Gmail OAuth2 in git send-email

From: Bagas Sanjaya <bagasdotme@gmail.com>
Date: Jun 3, 2021, 05:02 UTC
Message-ID: <d93a3024-ba8d-3469-2dba-2e0032334232@gmail.com>

Hi,

For most email providers, adding following .gitconfig is enough to seamlessly use git send-email:

Show 5 quoted lines

>            [sendemail]
>                    smtpEncryption = tls
>                    smtpServer = <server>
>                    smtpUser = <email>
>                    smtpServerPort = 587

But for users that use Gmail (like me), we must either enable 2FA and generate app-specific password for use with git send-email, or enable less-secure app access. That's because Gmail prefers authenticating with OAuth2, but git send-email use plain text authentication instead.

I personally prefer the latter because I know that I enabled less-secure app access only for duration of sending patches with git send-email (that is, I switched the trigger when I run git send-email).

We wonder whether git send-email can support Gmail OAuth2 so that we can seamlessly send patches without having to choose either action. But however, we have to create a GCP project [1] first in order to enable Gmail API. This can be overkill for some folks, but unfortunately that's the only way.

If we want to enable support for Gmail OAuth2, should we hands-off API configuration to git send-email users, or should we configure it on behalf of them? Note that when we go the former approach, some Gmail users simply can't afford GCP pricing for whatever reason (even don't have any of required payment methods), whereas the latter approach we must cover that cost (and Software Freedom Conservancy can raise funds needed for it or git.git developers can pay it).

Thanks.

[1]: https://developers.google.com/workspace/guides/create-project

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