linux.dev mailbox hosting

Linux development depends on the ability to send and receive emails. Unfortunately, it is common for corporate gateways to post-process both outgoing and incoming messages with the purposes of adding lengthy legal disclaimers or performing anti-phishing link quarantines, both of which interferes with regular patch flow.

While it is possible to configure free services like GMail to work well with sending and receiving patches, it may not be available in all geographical locales – or there may be other reasons why someone may prefer not to have a gmail.com address.

For this reason, we have partnered with Migadu to provide a mail hosting service under the linux.dev domain.

Who qualifies for a linux.dev address

Please check that all of the below applies to you:

  1. You have an actual need to have a mailbox that is compatible with git-send-email and IMAP mail clients. This is NOT a vanity email address service – it exists to help developers do their work. If you really want a vanity address, you can get a lifetime linux.com forwarding alias for a very reasonable price. Alternatively, Migadu will happily host your personal domain for a low annual fee.
  2. You are listed in the MAINTAINERS file as a M: (maintainer) or R: (reviewer), OR
  3. You can demonstrate that you have ongoing history with Linux kernel development, such as prior git commits in your name, mailing list discussions accessible via lore.kernel.org, or similar.

Rules and restrictions

Please make sure that you’re okay with all of the following:

  1. You will use this service for Linux kernel work. This doesn’t mean you can’t use it for an occasional email that has nothing to do with Linux, but please keep it within reason.
  2. You will not use this service for sending spam or in violation of the Code of Conduct (see here). Such behavior will result in immediate suspension or termination of your account.
  3. Your address will be created as givenname.familyname@linux.dev, unless you can convincingly demonstrate that this does not apply to your individual case (e.g. you do not have a family name following common Western tradition; or you prefer your family name to be listed first; or if revealing your full name would put you into any kind of personal jeopardy). The hope is to exactly match what you put in your git commit “Author” info. Collisions will be handled on a case-by-case basis with the hope to satisfy all parties involved.
  4. You will not use this address to subscribe to high-volume mailing lists (LKML, netdev, etc). Migadu applies daily limits on the number of incoming and outgoing messages, so violating this request may result in mail being held/throttled for all users of linux.dev. We will be providing alternative ways to “subscribe” to mailing lists hosted on lore.kernel.org in the near future that don’t require traditional SMTP delivery (or you can already use a NNTP reader for this purpose).
  5. You need to already have another email address in order to apply for this service – which is a bit of a chicken and egg situation, but it is what it is. This service is not intended to be your primary online identity, merely one that is friendly for Linux development.
  6. We hope to provide this service for as long as email is used for Linux development, but we offer no guarantee that this service will be around forever.

How to apply

We are still hashing out a streamlined mechanism for submitting new account requests, but for now simply send an email to helpdesk@kernel.org using the following pattern:

Subject: firstname.lastname@linux.dev account request

Full name: [Firstname Lastname]
Canonical address: [foo@example.org]

Reasons for needing this account:
[Describe why your current email situation is not suitable for
kernel work.]

Approval process

To verify your request, we will perform the following actions:

  1. We will first look in MAINTAINERS for your canonical address
  2. Then, we’ll check linux-next for “git log –author=[canonical address]”
  3. Finally, we’ll search lore.kernel.org/lkml/ using “f:[canonical address]”

If none of these checks are successful, your request will be denied. If we find matches on lore.kernel.org, but they are not substantial in nature (e.g. no positive responses to your contributions), then your request may be denied.

If your request is approved, you will receive an invitation link at the contact address you specified.

Filtering Email

If you don’t want to filter your email through your local client, Migadu supports server-side SIEVE filtering. This can be configured with various mail clients, or through things like sieveshell. For example:

$ cat list-admin-reject.sieve
require ["regex", "fileinto"];
if header :regex "from" "^some-mailing-list-reject-" {
  fileinto "some-mailing-list-admin";
}
$ sieveshell --user your.name@linux.dev --passwd '...' --use-tls imap.migadu.com
> put list-admin-reject.sieve
OK
> list
list-admin-reject.sieve
> activate list-admin-reject.sieve
OK
> quit