git-imap-send(1) Git Manual git-imap-send(1)
NAME
git-imap-send - Send a collection of patches from stdin to an IMAP folder
SYNOPSIS
git imap-send [-v] [-q] [--[no-]curl] [--[no-]draft] [(--folder|-f) <folder>]
git imap-send --list
DESCRIPTION
This command uploads a mailbox generated with git format-patch into an
IMAP drafts folder. This allows patches to be sent as other email is when
using mail clients that cannot read mailbox files directly. The command
also works with any general mailbox in which emails have the fields From,
Date, and Subject in that order.
Typical usage is something like:
$ git format-patch --signoff --stdout --attach origin | git imap-send
OPTIONS
-v, --verbose
Be verbose.
-q, --quiet
Be quiet.
-f <folder>, --folder=<folder>
Specify the folder in which the emails have to saved. For example:
--folder=[Gmail]/Drafts or -f INBOX/Drafts.
--curl
Use libcurl to communicate with the IMAP server, unless tunneling
into it. Ignored if Git was built without the USE_CURL_FOR_IMAP_SEND
option set.
--no-curl
Talk to the IMAP server using git's own IMAP routines instead of
using libcurl. Ignored if Git was built with the NO_OPENSSL option
set.
--draft, --no-draft
Mark uploaded messages with the IMAP \Draft flag. The default is
--no-draft.
With libcurl, --draft requires version 8.13.0 or later. Older libcurl
still uploads the message but cannot set the flag.
--list
Run the IMAP LIST command to output a list of all the folders
present.
CONFIGURATION
To use the tool, imap.folder and either imap.tunnel or imap.host must be
set to appropriate values.
Everything above this line in this section isn't included from the git-
config(1) documentation. The content that follows is the same as what's
found there:
imap.folder
The folder to drop the mails into, which is typically the Drafts
folder. For example: INBOX.Drafts, INBOX/Drafts or [Gmail]/Drafts.
The IMAP folder to interact with MUST be specified; the value of this
configuration variable is used as the fallback default value when the
--folder option is not given.
imap.tunnel
Command used to set up a tunnel to the IMAP server through which
commands will be piped instead of using a direct network connection
to the server. Required when imap.host is not set.
imap.host
A URL identifying the server. Use an imap:// prefix for non-secure
connections and an imaps:// prefix for secure connections. Ignored
when imap.tunnel is set, but required otherwise.
imap.user
The username to use when logging in to the server.
imap.pass
The password to use when logging in to the server.
imap.port
An integer port number to connect to on the server. Defaults to 143
for imap:// hosts and 993 for imaps:// hosts. Ignored when
imap.tunnel is set.
imap.sslverify
A boolean to enable/disable verification of the server certificate
used by the SSL/TLS connection. Default is true. Ignored when
imap.tunnel is set.
imap.preformattedHTML
A boolean to enable/disable the use of html encoding when sending a
patch. An html encoded patch will be bracketed with <pre> and have a
content type of text/html. Ironically, enabling this option causes
Thunderbird to send the patch as a plain/text, format=fixed email.
Default is false.
imap.authMethod
Specify the authentication method for authenticating with the IMAP
server. If Git was built with the NO_CURL option, or if your curl
version is older than 7.34.0, or if you're running git-imap-send with
the --no-curl option, the only supported methods are PLAIN, CRAM-MD5,
OAUTHBEARER and XOAUTH2. If this is not set then git imap-send uses
the basic IMAP plaintext LOGIN command.
GETTING A LIST OF AVAILABLE FOLDERS
In order to send an email to a specific folder, you need to know the
correct name of intended folder in your mailbox. The names like "Junk",
"Trash" etc. displayed by various email clients need not be the actual
names of the folders stored in the mail server of your email provider.
In order to get the correct folder name to be used with git imap-send,
you can run git imap-send --list. This will display a list of valid
folder names. An example of such an output when run on a Gmail account
is:
* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "/" "INBOX"
* LIST (\HasChildren \Noselect) "/" "[Gmail]"
* LIST (\All \HasNoChildren) "/" "[Gmail]/All Mail"
* LIST (\Drafts \HasNoChildren) "/" "[Gmail]/Drafts"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Important) "/" "[Gmail]/Important"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Sent) "/" "[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Junk) "/" "[Gmail]/Spam"
* LIST (\Flagged \HasNoChildren) "/" "[Gmail]/Starred"
* LIST (\HasNoChildren \Trash) "/" "[Gmail]/Trash"
Here, you can observe that the correct name for the "Junk" folder is
[Gmail]/Spam and for the "Trash" folder is [Gmail]/Trash. Similar logic
can be used to determine other folders as well.
EXAMPLES
Using tunnel mode:
[imap]
folder = "INBOX.Drafts"
tunnel = "ssh -q -C user@example.com /usr/bin/imapd ./Maildir 2> /dev/null"
Using direct mode:
[imap]
folder = "INBOX.Drafts"
host = imap://imap.example.com
user = bob
pass = p4ssw0rd
Using direct mode with SSL:
[imap]
folder = "INBOX.Drafts"
host = imaps://imap.example.com
user = bob
pass = p4ssw0rd
port = 123
; sslVerify = false
Note
You may want to use sslVerify=false while troubleshooting, if you
suspect that the reason you are having trouble connecting is because
the certificate you use at the private server example.com you are
trying to set up (or have set up) may not be verified correctly.
Using Gmail's IMAP interface:
[imap]
folder = "[Gmail]/Drafts"
host = imaps://imap.gmail.com
user = user@gmail.com
port = 993
Gmail does not allow using your regular password for git imap-send. If
you have multi-factor authentication set up on your Gmail account, you
can generate an app-specific password for use with git imap-send. Visit
https://security.google.com/settings/security/apppasswords to create it.
Alternatively, use OAuth2.0 authentication as described below.
Note
You might need to instead use: folder = "[Google Mail]/Drafts" if you
get an error that the "Folder doesn't exist". You can also run git
imap-send --list to get a list of available folders.
Note
If your Gmail account is set to another language than English, the
name of the "Drafts" folder will be localized.
If you want to use OAuth2.0 based authentication, you can specify
OAUTHBEARER or XOAUTH2 mechanism in your config. It is more secure than
using app-specific passwords, and also does not enforce the need of
having multi-factor authentication. You will have to use an OAuth2.0
access token in place of your password when using this authentication.
[imap]
folder = "[Gmail]/Drafts"
host = imaps://imap.gmail.com
user = user@gmail.com
port = 993
authmethod = OAUTHBEARER
Using Outlook's IMAP interface:
Unlike Gmail, Outlook only supports OAuth2.0 based authentication. Also,
it supports only XOAUTH2 as the mechanism.
[imap]
folder = "Drafts"
host = imaps://outlook.office365.com
user = user@outlook.com
port = 993
authmethod = XOAUTH2
Once the commits are ready to be sent, run the following command:
$ git format-patch --cover-letter -M --stdout origin/master | git imap-send
Just make sure to disable line wrapping in the email client (Gmail's web
interface will wrap lines no matter what, so you need to use a real IMAP
client).
In case you are using OAuth2.0 authentication, it is easier to use
credential helpers to generate tokens. Credential helpers suggested in
git-send-email(1) can be used for git imap-send as well.
CAUTION
It is still your responsibility to make sure that the email message sent
by your email program meets the standards of your project. Many projects
do not like patches to be attached. Some mail agents will transform
patches (e.g. wrap lines, send them as format=flowed) in ways that make
them fail. You will get angry flames ridiculing you if you don't check
this.
Thunderbird in particular is known to be problematic. Thunderbird users
may wish to visit this web page for more information:
https://kb.mozillazine.org/Plain_text_e-mail_-_Thunderbird#Completely_plain_email
SEE ALSO
git-format-patch(1), git-send-email(1), mbox(5)
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
Git 2.56.0 2026-09-27 git-imap-send(1)
git 2.56.0 - Generated Thu Oct 1 16:06:30 CDT 2026