Doc: CG: Sending and receiving patches via email.

This contains the solution for MIMEtype problems experienced
with some email clients, and a link to the Wine wiki page on
git which contains much useful info.

diff --git a/Documentation/contributor/working.itexi b/Documentation/contributor/working.itexi
index 02d3052e1773a712c6dcf746b1ff20ac41773db6..4046ff9b928f8a8a5c1bfc6ad7dd4a429f885007 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/contributor/working.itexi
+++ b/Documentation/contributor/working.itexi
@@ -815,6 +815,7 @@ several Git branches of LilyPond source code is presented.
 * Working with remote branches::
 * Git log::
 * Applying remote patches::
+* Sending and receiving patches via email::
 * Commit access::
 @end menu
 
@@ -1052,6 +1053,36 @@ git commit -a --author="@var{John Smith} <@var{john@@example.com}>"
 @end example
 
 
+@node Sending and receiving patches via email
+@subsection Sending and receiving patches via email
+
+
+The default @code{x-diff} MIME type associated with patch files
+(i.e., files whose name ends in @code{.patch}) means that the
+encoding of line endings may be changed from UNIX to DOS format
+when they are sent as attachments.  Attempting to apply such an
+inadvertently altered patch will cause git to fail with a message
+about @q{whitespace errors}.
+
+The solution to such problems is surprisingly simple---just change
+the default file extension of patches generated by git to end in
+@code{.txt}, for example:
+
+@example
+git config format.suffix '.patch.txt'
+@end example
+
+This should cause email programs to apply the correct base64
+encoding to attached patches.
+
+If you receive a patch with DOS instead of UNIX line-endings, it
+can be converted back using the @code{dos2unix} utility.
+
+Lots of useful information on email complications with patches is
+provided on the Wine wiki at
+@uref{http://wiki.winehq.org/GitWine}.
+
+
 @node Commit access
 @subsection Commit access