How to use the command git mailinfo (with examples)
Git mailinfo is a command that allows you to extract patch and authorship information from a single email message. This can be useful when you receive patches via email and want to apply them to your Git repository. Git mailinfo also provides options to modify the extracted data, such as removing whitespace or extracting only specific parts of the email message.
Use case 1: Extract the patch and author data from an email message
Code:
git mailinfo message|patch
Motivation:
You may receive patches or changesets as email messages and want to apply them to your Git repository. In order to do this, you need to extract the patch and author data from the email message.
Explanation:
git mailinfo: This is the command to extract patch and authorship information from the email message.message: This is the name of the email message file that contains the patch and author data.
Example output:
From: John Doe <johndoe@example.com>
Subject: [PATCH] Add new feature
This is a test patch.
Signed-off-by: John Doe <johndoe@example.com>
Use case 2: Extract but remove leading and trailing whitespace
Code:
git mailinfo -k message|patch
Motivation:
When processing email messages, there may be leading or trailing whitespace in the extracted data. By using the -k option, you can remove this whitespace.
Explanation:
git mailinfo: This is the command to extract patch and authorship information from the email message.-k: This option removes leading and trailing whitespace from the extracted data.message: This is the name of the email message file that contains the patch and author data.
Example output:
From: John Doe <johndoe@example.com>
Subject: [PATCH] Add new feature
This is a test patch.
Signed-off-by: John Doe <johndoe@example.com>
Use case 3: Remove everything from the body before a scissors line and retrieve the message or patch
Code:
git mailinfo --scissors message|patch
Motivation:
When processing email messages, you may want to remove everything from the body of the message before a specified scissors line in order to extract only the relevant information.
Explanation:
git mailinfo: This is the command to extract patch and authorship information from the email message.--scissors: This option removes everything from the body of the message before a scissors line. The scissors line is indicated by a specific string, such as “–>* –”.message: This is the name of the email message file that contains the patch and author data.
Example output:
From: John Doe <johndoe@example.com>
Subject: [PATCH] Add new feature
This is a test patch.
Signed-off-by: John Doe <johndoe@example.com>
Conclusion:
The git mailinfo command is a convenient tool for extracting patch and authorship information from email messages. It provides flexibility in removing whitespace and extracting specific parts of the email message, making it easier to apply patches to a Git repository.
