GitLab

Created by: samrocketman

It seems very often we get people in IRC asking about email, how it is configured, or how gitlab handles it. I think we need better documentation on it in two ways. The first is an explanation of how the email in gitlab works on a very high level. Example in my own words,

Gitlab uses the system configured sendmail to issue emails to users. The recommended method is to configure your host sendmail so that it properly works and then Gitlab will successfully email as a result.

If configuring sendmail is not desirable, then Gitlab provides smtp_settings.rb which can be used to override default Gitlab email settings. This uses ruby net::smtp to configure email. In order to properly configure it one must know the available SMTP AUTH methods allowed by their mail provider. ruby net::smtp supports only three auth schemes: PLAIN, LOGIN, and CRAM MD5.

I think documenting this will remove a significant support burden when it comes to configuring Gitlab email so users aren't left to figure it out.

And the second is including a link to ruby net::smtp documentation within smtp_settings.rb.

Just my 2c.

SAM