238 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
238 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
Email clients info for Linux
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======================================================================
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General Preferences
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Patches for the Linux kernel are submitted via email, preferably as
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inline text in the body of the email. Some maintainers accept
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attachments, but then the attachments should have content-type
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"text/plain". However, attachments are generally frowned upon because
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it makes quoting portions of the patch more difficult in the patch
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review process.
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Email clients that are used for Linux kernel patches should send the
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patch text untouched. For example, they should not modify or delete tabs
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or spaces, even at the beginning or end of lines.
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Don't send patches with "format=flowed". This can cause unexpected
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and unwanted line breaks.
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Don't let your email client do automatic word wrapping for you.
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This can also corrupt your patch.
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Email clients should not modify the character set encoding of the text.
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Emailed patches should be in ASCII or UTF-8 encoding only.
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If you configure your email client to send emails with UTF-8 encoding,
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you avoid some possible charset problems.
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Email clients should generate and maintain References: or In-Reply-To:
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headers so that mail threading is not broken.
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Copy-and-paste (or cut-and-paste) usually does not work for patches
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because tabs are converted to spaces. Using xclipboard, xclip, and/or
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xcutsel may work, but it's best to test this for yourself or just avoid
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copy-and-paste.
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Don't use PGP/GPG signatures in mail that contains patches.
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This breaks many scripts that read and apply the patches.
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(This should be fixable.)
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It's a good idea to send a patch to yourself, save the received message,
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and successfully apply it with 'patch' before sending patches to Linux
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mailing lists.
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Some email client (MUA) hints
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Here are some specific MUA configuration hints for editing and sending
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patches for the Linux kernel. These are not meant to be complete
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software package configuration summaries.
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Legend:
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TUI = text-based user interface
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GUI = graphical user interface
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Alpine (TUI)
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Config options:
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In the "Sending Preferences" section:
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- "Do Not Send Flowed Text" must be enabled
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- "Strip Whitespace Before Sending" must be disabled
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When composing the message, the cursor should be placed where the patch
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should appear, and then pressing CTRL-R let you specify the patch file
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to insert into the message.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Evolution (GUI)
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Some people use this successfully for patches.
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When composing mail select: Preformat
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from Format->Heading->Preformatted (Ctrl-7)
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or the toolbar
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Then use:
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Insert->Text File... (Alt-n x)
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to insert the patch.
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You can also "diff -Nru old.c new.c | xclip", select Preformat, then
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paste with the middle button.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Kmail (GUI)
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Some people use Kmail successfully for patches.
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The default setting of not composing in HTML is appropriate; do not
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enable it.
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When composing an email, under options, uncheck "word wrap". The only
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disadvantage is any text you type in the email will not be word-wrapped
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so you will have to manually word wrap text before the patch. The easiest
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way around this is to compose your email with word wrap enabled, then save
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it as a draft. Once you pull it up again from your drafts it is now hard
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word-wrapped and you can uncheck "word wrap" without losing the existing
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wrapping.
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At the bottom of your email, put the commonly-used patch delimiter before
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inserting your patch: three hyphens (---).
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Then from the "Message" menu item, select insert file and choose your patch.
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As an added bonus you can customise the message creation toolbar menu
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and put the "insert file" icon there.
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Make the composer window wide enough so that no lines wrap. As of
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KMail 1.13.5 (KDE 4.5.4), KMail will apply word wrapping when sending
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the email if the lines wrap in the composer window. Having word wrapping
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disabled in the Options menu isn't enough. Thus, if your patch has very
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long lines, you must make the composer window very wide before sending
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the email. See: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=174034
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You can safely GPG sign attachments, but inlined text is preferred for
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patches so do not GPG sign them. Signing patches that have been inserted
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as inlined text will make them tricky to extract from their 7-bit encoding.
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If you absolutely must send patches as attachments instead of inlining
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them as text, right click on the attachment and select properties, and
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highlight "Suggest automatic display" to make the attachment inlined to
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make it more viewable.
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When saving patches that are sent as inlined text, select the email that
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contains the patch from the message list pane, right click and select
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"save as". You can use the whole email unmodified as a patch if it was
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properly composed. There is no option currently to save the email when you
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are actually viewing it in its own window -- there has been a request filed
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at kmail's bugzilla and hopefully this will be addressed. Emails are saved
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as read-write for user only so you will have to chmod them to make them
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group and world readable if you copy them elsewhere.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Lotus Notes (GUI)
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Run away from it.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Mutt (TUI)
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Plenty of Linux developers use mutt, so it must work pretty well.
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Mutt doesn't come with an editor, so whatever editor you use should be
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used in a way that there are no automatic linebreaks. Most editors have
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an "insert file" option that inserts the contents of a file unaltered.
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To use 'vim' with mutt:
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set editor="vi"
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If using xclip, type the command
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:set paste
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before middle button or shift-insert or use
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:r filename
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if you want to include the patch inline.
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(a)ttach works fine without "set paste".
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Config options:
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It should work with default settings.
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However, it's a good idea to set the "send_charset" to:
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set send_charset="us-ascii:utf-8"
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Pine (TUI)
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Pine has had some whitespace truncation issues in the past, but these
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should all be fixed now.
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Use alpine (pine's successor) if you can.
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Config options:
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- quell-flowed-text is needed for recent versions
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- the "no-strip-whitespace-before-send" option is needed
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Sylpheed (GUI)
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- Works well for inlining text (or using attachments).
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- Allows use of an external editor.
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- Is slow on large folders.
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- Won't do TLS SMTP auth over a non-SSL connection.
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- Has a helpful ruler bar in the compose window.
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- Adding addresses to address book doesn't understand the display name
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properly.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Thunderbird (GUI)
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Thunderbird is an Outlook clone that likes to mangle text, but there are ways
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to coerce it into behaving.
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- Allows use of an external editor:
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The easiest thing to do with Thunderbird and patches is to use an
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"external editor" extension and then just use your favorite $EDITOR
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for reading/merging patches into the body text. To do this, download
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and install the extension, then add a button for it using
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View->Toolbars->Customize... and finally just click on it when in the
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Compose dialog.
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To beat some sense out of the internal editor, do this:
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- Edit your Thunderbird config settings so that it won't use format=flowed.
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Go to "edit->preferences->advanced->config editor" to bring up the
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thunderbird's registry editor, and set "mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed" to
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"false".
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- Disable HTML Format: Set "mail.identity.id1.compose_html" to "false".
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- Enable "preformat" mode: Set "editor.quotesPreformatted" to "true".
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- Enable UTF8: Set "prefs.converted-to-utf8" to "true".
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- Install the "toggle wordwrap" extension. Download the file from:
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https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/2351/
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Then go to "tools->add ons", select "install" at the bottom of the screen,
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and browse to where you saved the .xul file. This adds an "Enable
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Wordwrap" entry under the Options menu of the message composer.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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TkRat (GUI)
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Works. Use "Insert file..." or external editor.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Gmail (Web GUI)
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Does not work for sending patches.
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Gmail web client converts tabs to spaces automatically.
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At the same time it wraps lines every 78 chars with CRLF style line breaks
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although tab2space problem can be solved with external editor.
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Another problem is that Gmail will base64-encode any message that has a
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non-ASCII character. That includes things like European names.
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###
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