Root/Documentation/email-clients.txt

1Email clients info for Linux
2======================================================================
3
4General Preferences
5----------------------------------------------------------------------
6Patches for the Linux kernel are submitted via email, preferably as
7inline text in the body of the email. Some maintainers accept
8attachments, but then the attachments should have content-type
9"text/plain". However, attachments are generally frowned upon because
10it makes quoting portions of the patch more difficult in the patch
11review process.
12
13Email clients that are used for Linux kernel patches should send the
14patch text untouched. For example, they should not modify or delete tabs
15or spaces, even at the beginning or end of lines.
16
17Don't send patches with "format=flowed". This can cause unexpected
18and unwanted line breaks.
19
20Don't let your email client do automatic word wrapping for you.
21This can also corrupt your patch.
22
23Email clients should not modify the character set encoding of the text.
24Emailed patches should be in ASCII or UTF-8 encoding only.
25If you configure your email client to send emails with UTF-8 encoding,
26you avoid some possible charset problems.
27
28Email clients should generate and maintain References: or In-Reply-To:
29headers so that mail threading is not broken.
30
31Copy-and-paste (or cut-and-paste) usually does not work for patches
32because tabs are converted to spaces. Using xclipboard, xclip, and/or
33xcutsel may work, but it's best to test this for yourself or just avoid
34copy-and-paste.
35
36Don't use PGP/GPG signatures in mail that contains patches.
37This breaks many scripts that read and apply the patches.
38(This should be fixable.)
39
40It's a good idea to send a patch to yourself, save the received message,
41and successfully apply it with 'patch' before sending patches to Linux
42mailing lists.
43
44
45Some email client (MUA) hints
46----------------------------------------------------------------------
47Here are some specific MUA configuration hints for editing and sending
48patches for the Linux kernel. These are not meant to be complete
49software package configuration summaries.
50
51Legend:
52TUI = text-based user interface
53GUI = graphical user interface
54
55~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
56Alpine (TUI)
57
58Config options:
59In the "Sending Preferences" section:
60
61- "Do Not Send Flowed Text" must be enabled
62- "Strip Whitespace Before Sending" must be disabled
63
64When composing the message, the cursor should be placed where the patch
65should appear, and then pressing CTRL-R let you specify the patch file
66to insert into the message.
67
68~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
69Evolution (GUI)
70
71Some people use this successfully for patches.
72
73When composing mail select: Preformat
74  from Format->Heading->Preformatted (Ctrl-7)
75  or the toolbar
76
77Then use:
78  Insert->Text File... (Alt-n x)
79to insert the patch.
80
81You can also "diff -Nru old.c new.c | xclip", select Preformat, then
82paste with the middle button.
83
84~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
85Kmail (GUI)
86
87Some people use Kmail successfully for patches.
88
89The default setting of not composing in HTML is appropriate; do not
90enable it.
91
92When composing an email, under options, uncheck "word wrap". The only
93disadvantage is any text you type in the email will not be word-wrapped
94so you will have to manually word wrap text before the patch. The easiest
95way around this is to compose your email with word wrap enabled, then save
96it as a draft. Once you pull it up again from your drafts it is now hard
97word-wrapped and you can uncheck "word wrap" without losing the existing
98wrapping.
99
100At the bottom of your email, put the commonly-used patch delimiter before
101inserting your patch: three hyphens (---).
102
103Then from the "Message" menu item, select insert file and choose your patch.
104As an added bonus you can customise the message creation toolbar menu
105and put the "insert file" icon there.
106
107Make the the composer window wide enough so that no lines wrap. As of
108KMail 1.13.5 (KDE 4.5.4), KMail will apply word wrapping when sending
109the email if the lines wrap in the composer window. Having word wrapping
110disabled in the Options menu isn't enough. Thus, if your patch has very
111long lines, you must make the composer window very wide before sending
112the email. See: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=174034
113
114You can safely GPG sign attachments, but inlined text is preferred for
115patches so do not GPG sign them. Signing patches that have been inserted
116as inlined text will make them tricky to extract from their 7-bit encoding.
117
118If you absolutely must send patches as attachments instead of inlining
119them as text, right click on the attachment and select properties, and
120highlight "Suggest automatic display" to make the attachment inlined to
121make it more viewable.
122
123When saving patches that are sent as inlined text, select the email that
124contains 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
126properly composed. There is no option currently to save the email when you
127are actually viewing it in its own window -- there has been a request filed
128at kmail's bugzilla and hopefully this will be addressed. Emails are saved
129as read-write for user only so you will have to chmod them to make them
130group and world readable if you copy them elsewhere.
131
132~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
133Lotus Notes (GUI)
134
135Run away from it.
136
137~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
138Mutt (TUI)
139
140Plenty of Linux developers use mutt, so it must work pretty well.
141
142Mutt doesn't come with an editor, so whatever editor you use should be
143used in a way that there are no automatic linebreaks. Most editors have
144an "insert file" option that inserts the contents of a file unaltered.
145
146To use 'vim' with mutt:
147  set editor="vi"
148
149  If using xclip, type the command
150  :set paste
151  before middle button or shift-insert or use
152  :r filename
153
154if you want to include the patch inline.
155(a)ttach works fine without "set paste".
156
157Config options:
158It should work with default settings.
159However, it's a good idea to set the "send_charset" to:
160  set send_charset="us-ascii:utf-8"
161
162~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
163Pine (TUI)
164
165Pine has had some whitespace truncation issues in the past, but these
166should all be fixed now.
167
168Use alpine (pine's successor) if you can.
169
170Config options:
171- quell-flowed-text is needed for recent versions
172- the "no-strip-whitespace-before-send" option is needed
173
174
175~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
176Sylpheed (GUI)
177
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
184  properly.
185
186~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
187Thunderbird (GUI)
188
189Thunderbird is an Outlook clone that likes to mangle text, but there are ways
190to coerce it into behaving.
191
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
198  Compose dialog.
199
200To beat some sense out of the internal editor, do this:
201
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
205  "false".
206
207- Disable HTML Format: Set "mail.identity.id1.compose_html" to "false".
208
209- Enable "preformat" mode: Set "editor.quotesPreformatted" to "true".
210
211- Enable UTF8: Set "prefs.converted-to-utf8" to "true".
212
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.
218
219~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
220TkRat (GUI)
221
222Works. Use "Insert file..." or external editor.
223
224~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
225Gmail (Web GUI)
226
227Does not work for sending patches.
228
229Gmail web client converts tabs to spaces automatically.
230
231At the same time it wraps lines every 78 chars with CRLF style line breaks
232although tab2space problem can be solved with external editor.
233
234Another problem is that Gmail will base64-encode any message that has a
235non-ASCII character. That includes things like European names.
236
237                                ###
238

Archive Download this file



interactive