[PATCH v2] Documentation/SubmittingPatches: Clarify Gmail section

[PATCH v2] Documentation/SubmittingPatches: Clarify Gmail section

[Ramkumar Ramachandra]

I made a mistake. Junio pointed out that the Gmail web interface wraps
lines no matter what. Using "git imap-send" doesn't help.

[PATCH] Documentation/SubmittingPatches: Clarify Gmail section

[Ramkumar Ramachandra]

The web interface mangles patches no matter what. Replace paragraph
about "git imap-send" with another one about "git send-email".

Signed-off-by: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/SubmittingPatches |   53 +++++++++++++++-----------------------
 1 files changed, 21 insertions(+), 32 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
index c686f86..8193a5b 100644
--- a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
+++ b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
@@ -517,35 +517,24 @@ message, complete the addressing and subject fields, and press send.
 Gmail
 -----
 
-GMail does not appear to have any way to turn off line wrapping in the web
-interface, so this will mangle any emails that you send.  You can however
-use any IMAP email client to connect to the google imap server, and forward
-the emails through that.  Just make sure to disable line wrapping in that
-email client.  Alternatively, use "git send-email" instead.
-
-Submitting properly formatted patches via Gmail is simple now that
-IMAP support is available. First, edit your ~/.gitconfig to specify your
-account settings:
-
-[imap]
-	folder = "[Gmail]/Drafts"
-	host = imaps://imap.gmail.com
-	user = user@gmail.com
-	pass = p4ssw0rd
-	port = 993
-	sslverify = false
-
-You might need to instead use: folder = "[Google Mail]/Drafts" if you get an error
-that the "Folder doesn't exist".
-
-Next, ensure that your Gmail settings are correct. In "Settings" the
-"Use Unicode (UTF-8) encoding for outgoing messages" should be checked.
-
-Once your commits are ready to send to the mailing list, run the following
-command to send the patch emails to your Gmail Drafts folder.
-
-	$ git format-patch -M --stdout origin/master | git imap-send
-
-Go to your Gmail account, open the Drafts folder, find the patch email, fill
-in the To: and CC: fields and send away!
-
+GMail does not have any way to turn off line wrapping in the web
+interface, so this will mangle any emails that you send.  You can
+either configure an email client that that doesn't break lines to use
+the GMail SMTP server, or use "git send-email" to achieve the same
+effect.
+
+To use "git send-email", edit ~/.gitconfig to specify your account
+settings:
+
+[sendemail]
+	smtpencryption = tls
+	smtpserver = smtp.gmail.com
+	smtpuser = user@gmail.com
+	smtppass = p4ssw0rd
+	smtpserverport = 587
+
+Once your commits are ready to send to the mailing list, run the
+following commands:
+
+	$ git format-patch --no-color -C -M origin/master -o outgoing/
+	$ git send-email --compose outgoing/*
-- 
1.7.0.3

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/SubmittingPatches: Clarify Gmail section

[Junio C Hamano]

Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com> writes:

> The web interface mangles patches no matter what. Replace paragraph
> about "git imap-send" with another one about "git send-email".

My impression has been that people are using MUAs that do not corrupt
patches and are capable of using IMAP drafts folders with Gmail, without
ever touching their patch-breaking web interface, and the description you
removed was meant for them.

Is the web interface the _only_ way to interact with IMAP drafts on Gmail?
If that is the case, your patch (or Aaron's earlier attempt) to make the
document not to talk about imap-send in the context of Gmail makes sense.

Even if it were not the case, as long as only very few people use IMAP
drafts on Gmail via MUAs not their web interface, I am fine with your
change to add send-email recipe to help Gmail users.

> +GMail does not have any way to turn off line wrapping in the web
> +interface, so this will mangle any emails that you send.  You can
> +either configure an email client that that doesn't break lines to use
> +the GMail SMTP server, or use "git send-email" to achieve the same
> +effect.
> +
> +To use "git send-email", edit ~/.gitconfig to specify your account
> +settings:
> +
> +[sendemail]
> +	smtpencryption = tls
> +	smtpserver = smtp.gmail.com
> +	smtpuser = user@gmail.com
> +	smtppass = p4ssw0rd
> +	smtpserverport = 587
> +
> +Once your commits are ready to send to the mailing list, run the
> +following commands:
> +
> +	$ git format-patch --no-color -C -M origin/master -o outgoing/
> +	$ git send-email --compose outgoing/*

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/SubmittingPatches: Clarify Gmail section

[Jacob Helwig]

On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 13:02, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
> My impression has been that people are using MUAs that do not corrupt
> patches and are capable of using IMAP drafts folders with Gmail, without
> ever touching their patch-breaking web interface, and the description you
> removed was meant for them.
>
> Is the web interface the _only_ way to interact with IMAP drafts on Gmail?
> If that is the case, your patch (or Aaron's earlier attempt) to make the
> document not to talk about imap-send in the context of Gmail makes sense.
>

The web interface isn't the only way.  I use the IMAP drafs all the
time with mutt, and most mutt + gmail instructions I've seen online
setup this behavior.

> Even if it were not the case, as long as only very few people use IMAP
> drafts on Gmail via MUAs not their web interface, I am fine with your
> change to add send-email recipe to help Gmail users.
>

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/SubmittingPatches: Clarify Gmail section

[Ramkumar Ramachandra]

> Is the web interface the _only_ way to interact with IMAP drafts on Gmail?
> If that is the case, your patch (or Aaron's earlier attempt) to make the
> document not to talk about imap-send in the context of Gmail makes sense.

No. An email client can sync with the drafts folder in GMail over
IMAP. However, sending the final email has to be done over SMTP.
The effect of "git imap-send" can be replicated by copy-pasting text
into the email client's compose interface. So, using "git imap-send"
seems like a bit of a roundabout way to me. There are some usecases
though (like queuing up patches as drafts before sending): so I'll add
a paragraph about this in my next revision.

-- Ram

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/SubmittingPatches: Clarify Gmail section

[Jon Seymour]

On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 6:18 AM, Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Is the web interface the _only_ way to interact with IMAP drafts on Gmail?
>> If that is the case, your patch (or Aaron's earlier attempt) to make the
>> document not to talk about imap-send in the context of Gmail makes sense.
>
> No. An email client can sync with the drafts folder in GMail over
> IMAP. However, sending the final email has to be done over SMTP.
> The effect of "git imap-send" can be replicated by copy-pasting text
> into the email client's compose interface. So, using "git imap-send"
> seems like a bit of a roundabout way to me. There are some usecases
> though (like queuing up patches as drafts before sending): so I'll add
> a paragraph about this in my next revision.
>
> -- Ram
> --

git imap-send has far less manual steps than cut and pasting into an
e-mail client, so it is certainly preferable to cut-and-paste which
seems particularly error prone.

Perhaps the words could be changed to something like:

If you do want to use the imap-send option with Gmail you MUST use an
IMAP client that does not line wrap to do any final polishing of the
patch e-mails prior to submitting them to the list. If you use the
gmail web interface to edit the draft  messages in any way, line
wrapping WILL occur.

jon.

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/SubmittingPatches: Clarify Gmail section

[Junio C Hamano]

Jon Seymour <jon.seymour@gmail.com> writes:

> Perhaps the words could be changed to something like:
>
> If you do want to use the imap-send option with Gmail you MUST use an
> IMAP client that does not line wrap to do any final polishing of the
> patch e-mails prior to submitting them to the list. If you use the
> gmail web interface to edit the draft  messages in any way, line
> wrapping WILL occur.

Much better, but my understanding is that "in any way" includes not
touching anything but just specifying the addressee.  So perhaps something
like this is needed:

-- >8 --
Subject: SubmittingPatches: update GMail section

Even if you use imap-send to throw your drafts in the outbox, using their
web interface will mangle your patches.  Clarify that the imap-send is
meant to be used together with a real MUA that can use IMAP drafts, and
remove instructions related to the web interface, which is irrelevant.

Add description of send-email as an alternative.

Use --cover-letter, and do not use -C nor --no-color, on the example
command line for format-patch.

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
---
 Documentation/SubmittingPatches |   35 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------
 1 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
index c686f86..abc65de 100644
--- a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
+++ b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
@@ -520,11 +520,9 @@ Gmail
 GMail does not appear to have any way to turn off line wrapping in the web
 interface, so this will mangle any emails that you send.  You can however
 use any IMAP email client to connect to the google imap server, and forward
-the emails through that.  Just make sure to disable line wrapping in that
-email client.  Alternatively, use "git send-email" instead.
+the emails through that.
 
-Submitting properly formatted patches via Gmail is simple now that
-IMAP support is available. First, edit your ~/.gitconfig to specify your
+To submit using the IMAP interface, first, edit your ~/.gitconfig to specify your
 account settings:
 
 [imap]
@@ -538,14 +536,29 @@ account settings:
 You might need to instead use: folder = "[Google Mail]/Drafts" if you get an error
 that the "Folder doesn't exist".
 
-Next, ensure that your Gmail settings are correct. In "Settings" the
-"Use Unicode (UTF-8) encoding for outgoing messages" should be checked.
+Once your commits are ready to be sent to the mailing list, run the
+following command to send the patch emails to your Gmail Drafts
+folder.
 
-Once your commits are ready to send to the mailing list, run the following
-command to send the patch emails to your Gmail Drafts folder.
+  $ git format-patch --cover-letter -M --stdout origin/master | git imap-send
 
-	$ git format-patch -M --stdout origin/master | git imap-send
+Just make sure to disable line wrapping in the email client (GMail web
+interface will line wrap no matter what, so you need to use a real
+IMAP client).
 
-Go to your Gmail account, open the Drafts folder, find the patch email, fill
-in the To: and CC: fields and send away!
+Alternatively, you can use "git send-email" and send your patches
+through the GMail SMTP server.  edit ~/.gitconfig to specify your
+account settings:
+
+[sendemail]
+	smtpencryption = tls
+	smtpserver = smtp.gmail.com
+	smtpuser = user@gmail.com
+	smtppass = p4ssw0rd
+	smtpserverport = 587
+
+Once your commits are ready to be sent to the mailing list, run the
+following commands:
 
+  $ git format-patch --cover-letter -M origin/master -o outgoing/
+  $ git send-email outgoing/*

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/SubmittingPatches: Clarify Gmail section

[Ramkumar Ramachandra]

> Didn't I already say that it is _known_ not to work?

Right. Sorry about that. While testing, I must have made the mistake
of using a patch that didn't not have long enough lines to be
linewrapped.

> As you earlier said that the documentation of imap-send states GMail web
> works, perhaps that description is incorrect and needs fixing.

Thanks for the pointer. I've prepared another revision.

-- Ram

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/SubmittingPatches: Clarify Gmail section

[Junio C Hamano]

Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com> writes:

> I can't be sure that I'm right about this. Could someone please confirm?
> Ironically, this patch seems to be broken. I think it has something to
> do with the auto-save (for drafts) in the web interface.

Didn't I already say that it is _known_ not to work?

As you earlier said that the documentation of imap-send states GMail web
works, perhaps that description is incorrect and needs fixing.

See the thread that begins with this message in the archive:

    Message-ID: <1265555642-40204-1-git-send-email-git@aaroncrane.co.uk>
    From: Aaron Crane <git@aaroncrane.co.uk>
    Subject: [PATCH] Documentation/SubmittingPatches: fix Gmail workaround advice
    Date: Sun,  7 Feb 2010 15:14:02 +0000

e.g.

    http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/139240

Re: [PATCH] Documentation/SubmittingPatches: Clarify Gmail section

[Ramkumar Ramachandra]

Hi,

I can't be sure that I'm right about this. Could someone please confirm?
Ironically, this patch seems to be broken. I think it has something to
do with the auto-save (for drafts) in the web interface.

-- Ram

[PATCH] Documentation/SubmittingPatches: Clarify Gmail section

[Ramkumar Ramachandra]

Clarify the Gmail section: the user should not touch the message body
after using "git imap-send", otherwise the patch will get mangled.

Signed-off-by: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/SubmittingPatches |   36 ++++++++++++++++++------------------
 1 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
index c686f86..ff0e1b6 100644
--- a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
+++ b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
@@ -517,15 +517,20 @@ message, complete the addressing and subject
fields, and press send.
 Gmail
 -----

-GMail does not appear to have any way to turn off line wrapping in the web
-interface, so this will mangle any emails that you send.  You can however
-use any IMAP email client to connect to the google imap server, and forward
-the emails through that.  Just make sure to disable line wrapping in that
-email client.  Alternatively, use "git send-email" instead.
+GMail does not have any way to turn off line wrapping in the web
+interface, so this will mangle any emails that you send.  You have a
+couple of options here:

-Submitting properly formatted patches via Gmail is simple now that
-IMAP support is available. First, edit your ~/.gitconfig to specify your
-account settings:
+1. Use an email client that doesn't automatically wrap lines to send
+emails through the Google SMTP server, or use "git send-email" to
+achieve the same effect.
+
+2. Use "git imap-send" to push an email to the GMail Drafts folder via
+IMAP. Then use the GMail web interface to fill out the To: and CC:
+fields, taking care not to touch the message body, and send away!
+
+To get it working, edit your ~/.gitconfig to specify your account
+settings:

 [imap]
 	folder = "[Gmail]/Drafts"
@@ -536,16 +541,11 @@ account settings:
 	sslverify = false

 You might need to instead use: folder = "[Google Mail]/Drafts" if you
get an error
-that the "Folder doesn't exist".
-
-Next, ensure that your Gmail settings are correct. In "Settings" the
-"Use Unicode (UTF-8) encoding for outgoing messages" should be checked.
+that the "Folder doesn't exist". Also ensure that under the GMail
+"Settings", the "Use Unicode (UTF-8) encoding for outgoing messages"
+is checked.

-Once your commits are ready to send to the mailing list, run the following
-command to send the patch emails to your Gmail Drafts folder.
+Once your commits are ready to send to the mailing list, run the
+following command.

 	$ git format-patch -M --stdout origin/master | git imap-send
-
-Go to your Gmail account, open the Drafts folder, find the patch email, fill
-in the To: and CC: fields and send away!
-
-- 
1.7.0.3