git imap-send

Stage email-patches in your drafts folder.

🎯 What & why

Send format-patch output through an IMAP server by dropping it into your Drafts folder. Lets you review and send patches from your normal mail client.

🧠 Mental model

A one-way pipe from format-patch into IMAP APPEND. Git formats the mail, imap-send uploads it as a draft, and your MUA does the actual sending.

🛠️ Synopsis

git imap-send [-v] [-q] [--[no-]curl] < <mbox>

Reads an mbox-format stream on stdin (typically from git format-patch
--stdout) and APPENDs each message to imap.folder. All connection
parameters live in git-config under the imap.* namespace.

🎚️ Switches & options

Flag	What it does
`-v, --verbose`	Print the IMAP conversation; essential when auth or TLS is misbehaving.
`-q, --quiet`	Suppress per-message progress output.
`--curl`	Use libcurl for the IMAP transport instead of the built-in client.
`--no-curl`	Force the built-in IMAP client even if Git was compiled with curl support.
`--nossl`	⚠️ Disable TLS. Only safe over an already-encrypted tunnel like SSH.

💡 Use cases

Sending kernel-style patch series from a workflow that lives entirely inside your mail client.
Staging patches as drafts so a maintainer can review and edit before hitting send.
Working around send-email's SMTP requirements when only IMAP is reachable.
Funneling patches through corporate mail so they appear in the user's Sent folder for audit.

🧪 Examples

Configure for a typical IMAPS account

git config imap.host imaps://mail.example.com && git config imap.user alice && git config imap.folder Drafts

Bind to a local tunnel instead of host/port

git config imap.tunnel 'ssh -q user@127.0.0.1 /usr/sbin/imapd'

Pipe a patch series in

git format-patch -M origin/master --stdout | git imap-send -v

Force port and disable strict TLS for a self-signed test box

git config imap.port 993 && git config --bool imap.sslverify false

🎓 Recommendations

Pair with format-patch --cover-letter so the series shows up as a proper threaded draft.
Prefer imap.tunnel over storing imap.pass on disk; OAuth-only servers will reject the password path anyway.
Set imap.preformattedHTML=true only if your MUA mangles plaintext; review the resulting draft before sending.

🪤 Common pitfalls

Storing imap.pass in plaintext config; use a credential helper or a tunnel.
Pointing imap.folder at a non-Drafts folder where your client will not see new messages.
Disabling imap.sslverify globally to make one test work, then forgetting to re-enable it.

🔗 Related modules

📝 Quiz

Hit each option, then Check answers. Score is recorded; Next is always open.