Sending patches by email with git

Introduction

In the FLUSP kernel course, I reached the tutorial on Sending Patches by Email with Git. This is a crucial skill because the Linux kernel community still uses email (not GitHub PRs) to review and merge contributions.

The goal was to set up git send-email correctly and learn how to send clean patches and patch series.

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What I Did

I followed the tutorial step by step on my Debian machine:

• Installed git-email
• Configured my global user.name and user.email
• Set up SMTP for Gmail (using an App Password because of 2FA)
• Added useful options like sendemail.suppresscc self

Then I practiced:

• Sending a single patch with --annotate
• Sending a full patch series with cover letter, proper threading (--cover-letter --thread --no-chain-reply-to)

I always started with --dry-run to check everything before actually sending.

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What I Learned

• Why email is still the standard for kernel contributions.
• git send-email keeps patches perfectly formatted.
• --annotate + --dry-run are lifesavers.
• How to create proper cover letters and versioned patches (-v2, etc.).