Documentation / hooks.txton commit Merge branch 'master' of git://repo.or.cz/git-gui (5f5dbd7)
   1Hooks used by git
   2=================
   3
   4Hooks are little scripts you can place in `$GIT_DIR/hooks`
   5directory to trigger action at certain points.  When
   6`git-init` is run, a handful example hooks are copied in the
   7`hooks` directory of the new repository, but by default they are
   8all disabled.  To enable a hook, make it executable with `chmod +x`.
   9
  10This document describes the currently defined hooks.
  11
  12applypatch-msg
  13--------------
  14
  15This hook is invoked by `git-applypatch` script, which is
  16typically invoked by `git-applymbox`.  It takes a single
  17parameter, the name of the file that holds the proposed commit
  18log message.  Exiting with non-zero status causes
  19`git-applypatch` to abort before applying the patch.
  20
  21The hook is allowed to edit the message file in place, and can
  22be used to normalize the message into some project standard
  23format (if the project has one). It can also be used to refuse
  24the commit after inspecting the message file.
  25
  26The default 'applypatch-msg' hook, when enabled, runs the
  27'commit-msg' hook, if the latter is enabled.
  28
  29pre-applypatch
  30--------------
  31
  32This hook is invoked by `git-applypatch` script, which is
  33typically invoked by `git-applymbox`.  It takes no parameter,
  34and is invoked after the patch is applied, but before a commit
  35is made.  Exiting with non-zero status causes the working tree
  36after application of the patch not committed.
  37
  38It can be used to inspect the current working tree and refuse to
  39make a commit if it does not pass certain test.
  40
  41The default 'pre-applypatch' hook, when enabled, runs the
  42'pre-commit' hook, if the latter is enabled.
  43
  44post-applypatch
  45---------------
  46
  47This hook is invoked by `git-applypatch` script, which is
  48typically invoked by `git-applymbox`.  It takes no parameter,
  49and is invoked after the patch is applied and a commit is made.
  50
  51This hook is meant primarily for notification, and cannot affect
  52the outcome of `git-applypatch`.
  53
  54pre-commit
  55----------
  56
  57This hook is invoked by `git-commit`, and can be bypassed
  58with `\--no-verify` option.  It takes no parameter, and is
  59invoked before obtaining the proposed commit log message and
  60making a commit.  Exiting with non-zero status from this script
  61causes the `git-commit` to abort.
  62
  63The default 'pre-commit' hook, when enabled, catches introduction
  64of lines with trailing whitespaces and aborts the commit when
  65such a line is found.
  66
  67commit-msg
  68----------
  69
  70This hook is invoked by `git-commit`, and can be bypassed
  71with `\--no-verify` option.  It takes a single parameter, the
  72name of the file that holds the proposed commit log message.
  73Exiting with non-zero status causes the `git-commit` to
  74abort.
  75
  76The hook is allowed to edit the message file in place, and can
  77be used to normalize the message into some project standard
  78format (if the project has one). It can also be used to refuse
  79the commit after inspecting the message file.
  80
  81The default 'commit-msg' hook, when enabled, detects duplicate
  82"Signed-off-by" lines, and aborts the commit if one is found.
  83
  84post-commit
  85-----------
  86
  87This hook is invoked by `git-commit`.  It takes no
  88parameter, and is invoked after a commit is made.
  89
  90This hook is meant primarily for notification, and cannot affect
  91the outcome of `git-commit`.
  92
  93update
  94------
  95
  96This hook is invoked by `git-receive-pack` on the remote repository,
  97which happens when a `git push` is done on a local repository.
  98Just before updating the ref on the remote repository, the update hook
  99is invoked.  Its exit status determines the success or failure of
 100the ref update.
 101
 102The hook executes once for each ref to be updated, and takes
 103three parameters:
 104
 105 - the name of the ref being updated,
 106 - the old object name stored in the ref,
 107 - and the new objectname to be stored in the ref.
 108
 109A zero exit from the update hook allows the ref to be updated.
 110Exiting with a non-zero status prevents `git-receive-pack`
 111from updating the ref.
 112
 113This hook can be used to prevent 'forced' update on certain refs by
 114making sure that the object name is a commit object that is a
 115descendant of the commit object named by the old object name.
 116That is, to enforce a "fast forward only" policy.
 117
 118It could also be used to log the old..new status.  However, it
 119does not know the entire set of branches, so it would end up
 120firing one e-mail per ref when used naively, though.
 121
 122Another use suggested on the mailing list is to use this hook to
 123implement access control which is finer grained than the one
 124based on filesystem group.
 125
 126The standard output of this hook is sent to `stderr`, so if you
 127want to report something to the `git-send-pack` on the other end,
 128you can simply `echo` your messages.
 129
 130The default 'update' hook, when enabled, demonstrates how to
 131send out a notification e-mail.
 132
 133post-update
 134-----------
 135
 136This hook is invoked by `git-receive-pack` on the remote repository,
 137which happens when a `git push` is done on a local repository.
 138It executes on the remote repository once after all the refs have
 139been updated.
 140
 141It takes a variable number of parameters, each of which is the
 142name of ref that was actually updated.
 143
 144This hook is meant primarily for notification, and cannot affect
 145the outcome of `git-receive-pack`.
 146
 147The 'post-update' hook can tell what are the heads that were pushed,
 148but it does not know what their original and updated values are,
 149so it is a poor place to do log old..new.
 150
 151When enabled, the default 'post-update' hook runs
 152`git-update-server-info` to keep the information used by dumb
 153transports (e.g., HTTP) up-to-date.  If you are publishing
 154a git repository that is accessible via HTTP, you should
 155probably enable this hook.
 156
 157The standard output of this hook is sent to `/dev/null`; if you
 158want to report something to the `git-send-pack` on the other end,
 159you can redirect your output to your `stderr`.