After violating a few unspoken etiquette rules that were spotted by Christian Couder <christian.couder@xxxxxxxxx>, Filipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@xxxxxxxxx> suggested that somebody write a guide. Since I was the latest cause of this perenial discussion, I took it upon myself to learn from my mistakes and document the fixes. Thanks to Junio <gitster@xxxxxxxxx> for providing links to similar discussions in the past and Stefan Moch <stefanmoch@xxxxxxx> for pointing out where the related documentation already existed in the tree. Signed-off-by: Dave Huseby <dwh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- Documentation/MailingListEtiquette.txt | 125 +++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 125 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Documentation/MailingListEtiquette.txt diff --git a/Documentation/MailingListEtiquette.txt b/Documentation/MailingListEtiquette.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..9da2d490aa --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/MailingListEtiquette.txt @@ -0,0 +1,125 @@ +Mailing List Etiquette +====================== + +[[introduction]] +== Introduction + +Open source, community projects such as Git use a mailing list and email to +coordinate development and to submit patches for review. This article documents +the unspoken rules and etiquette for the proper way to send email to the +mailing list. What follows are considered best practices to follow. + +If you are looking for details on how to submit a patch, that is documented +elsewhere in: + +- `Documentation/SubmittingPatches` +- `Documentation/MyFirstContribution.txt` + +[[proper-use-of-to-and-cc]] +== Proper Use of To and Cc + +When starting a new email thread that is not directed at any specific person, +put the mailing list address in the "To:" field, otherwise address it to the +person and put the mailing list address in the "Cc:" field. + +When replying to an email on the mailing list, put the person you are replying +to in the "To:" field and all other people in the thread in the "Cc:" field, +including the mailing list address. + +Make sure to keep everyone involved in the "Cc:" field so that they do not have +to be subscribed to the mailing list to receive replies. + +[[do-not-use-mail-followup-to]] +== Do Not Use Mail-Followup-To + +When posting to the mailing list, your email client might add a +"Mail-Followup-To:" field which contains all of the recipients, including the +mailing list address, but not the sender's email address. This is intended to +prevent the sender from receiving replies twice, once from the replying person +and again from the mailing list. + +This goes directly against the desired "To:" and "Cc:" etiquette (see "Proper +Use of To and Cc" above). Most users want to use "group reply" or "Reply to +all" in their mail client and create a reply email that is sent directly to +author of the email they are replying to with all other recipients, as well as +the mailing list address, in the "Cc:" field. + +The proper thing to do is to never use the "Mail-Followup-To:" field as well as +disable honoring any "Mail-Followup-To:" fields in any emails you reply to. +Some email clients come with both enabled by default. Mutt is like this (see +Disable Mail-Followup-To in the Mutt section below). + +[[enable-plain-text-mode]] +== Enable Plain Text Mode + +Most email clients automatically reject mailing list email if it is not a +text/plain formatted email. For that reason, it is important that your email +client is set to create text/plain emails instead of text/enriched or +text/html email. + +[[patches-that-receive-no-response]] + +From Junio's notes from the maintainer: + +> If you sent a patch and you did not hear any response from anybody for +> several days, it could be that your patch was totally uninteresting, +> but it also is possible that it was simply lost in the noise. Please +> do not hesitate to send a reminder message in such a case. Messages +> getting lost in the noise may be a sign that those who can evaluate +> your patch don't have enough mental/time bandwidth to process them +> right at the moment, and it often helps to wait until the list traffic +> becomes calmer before sending such a reminder. + +[[send-merge-ready-patches-to-the-maintainer]] +== Send Merge-Ready Patches to the Maintainer + +Once a patch has achieved consensus and all stakeholders are staisfied and +everything is ready for merging, then you send it to the maintainer: "To: +gitster@xxxxxxxxx". + +[[mutt-config]] +== Mutt Config + +This section has suggestions for how to set up Mutt to be polite. + +[[known-mailing-lists]] +=== Known Mailing Lists + +Mutt has the ability to change its behavior when replying to a mailing list. For +Mutt to know when an address is a mailing list, use the `subscribe` keyword in +your Mutt configuration: + +**~/.muttrc:** +``` +# tell Mutt about the Git mailing list +subscribe git@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx +``` + +[[reply-properly]] +=== Reply Properly + +By default, Mutt uses the 'g' and 'L' hotkeys to execute a "group reply" or +"list reply" respectively. A "group reply" creates an email addressed to the +sender with all other recipients in the "Cc". A "list reply" starts an email +addressed only to the mailing list without anybody else as "Cc". + +Per rule X, Y, and Z above, using "group reply" in Mutt is what you want to do. + +[[disable-mail-followup-to]] +=== Disable Mail-Followup-To + +By default, when replying to mailing lists, Mutt will automatically generate +"Mail-Followup-To" headers. To fix this, disable the generation of the header +in your Mutt configuration. It is also a good idea to disable honoring any +"Mail-Followup-To" headers so that any "group reply" operations are correctly +addressed. + +**~/.muttrc:** +``` +# disable Mail-Followup-To header +unset followup_to + +# disable honoring Mail-Followup-To header +unset honor_followup_to +``` + -- 2.20.1
