Scroll to navigation

GIT-IMAP-SEND(1) Git Manual GIT-IMAP-SEND(1)

NAME

git-imap-send - Send a collection of patches from stdin to an IMAP folder

SYNOPSIS

git imap-send [-v] [-q] [--[no-]curl] [(--folder|-f) <folder>]
git imap-send --list

DESCRIPTION

This command uploads a mailbox generated with git format-patch into an IMAP drafts folder. This allows patches to be sent as other email is when using mail clients that cannot read mailbox files directly. The command also works with any general mailbox in which emails have the fields From, Date, and Subject in that order.

Typical usage is something like:

$ git format-patch --signoff --stdout --attach origin | git imap-send

OPTIONS

-v, --verbose

Be verbose.

-q, --quiet

Be quiet.

-f <folder>, --folder=<folder>

Specify the folder in which the emails have to saved. For example: --folder=[Gmail]/Drafts or -f INBOX/Drafts.

--curl

Use libcurl to communicate with the IMAP server, unless tunneling into it. Ignored if Git was built without the USE_CURL_FOR_IMAP_SEND option set.

--no-curl

Talk to the IMAP server using git’s own IMAP routines instead of using libcurl. Ignored if Git was built with the NO_OPENSSL option set.

--list

Run the IMAP LIST command to output a list of all the folders present.

CONFIGURATION

To use the tool, imap.folder and either imap.tunnel or imap.host must be set to appropriate values.

Everything above this line in this section isn’t included from the git-config(1) documentation. The content that follows is the same as what’s found there:

imap.folder

The folder to drop the mails into, which is typically the Drafts folder. For example: INBOX.Drafts, INBOX/Drafts or [Gmail]/Drafts. The IMAP folder to interact with MUST be specified; the value of this configuration variable is used as the fallback default value when the --folder option is not given.

imap.tunnel

Command used to set up a tunnel to the IMAP server through which commands will be piped instead of using a direct network connection to the server. Required when imap.host is not set.

imap.host

A URL identifying the server. Use an imap:// prefix for non-secure connections and an imaps:// prefix for secure connections. Ignored when imap.tunnel is set, but required otherwise.

imap.user

The username to use when logging in to the server.

imap.pass

The password to use when logging in to the server.

imap.port

An integer port number to connect to on the server. Defaults to 143 for imap:// hosts and 993 for imaps:// hosts. Ignored when imap.tunnel is set.

imap.sslverify

A boolean to enable/disable verification of the server certificate used by the SSL/TLS connection. Default is true. Ignored when imap.tunnel is set.

imap.preformattedHTML

A boolean to enable/disable the use of html encoding when sending a patch. An html encoded patch will be bracketed with <pre> and have a content type of text/html. Ironically, enabling this option causes Thunderbird to send the patch as a plain/text, format=fixed email. Default is false.

imap.authMethod

Specify the authentication method for authenticating with the IMAP server. If Git was built with the NO_CURL option, or if your curl version is older than 7.34.0, or if you’re running git-imap-send with the --no-curl option, the only supported methods are PLAIN, CRAM-MD5, OAUTHBEARER and XOAUTH2. If this is not set then git imap-send uses the basic IMAP plaintext LOGIN command.

GETTING A LIST OF AVAILABLE FOLDERS

In order to send an email to a specific folder, you need to know the correct name of intended folder in your mailbox. The names like "Junk", "Trash" etc. displayed by various email clients need not be the actual names of the folders stored in the mail server of your email provider.

In order to get the correct folder name to be used with git imap-send, you can run git imap-send --list. This will display a list of valid folder names. An example of such an output when run on a Gmail account is:

* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" "INBOX"
* LIST (\HasChildren \Noselect) "/" "[Gmail]"
* LIST (\All \HasNoChildren) "/" "[Gmail]/All Mail"
* LIST (\Drafts \HasNoChildren) "/" "[Gmail]/Drafts"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Important) "/" "[Gmail]/Important"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Sent) "/" "[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Junk) "/" "[Gmail]/Spam"
* LIST (\Flagged \HasNoChildren) "/" "[Gmail]/Starred"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Trash) "/" "[Gmail]/Trash"

Here, you can observe that the correct name for the "Junk" folder is [Gmail]/Spam and for the "Trash" folder is [Gmail]/Trash. Similar logic can be used to determine other folders as well.

EXAMPLES

Using tunnel mode:

[imap]


    folder = "INBOX.Drafts"


    tunnel = "ssh -q -C user@example.com /usr/bin/imapd ./Maildir 2> /dev/null"

Using direct mode:

[imap]


    folder = "INBOX.Drafts"


    host = imap://imap.example.com


    user = bob


    pass = p4ssw0rd

Using direct mode with SSL:

[imap]


    folder = "INBOX.Drafts"


    host = imaps://imap.example.com


    user = bob


    pass = p4ssw0rd


    port = 123


    ; sslVerify = false


Note

You may want to use sslVerify=false while troubleshooting, if you suspect that the reason you are having trouble connecting is because the certificate you use at the private server example.com you are trying to set up (or have set up) may not be verified correctly.

Using Gmail’s IMAP interface:

[imap]


    folder = "[Gmail]/Drafts"


    host = imaps://imap.gmail.com


    user = user@gmail.com


    port = 993

Gmail does not allow using your regular password for git imap-send. If you have multi-factor authentication set up on your Gmail account, you can generate an app-specific password for use with git imap-send. Visit https://security.google.com/settings/security/apppasswords to create it. Alternatively, use OAuth2.0 authentication as described below.


Note

You might need to instead use: folder = "[Google Mail]/Drafts" if you get an error that the "Folder doesn’t exist". You can also run git imap-send --list to get a list of available folders.


Note

If your Gmail account is set to another language than English, the name of the "Drafts" folder will be localized.

If you want to use OAuth2.0 based authentication, you can specify OAUTHBEARER or XOAUTH2 mechanism in your config. It is more secure than using app-specific passwords, and also does not enforce the need of having multi-factor authentication. You will have to use an OAuth2.0 access token in place of your password when using this authentication.

[imap]


    folder = "[Gmail]/Drafts"


    host = imaps://imap.gmail.com


    user = user@gmail.com


    port = 993


    authmethod = OAUTHBEARER

Using Outlook’s IMAP interface:

Unlike Gmail, Outlook only supports OAuth2.0 based authentication. Also, it supports only XOAUTH2 as the mechanism.

[imap]


    folder = "Drafts"


    host = imaps://outlook.office365.com


    user = user@outlook.com


    port = 993


    authmethod = XOAUTH2

Once the commits are ready to be sent, run the following command:

$ git format-patch --cover-letter -M --stdout origin/master | git imap-send

Just make sure to disable line wrapping in the email client (Gmail’s web interface will wrap lines no matter what, so you need to use a real IMAP client).

In case you are using OAuth2.0 authentication, it is easier to use credential helpers to generate tokens. Credential helpers suggested in git-send-email(1) can be used for git imap-send as well.

CAUTION

It is still your responsibility to make sure that the email message sent by your email program meets the standards of your project. Many projects do not like patches to be attached. Some mail agents will transform patches (e.g. wrap lines, send them as format=flowed) in ways that make them fail. You will get angry flames ridiculing you if you don’t check this.

Thunderbird in particular is known to be problematic. Thunderbird users may wish to visit this web page for more information: https://kb.mozillazine.org/Plain_text_e-mail_-_Thunderbird#Completely_plain_email

SEE ALSO

git-format-patch(1), git-send-email(1), mbox(5)

GIT

Part of the git(1) suite

08/26/2025 Git 2.51.0.338.gd7d06c