1 Email clients info for Linux
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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
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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 You can safely GPG sign attachments, but inlined text is preferred for
108 patches so do not GPG sign them. Signing patches that have been inserted
109 as inlined text will make them tricky to extract from their 7-bit encoding.
111 If you absolutely must send patches as attachments instead of inlining
112 them as text, right click on the attachment and select properties, and
113 highlight "Suggest automatic display" to make the attachment inlined to
114 make it more viewable.
116 When saving patches that are sent as inlined text, select the email that
117 contains the patch from the message list pane, right click and select
118 "save as". You can use the whole email unmodified as a patch if it was
119 properly composed. There is no option currently to save the email when you
120 are actually viewing it in its own window -- there has been a request filed
121 at kmail's bugzilla and hopefully this will be addressed. Emails are saved
122 as read-write for user only so you will have to chmod them to make them
123 group and world readable if you copy them elsewhere.
125 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
130 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
133 Plenty of Linux developers use mutt, so it must work pretty well.
135 Mutt doesn't come with an editor, so whatever editor you use should be
136 used in a way that there are no automatic linebreaks. Most editors have
137 an "insert file" option that inserts the contents of a file unaltered.
139 To use 'vim' with mutt:
142 If using xclip, type the command
144 before middle button or shift-insert or use
147 if you want to include the patch inline.
148 (a)ttach works fine without "set paste".
151 It should work with default settings.
152 However, it's a good idea to set the "send_charset" to:
153 set send_charset="us-ascii:utf-8"
155 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
158 Pine has had some whitespace truncation issues in the past, but these
159 should all be fixed now.
161 Use alpine (pine's successor) if you can.
164 - quell-flowed-text is needed for recent versions
165 - the "no-strip-whitespace-before-send" option is needed
168 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
171 - Works well for inlining text (or using attachments).
172 - Allows use of an external editor.
173 - Is slow on large folders.
174 - Won't do TLS SMTP auth over a non-SSL connection.
175 - Has a helpful ruler bar in the compose window.
176 - Adding addresses to address book doesn't understand the display name
179 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
182 By default, thunderbird likes to mangle text, but there are ways to
183 coerce it into being nice.
185 - Under account settings, composition and addressing, uncheck "Compose
186 messages in HTML format".
188 - Edit your Thunderbird config settings to tell it not to wrap lines:
189 user_pref("mailnews.wraplength", 0);
191 - Edit your Thunderbird config settings so that it won't use format=flowed:
192 user_pref("mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed", false);
194 - You need to get Thunderbird into preformat mode:
195 . If you compose HTML messages by default, it's not too hard. Just select
196 "Preformat" from the drop-down box just under the subject line.
197 . If you compose in text by default, you have to tell it to compose a new
198 message in HTML (just as a one-off), and then force it from there back to
199 text, else it will wrap lines. To do this, use shift-click on the Write
200 icon to compose to get HTML compose mode, then select "Preformat" from
201 the drop-down box just under the subject line.
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
211 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
214 Works. Use "Insert file..." or external editor.
216 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
219 Does not work for sending patches.
221 Gmail web client converts tabs to spaces automatically.
223 At the same time it wraps lines every 78 chars with CRLF style line breaks
224 although tab2space problem can be solved with external editor.
226 Another problem is that Gmail will base64-encode any message that has a
227 non-ASCII character. That includes things like European names.