[PATCH v3 2/2] imap-send: improve error messages with configuration hints

From: Joerg Thalheim <joerg@thalheim.io>
Date: Jun 20, 2025, 15:56 UTC
Message-ID: <20250620155614.901816-3-joerg@thalheim.io>
In-Reply-To: <20250620155614.901816-1-joerg@thalheim.io>

From: Jörg Thalheim <joerg@thalheim.io>

Replace basic error messages with more helpful ones that guide users on how to resolve configuration issues. When imap.host or imap.folder are missing, provide the exact git config commands needed to fix the problem, along with examples of typical values.

Use the advise() API to display hints in a multi-line format with proper "hint:" prefixes for each line.

Signed-off-by: Jörg Thalheim <joerg@thalheim.io>
---
 imap-send.c | 9 +++++++--
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/imap-send.c b/imap-send.c
index 33690cd66a..b6fa90960f 100644
--- a/imap-send.c
+++ b/imap-send.c
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 #define DISABLE_SIGN_COMPARE_WARNINGS
 
 #include "git-compat-util.h"
+#include "advice.h"
 #include "config.h"
 #include "credential.h"
 #include "gettext.h"
@@ -1811,7 +1812,9 @@ int cmd_main(int argc, const char **argv)
 
 	if (!server.host) {
 		if (!server.tunnel) {
-			fprintf(stderr, "no IMAP host specified\n");
+			error(_("no IMAP host specified"));
+			advise(_("set the IMAP host with 'git config imap.host <host>'.\n"
+				 "(e.g., 'git config imap.host imaps://imap.example.com')"));
 			ret = 1;
 			goto out;
 		}
@@ -1831,7 +1834,9 @@ int cmd_main(int argc, const char **argv)
 	}
 
 	if (!server.folder) {
-		fprintf(stderr, "no IMAP folder specified\n");
+		error(_("no IMAP folder specified"));
+		advise(_("set the target folder with 'git config imap.folder <folder>'.\n"
+			 "(e.g., 'git config imap.folder Drafts')"));
 		ret = 1;
 		goto out;
 	}

-- 
2.49.0