using git send-email for sending kernel patches

Sending patches to a Linux kernel mailing list can be done easily using git-send-email. This post will help setup your environment and show you how to format the git send-email command. In addition there are some more advanced features that help when you need to send from multiple accounts.

Git Setup

First, install git and git-email. Then, setup ~/.gitconfig for your user and proper sendemail section. This shows a sendemail setup for a typical single gmail account.

[user]  
    name = Your Name
    email = [email protected]  
[sendemail]
    from = Your Name <[email protected]>
    smtpserver = smtp.gmail.com
    smtpuser = [email protected]
    smtpencryption = tls
    smtppass = PASSWORD
    chainreplyto = true
    smtpserverport = 587

However, it may be more useful to be able to easily send from multiple accounts. This can be accomplished using the --identify flag in git.

[user]
    name = Your Name
    email =[email protected]
[user "work"]
    email = [email protected]
[user "gmail"]
    email = [email protected]
[sendemail "work"]
    from = Your Name <[email protected]>
    smtpserver = smtp.work.com
    smtpuser = me
    smtppass = PASSWORD
    smtpencryption = tls
    smtpserverport = 587
    chainreplyto = false
[sendemail "gmail"]
    from = Your Name <[email protected]>
    smtpserver = smtp.gmail.com
    smtpuser = [email protected]
    smtppass = PASSWORD
    smtpencryption = tls
    smtpserverport = 587
    chainreplyto = false

This way when you can select your identity to fill in these values. In addition if you specify no identity you can have default fields if necessary. If you added a [sendemail] field this would be called by default. Man git-config can show you more options.

Formatting the Patch

Once we have the patch committed to the HEAD on our branch we format the patch using: git format-patch -1.

This should produce a patch like 0001-blah.patch Then check for formatting errors using the checkpatch script provided in the kernel repository: ./scripts/checkpatch.pl 0001-blah.patch.

You should read the kernel documentation to get a better idea of what is expected.

Sending A Single Patch

Now we are ready to send a patch. The ./scripts/get_maintainer.pl in the kernel repository provides a way to specify whom needs to be CC’ed based on the maintainers file, the history of the file, and which lines of code are changed.

git send-email --to <ml_list> --cc-cmd="scripts/get_maintainer.pl -i" \
  <0001-patch.patch>

The -i means the script is interactive and you can edit the list before sending. Once you have completed the commands, the patch should be sent!

Pull Requests

If you have your patches in a public git repository, it is sometimes easier to send pull-requests for patches instead of sending.

git request-pull <hash right before your changes> \
    git://<public git repo> > request-pull.txt

Then add a ‘Subject: ’ line in the request-pull.txt that explains the pull request. Adding –subject doesn’t seem to work for me. In addition add any other text.

git send-email --identity=gmail --to=<mailing list> \
    ./request-pull.txt

With this you should have a pull request sent!