diff --git a/mercurial/mail.py b/mercurial/mail.py
index a2f7e0ba57a63f5626e894afe9d0933c9a8d14f5_bWVyY3VyaWFsL21haWwucHk=..fa3f0301cf91516c677799baee6b22c5993f03e4_bWVyY3VyaWFsL21haWwucHk= 100644
--- a/mercurial/mail.py
+++ b/mercurial/mail.py
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@
 
 def _sendmail(ui, sender, recipients, msg):
     '''send mail using sendmail.'''
-    program = ui.config('email', 'method')
+    program = ui.config('email', 'method', 'smtp')
     cmdline = '%s -f %s %s' % (program, util.email(sender),
                                ' '.join(map(util.email, recipients)))
     ui.note(_('sending mail: %s\n') % cmdline)