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Documentation: hints for sending patches inline with Thunderbird
The standard reference for this information is the article "Plain text e-mail - Thunderbird#Completely_plain_email" at kb.mozillazine.org, but the hints hidden away in git's SubmittingPatches file are more complete. Move them to the "git format-patch" manual so they can be installed with git and read by a wide audience. While at it, make some tweaks: - update "Approach #1" so it might work with Thunderbird 3; - remove ancient version numbers from the descriptions of both approaches so current readers might have more reason to complain if they don't work. Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <[email protected]> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <[email protected]>
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Documentation/SubmittingPatches

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@@ -416,86 +416,7 @@ it.
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Thunderbird
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(A Large Angry SCM)
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By default, Thunderbird will both wrap emails as well as flag them as
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being 'format=flowed', both of which will make the resulting email unusable
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by git.
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Here are some hints on how to successfully submit patches inline using
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Thunderbird.
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There are two different approaches. One approach is to configure
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Thunderbird to not mangle patches. The second approach is to use
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an external editor to keep Thunderbird from mangling the patches.
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Approach #1 (configuration):
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This recipe is current as of Thunderbird 2.0.0.19. Three steps:
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1. Configure your mail server composition as plain text
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Edit...Account Settings...Composition & Addressing,
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uncheck 'Compose Messages in HTML'.
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2. Configure your general composition window to not wrap
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Edit..Preferences..Composition, wrap plain text messages at 0
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3. Disable the use of format=flowed
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Edit..Preferences..Advanced..Config Editor. Search for:
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mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed
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toggle it to make sure it is set to 'false'.
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After that is done, you should be able to compose email as you
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otherwise would (cut + paste, git-format-patch | git-imap-send, etc),
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and the patches should not be mangled.
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Approach #2 (external editor):
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This recipe appears to work with the current [*1*] Thunderbird from Suse.
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The following Thunderbird extensions are needed:
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AboutConfig 0.5
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http://aboutconfig.mozdev.org/
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External Editor 0.7.2
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http://globs.org/articles.php?lng=en&pg=8
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1) Prepare the patch as a text file using your method of choice.
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2) Before opening a compose window, use Edit->Account Settings to
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uncheck the "Compose messages in HTML format" setting in the
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"Composition & Addressing" panel of the account to be used to send the
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patch. [*2*]
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3) In the main Thunderbird window, _before_ you open the compose window
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for the patch, use Tools->about:config to set the following to the
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indicated values:
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mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed => false
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mailnews.wraplength => 0
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4) Open a compose window and click the external editor icon.
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5) In the external editor window, read in the patch file and exit the
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editor normally.
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6) Back in the compose window: Add whatever other text you wish to the
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message, complete the addressing and subject fields, and press send.
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7) Optionally, undo the about:config/account settings changes made in
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steps 2 & 3.
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[Footnotes]
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*1* Version 1.0 (20041207) from the MozillaThunderbird-1.0-5 rpm of Suse
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9.3 professional updates.
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*2* It may be possible to do this with about:config and the following
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settings but I haven't tried, yet.
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mail.html_compose => false
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mail.identity.default.compose_html => false
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mail.identity.id?.compose_html => false
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(Lukas Sandström)
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There is a script in contrib/thunderbird-patch-inline which can help
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you include patches with Thunderbird in an easy way. To use it, do the
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steps above and then use the script as the external editor.
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See the MUA-SPECIFIC HINTS section of git-format-patch(1).
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Gnus
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Documentation/git-format-patch.txt

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patch e-mail should come after the three-dash line that signals
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the end of the commit message.
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MUA-SPECIFIC HINTS
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------------------
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Here are some hints on how to successfully submit patches inline using
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various mailers.
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Thunderbird
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~~~~~~~~~~~
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By default, Thunderbird will both wrap emails as well as flag
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them as being 'format=flowed', both of which will make the
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resulting email unusable by git.
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There are two different approaches. One approach is to configure
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Thunderbird to not mangle patches. The second approach is to use
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an external editor to keep Thunderbird from mangling the patches.
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Approach #1 (configuration)
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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Three steps:
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1. Configure your mail server composition as plain text:
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Edit...Account Settings...Composition & Addressing,
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uncheck "Compose Messages in HTML".
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2. Configure your general composition window to not wrap.
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+
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In Thunderbird 2:
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Edit..Preferences..Composition, wrap plain text messages at 0
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+
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In Thunderbird 3:
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Edit..Preferences..Advanced..Config Editor. Search for
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"mail.wrap_long_lines".
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Toggle it to make sure it is set to `false`.
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3. Disable the use of format=flowed:
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Edit..Preferences..Advanced..Config Editor. Search for
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"mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed".
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Toggle it to make sure it is set to `false`.
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After that is done, you should be able to compose email as you
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otherwise would (cut + paste, 'git format-patch' | 'git imap-send', etc),
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and the patches will not be mangled.
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Approach #2 (external editor)
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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The following Thunderbird extensions are needed:
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AboutConfig from http://aboutconfig.mozdev.org/ and
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External Editor from http://globs.org/articles.php?lng=en&pg=8
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1. Prepare the patch as a text file using your method of choice.
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2. Before opening a compose window, use Edit->Account Settings to
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uncheck the "Compose messages in HTML format" setting in the
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"Composition & Addressing" panel of the account to be used to
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send the patch.
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3. In the main Thunderbird window, 'before' you open the compose
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window for the patch, use Tools->about:config to set the
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following to the indicated values:
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+
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----------
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mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed => false
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mailnews.wraplength => 0
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----------
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4. Open a compose window and click the external editor icon.
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5. In the external editor window, read in the patch file and exit
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the editor normally.
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Side note: it may be possible to do step 2 with
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about:config and the following settings but no one's tried yet.
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----------
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mail.html_compose => false
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mail.identity.default.compose_html => false
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mail.identity.id?.compose_html => false
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----------
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There is a script in contrib/thunderbird-patch-inline which can help
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you include patches with Thunderbird in an easy way. To use it, do the
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steps above and then use the script as the external editor.
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EXAMPLES
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