send
====

:Purpose: Mail or create a merge-directive for submitting changes.
:Usage:   bzr send [SUBMIT_BRANCH] [PUBLIC_BRANCH]

:Options:
  --body=ARG            Body for the email.
  --remember            Remember submit and public branch.
  -f ARG, --from=ARG    Branch to generate the submission from, rather than
                        the one containing the working directory.
  -v, --verbose         Display more information.
  --mail-to=ARG         Mail the request to this address.
  --format=ARG          Use the specified output format.
  --no-bundle           Do not include a bundle in the merge directive.
  -q, --quiet           Only display errors and warnings.
  --strict              Refuse to send if there are uncommitted changes in the
                        working tree, --no-strict disables the check.
  --usage               Show usage message and options.
  -o ARG, --output=ARG  Write merge directive to this file or directory; use -
                        for stdout.
  -m ARG, --message=ARG
                        Message string.
  -r ARG, --revision=ARG
                        See "help revisionspec" for details.
  --no-patch            Do not include a preview patch in the merge directive.
  -h, --help            Show help message.

:Description:
  A merge directive provides many things needed for requesting merges:
  
  * A machine-readable description of the merge to perform
  
  * An optional patch that is a preview of the changes requested
  
  * An optional bundle of revision data, so that the changes can be applied
    directly from the merge directive, without retrieving data from a
    branch.
  
  `bzr send` creates a compact data set that, when applied using bzr
  merge, has the same effect as merging from the source branch.  
  
  By default the merge directive is self-contained and can be applied to any
  branch containing submit_branch in its ancestory without needing access to
  the source branch.
  
  If --no-bundle is specified, then Bazaar doesn't send the contents of the
  revisions, but only a structured request to merge from the
  public_location.  In that case the public_branch is needed and it must be
  up-to-date and accessible to the recipient.  The public_branch is always
  included if known, so that people can check it later.
  
  The submit branch defaults to the parent of the source branch, but can be
  overridden.  Both submit branch and public branch will be remembered in
  branch.conf the first time they are used for a particular branch.  The
  source branch defaults to that containing the working directory, but can
  be changed using --from.
  
  Both the submit branch and the public branch follow the usual behavior with
  respect to --remember: If there is no default location set, the first send
  will set it (use --no-remember to avoid setting it). After that, you can
  omit the location to use the default.  To change the default, use
  --remember. The value will only be saved if the location can be accessed.
  
  In order to calculate those changes, bzr must analyse the submit branch.
  Therefore it is most efficient for the submit branch to be a local mirror.
  If a public location is known for the submit_branch, that location is used
  in the merge directive.
  
  The default behaviour is to send the merge directive by mail, unless -o is
  given, in which case it is sent to a file.
  
  Mail is sent using your preferred mail program.  This should be transparent
  on Windows (it uses MAPI).  On Unix, it requires the xdg-email utility.
  If the preferred client can't be found (or used), your editor will be used.
  
  To use a specific mail program, set the mail_client configuration option.
  (For Thunderbird 1.5, this works around some bugs.)  Supported values for
  specific clients are "claws", "evolution", "kmail", "mail.app" (MacOS X's
  Mail.app), "mutt", and "thunderbird"; generic options are "default",
  "editor", "emacsclient", "mapi", and "xdg-email".  Plugins may also add
  supported clients.
  
  If mail is being sent, a to address is required.  This can be supplied
  either on the commandline, by setting the submit_to configuration
  option in the branch itself or the child_submit_to configuration option
  in the submit branch.
  
  Two formats are currently supported: "4" uses revision bundle format 4 and
  merge directive format 2.  It is significantly faster and smaller than
  older formats.  It is compatible with Bazaar 0.19 and later.  It is the
  default.  "0.9" uses revision bundle format 0.9 and merge directive
  format 1.  It is compatible with Bazaar 0.12 - 0.18.
  
  The merge directives created by bzr send may be applied using bzr merge or
  bzr pull by specifying a file containing a merge directive as the location.
  
  bzr send makes extensive use of public locations to map local locations into
  URLs that can be used by other people.  See `bzr help configuration` to
  set them, and use `bzr info` to display them.

:See also: :doc:`merge <merge-help>`, :doc:`pull <pull-help>`