Re: list From mangling and git am

[Mark Wielaard <mark@klomp.org>]

Hi,

On Mon, 2020-03-16 at 09:06 -0400, Frank Ch. Eigler wrote:
> The mailinglist From/Reply-To mangling doesn't interact nicely
> > > with git am. [...]
> 
> As you know, increasing mail security/spam measures are what is
> driving cleanliness with respect to mailing list systems.  Even as we
> speak, we have outgoing email from sourceware to important receivers
> like gmail -blocked- because the receiver doesn't think we are clean
> enough.  So I suspect we'll need to retain/enhance these measures
> rather than roll them back.

Rolling things back is probably not a good idea. There are two ways you
can go, strip dkim headers and rewrite From/Reply-To, or make sure you
keep the original headers and body in tact (no Reply-to mangling, no
subject rewriting, no body or attachment rewriting/removing) so the
dkim signature is correct. The first is probably less work and they
easiest way to comply with any dmarc policy. The second is probably
more work since you have to make sure that no part of the mailing-list
pipeline mangles the original email in any way.

> For git am workflows, consider:
> 
> - running "git amend --author=<....>" after "git am" to fix things

Yes, this is what I am using now. But it is slightly inconvenient since
it is easy to forget and you cannot easily script it.

> - asking submitters to use "git format-patch --from="Real Name git
> <...>"
>   where the enclosed name is different enough that git format-patch
>   includes a second From: header in the body, which git-am prefers

This works but only if the "real from" (Author) is slightly different
from the normal From. So if I do --from="Mark J. Wielaard
<mark@klomp.org>" while the Author is "Mark Wielaard <mark@klomp.org>"
then the Body of the email will start with a From: Mark Wielaard <
mark@klomp.org> which git am will pick up correctly.

This should be possible to script (on the sender side). But it is odd
there is no git send-email option to always generate this extra "Body
From:". That would be ideal. Maybe it is something that upstream git
could consider adding for mailing-lists that mangle From headers?

Cheers,

Mark