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] [(--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.

       --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 2.55.0                        2026-06-29                  GIT-IMAP-SEND(1)