[--ignore-if-in-upstream]
[--subject-prefix=Subject-Prefix]
[--to=<email>] [--cc=<email>]
- [--cover-letter] [--quiet]
+ [--cover-letter] [--quiet] [--notes[=<ref>]]
[<common diff options>]
[ <since> | <revision range> ]
The first rule takes precedence in the case of a single <commit>. To
apply the second rule, i.e., format everything since the beginning of
history up until <commit>, use the '\--root' option: `git format-patch
-\--root <commit>`. If you want to format only <commit> itself, you
+--root <commit>`. If you want to format only <commit> itself, you
can do this with `git format-patch -1 <commit>`.
By default, each output file is numbered sequentially from 1, and uses the
If `-o` is specified, output files are created in <dir>. Otherwise
they are created in the current working directory.
-By default, the subject of a single patch is "[PATCH] First Line" and
-the subject when multiple patches are output is "[PATCH n/m] First
-Line". To force 1/1 to be added for a single patch, use `-n`. To omit
-patch numbers from the subject, use `-N`.
+By default, the subject of a single patch is "[PATCH] " followed by
+the concatenation of lines from the commit message up to the first blank
+line (see the DISCUSSION section of linkgit:git-commit[1]).
+
+When multiple patches are output, the subject prefix will instead be
+"[PATCH n/m] ". To force 1/1 to be added for a single patch, use `-n`.
+To omit patch numbers from the subject, use `-N`.
If given `--thread`, `git-format-patch` will generate `In-Reply-To` and
`References` headers to make the second and subsequent patch mails appear
The optional <style> argument can be either `shallow` or `deep`.
'shallow' threading makes every mail a reply to the head of the
series, where the head is chosen from the cover letter, the
-`\--in-reply-to`, and the first patch mail, in this order. 'deep'
+`--in-reply-to`, and the first patch mail, in this order. 'deep'
threading makes every mail a reply to the previous one.
+
The default is `--no-thread`, unless the 'format.thread' configuration
--to=<email>::
Add a `To:` header to the email headers. This is in addition
to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times.
+ The negated form `--no-to` discards all `To:` headers added so
+ far (from config or command line).
--cc=<email>::
Add a `Cc:` header to the email headers. This is in addition
to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times.
+ The negated form `--no-cc` discards all `Cc:` headers added so
+ far (from config or command line).
--add-header=<header>::
Add an arbitrary header to the email headers. This is in addition
to any configured headers, and may be used multiple times.
- For example, `--add-header="Organization: git-foo"`
+ For example, `--add-header="Organization: git-foo"`.
+ The negated form `--no-add-header` discards *all* (`To:`,
+ `Cc:`, and custom) headers added so far from config or command
+ line.
--cover-letter::
In addition to the patches, generate a cover letter file
containing the shortlog and the overall diffstat. You can
fill in a description in the file before sending it out.
+--notes[=<ref>]::
+ Append the notes (see linkgit:git-notes[1]) for the commit
+ after the three-dash line.
++
+The expected use case of this is to write supporting explanation for
+the commit that does not belong to the commit log message proper,
+and include it with the patch submission. While one can simply write
+these explanations after `format-patch` has run but before sending,
+keeping them as git notes allows them to be maintained between versions
+of the patch series (but see the discussion of the `notes.rewrite`
+configuration options in linkgit:git-notes[1] to use this workflow).
+
--[no]-signature=<signature>::
Add a signature to each message produced. Per RFC 3676 the signature
is separated from the body by a line with '-- ' on it. If the
patch is in response to, so it is likely that you would want to keep
the Subject: line, like the example above.
+Checking for patch corruption
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+Many mailers if not set up properly will corrupt whitespace. Here are
+two common types of corruption:
+
+* Empty context lines that do not have _any_ whitespace.
+
+* Non-empty context lines that have one extra whitespace at the
+ beginning.
+
+One way to test if your MUA is set up correctly is:
+
+* Send the patch to yourself, exactly the way you would, except
+ with To: and Cc: lines that do not contain the list and
+ maintainer address.
+
+* Save that patch to a file in UNIX mailbox format. Call it a.patch,
+ say.
+
+* Apply it:
+
+ $ git fetch <project> master:test-apply
+ $ git checkout test-apply
+ $ git reset --hard
+ $ git am a.patch
+
+If it does not apply correctly, there can be various reasons.
+
+* The patch itself does not apply cleanly. That is _bad_ but
+ does not have much to do with your MUA. You might want to rebase
+ the patch with linkgit:git-rebase[1] before regenerating it in
+ this case.
+
+* The MUA corrupted your patch; "am" would complain that
+ the patch does not apply. Look in the .git/rebase-apply/ subdirectory and
+ see what 'patch' file contains and check for the common
+ corruption patterns mentioned above.
+
+* While at it, check the 'info' and 'final-commit' files as well.
+ If what is in 'final-commit' is not exactly what you would want to
+ see in the commit log message, it is very likely that the
+ receiver would end up hand editing the log message when applying
+ your patch. Things like "Hi, this is my first patch.\n" in the
+ patch e-mail should come after the three-dash line that signals
+ the end of the commit message.
+
+MUA-SPECIFIC HINTS
+------------------
+Here are some hints on how to successfully submit patches inline using
+various mailers.
+
+GMail
+~~~~~
+GMail does not have any way to turn off line wrapping in the web
+interface, so it will mangle any emails that you send. You can however
+use "git send-email" and send your patches through the GMail SMTP server, or
+use any IMAP email client to connect to the google IMAP server and forward
+the emails through that.
+
+For hints on using 'git send-email' to send your patches through the
+GMail SMTP server, see the EXAMPLE section of linkgit:git-send-email[1].
+
+For hints on submission using the IMAP interface, see the EXAMPLE
+section of linkgit:git-imap-send[1].
+
+Thunderbird
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+By default, Thunderbird will both wrap emails as well as flag
+them as being 'format=flowed', both of which will make the
+resulting email unusable by git.
+
+There are three different approaches: use an add-on to turn off line wraps,
+configure Thunderbird to not mangle patches, or use
+an external editor to keep Thunderbird from mangling the patches.
+
+Approach #1 (add-on)
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Install the Toggle Word Wrap add-on that is available from
+https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/toggle-word-wrap/
+It adds a menu entry "Enable Word Wrap" in the composer's "Options" menu
+that you can tick off. Now you can compose the message as you otherwise do
+(cut + paste, 'git format-patch' | 'git imap-send', etc), but you have to
+insert line breaks manually in any text that you type.
+
+Approach #2 (configuration)
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+Three steps:
+
+1. Configure your mail server composition as plain text:
+ Edit...Account Settings...Composition & Addressing,
+ uncheck "Compose Messages in HTML".
+
+2. Configure your general composition window to not wrap.
++
+In Thunderbird 2:
+Edit..Preferences..Composition, wrap plain text messages at 0
++
+In Thunderbird 3:
+Edit..Preferences..Advanced..Config Editor. Search for
+"mail.wrap_long_lines".
+Toggle it to make sure it is set to `false`.
+
+3. Disable the use of format=flowed:
+Edit..Preferences..Advanced..Config Editor. Search for
+"mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed".
+Toggle it to make sure it is set to `false`.
+
+After that is done, you should be able to compose email as you
+otherwise would (cut + paste, 'git format-patch' | 'git imap-send', etc),
+and the patches will not be mangled.
+
+Approach #3 (external editor)
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The following Thunderbird extensions are needed:
+AboutConfig from http://aboutconfig.mozdev.org/ and
+External Editor from http://globs.org/articles.php?lng=en&pg=8
+
+1. Prepare the patch as a text file using your method of choice.
+
+2. Before opening a compose window, use Edit->Account Settings to
+ uncheck the "Compose messages in HTML format" setting in the
+ "Composition & Addressing" panel of the account to be used to
+ send the patch.
+
+3. In the main Thunderbird window, 'before' you open the compose
+ window for the patch, use Tools->about:config to set the
+ following to the indicated values:
++
+----------
+ mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed => false
+ mailnews.wraplength => 0
+----------
+
+4. Open a compose window and click the external editor icon.
+
+5. In the external editor window, read in the patch file and exit
+ the editor normally.
+
+Side note: it may be possible to do step 2 with
+about:config and the following settings but no one's tried yet.
+
+----------
+ mail.html_compose => false
+ mail.identity.default.compose_html => false
+ mail.identity.id?.compose_html => false
+----------
+
+There is a script in contrib/thunderbird-patch-inline which can help
+you include patches with Thunderbird in an easy way. To use it, do the
+steps above and then use the script as the external editor.
+
+KMail
+~~~~~
+This should help you to submit patches inline using KMail.
+
+1. Prepare the patch as a text file.
+
+2. Click on New Mail.
+
+3. Go under "Options" in the Composer window and be sure that
+ "Word wrap" is not set.
+
+4. Use Message -> Insert file... and insert the patch.
+
+5. Back in the compose window: add whatever other text you wish to the
+ message, complete the addressing and subject fields, and press send.
+
EXAMPLES
--------