense out of the internal editor, do this:
202
- Edit your Thunderbird config settings so that it won't use format=flowed.
203
Go to "edit->preferences->advanced->config editor" to bring up the
204
thunderbird's registry editor, and set "mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed" to
207
- Disable HTML Format: Set "mail.identity.id1.compose_html" to "false".
209
- Enable "preformat" mode: Set "editor.quotesPreformatted" to "true".
211
- Enable UTF8: Set "prefs.converted-to-utf8" to "true".
213
- Install the "toggle wordwrap" extension. Download the file from:
214
https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/2351/
215
Then go to "tools->add ons", select "install" at the bottom of the screen,
216
and browse to where you saved the .xul file. This adds an "Enable
217
Wordwrap" entry under the Options menu of the message composer.
219
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
222
Works. Use "Insert file..." or external editor.
224
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
227
Does not work for sending patches.
229
Gmail web client converts tabs to spaces automatically.
231
At the same time it wraps lines every 78 chars with CRLF style line breaks
232
although tab2space problem can be solved with external editor.
234
Another problem is that Gmail will base64-encode any message that has a
235
non-ASCII character. That includes things like European names.