Documentation / hooks.txton commit git-commit: add a prepare-commit-msg hook (8089c85)
   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-am` script.  It takes a single
  16parameter, the name of the file that holds the proposed commit
  17log message.  Exiting with non-zero status causes
  18`git-am` to abort before applying the patch.
  19
  20The hook is allowed to edit the message file in place, and can
  21be used to normalize the message into some project standard
  22format (if the project has one). It can also be used to refuse
  23the commit after inspecting the message file.
  24
  25The default 'applypatch-msg' hook, when enabled, runs the
  26'commit-msg' hook, if the latter is enabled.
  27
  28pre-applypatch
  29--------------
  30
  31This hook is invoked by `git-am`.  It takes no parameter,
  32and is invoked after the patch is applied, but before a commit
  33is made.  Exiting with non-zero status causes the working tree
  34after application of the patch not committed.
  35
  36It can be used to inspect the current working tree and refuse to
  37make a commit if it does not pass certain test.
  38
  39The default 'pre-applypatch' hook, when enabled, runs the
  40'pre-commit' hook, if the latter is enabled.
  41
  42post-applypatch
  43---------------
  44
  45This hook is invoked by `git-am`.  It takes no parameter,
  46and is invoked after the patch is applied and a commit is made.
  47
  48This hook is meant primarily for notification, and cannot affect
  49the outcome of `git-am`.
  50
  51pre-commit
  52----------
  53
  54This hook is invoked by `git-commit`, and can be bypassed
  55with `\--no-verify` option.  It takes no parameter, and is
  56invoked before obtaining the proposed commit log message and
  57making a commit.  Exiting with non-zero status from this script
  58causes the `git-commit` to abort.
  59
  60The default 'pre-commit' hook, when enabled, catches introduction
  61of lines with trailing whitespaces and aborts the commit when
  62such a line is found.
  63
  64All the `git-commit` hooks are invoked with the environment
  65variable `GIT_EDITOR=:` if the command will not bring up an editor
  66to modify the commit message.
  67
  68prepare-commit-msg
  69------------------
  70
  71This hook is invoked by `git-commit` right after preparing the
  72default log message, and before the editor is started.
  73
  74It takes one to three parameters.  The first is the name of the file
  75that the commit log message.  The second is the source of the commit
  76message, and can be: `message` (if a `\-m` or `\-F` option was
  77given); `template` (if a `\-t` option was given or the
  78configuration option `commit.template` is set); `merge` (if the
  79commit is a merge or a `.git/MERGE_MSG` file exists); `squash`
  80(if a `.git/SQUASH_MSG` file exists); or `commit`, followed by
  81a commit SHA1 (if a `\-c`, `\-C` or `\--amend` option was given).
  82
  83If the exit status is non-zero, `git-commit` will abort.
  84
  85The purpose of the hook is to edit the message file in place, and
  86it is not suppressed by the `\--no-verify` option.  A non-zero exit
  87means a failure of the hook and aborts the commit.  It should not
  88be used as replacement for pre-commit hook.
  89
  90The sample `prepare-commit-msg` hook that comes with git comments
  91out the `Conflicts:` part of a merge's commit message.
  92
  93commit-msg
  94----------
  95
  96This hook is invoked by `git-commit`, and can be bypassed
  97with `\--no-verify` option.  It takes a single parameter, the
  98name of the file that holds the proposed commit log message.
  99Exiting with non-zero status causes the `git-commit` to
 100abort.
 101
 102The hook is allowed to edit the message file in place, and can
 103be used to normalize the message into some project standard
 104format (if the project has one). It can also be used to refuse
 105the commit after inspecting the message file.
 106
 107The default 'commit-msg' hook, when enabled, detects duplicate
 108"Signed-off-by" lines, and aborts the commit if one is found.
 109
 110post-commit
 111-----------
 112
 113This hook is invoked by `git-commit`.  It takes no
 114parameter, and is invoked after a commit is made.
 115
 116This hook is meant primarily for notification, and cannot affect
 117the outcome of `git-commit`.
 118
 119post-checkout
 120-----------
 121
 122This hook is invoked when a `git-checkout` is run after having updated the
 123worktree.  The hook is given three parameters: the ref of the previous HEAD,
 124the ref of the new HEAD (which may or may not have changed), and a flag
 125indicating whether the checkout was a branch checkout (changing branches,
 126flag=1) or a file checkout (retrieving a file from the index, flag=0).
 127This hook cannot affect the outcome of `git-checkout`.
 128
 129This hook can be used to perform repository validity checks, auto-display
 130differences from the previous HEAD if different, or set working dir metadata
 131properties.
 132
 133post-merge
 134-----------
 135
 136This hook is invoked by `git-merge`, which happens when a `git pull`
 137is done on a local repository.  The hook takes a single parameter, a status
 138flag specifying whether or not the merge being done was a squash merge.
 139This hook cannot affect the outcome of `git-merge`.
 140
 141This hook can be used in conjunction with a corresponding pre-commit hook to
 142save and restore any form of metadata associated with the working tree
 143(eg: permissions/ownership, ACLS, etc).  See contrib/hooks/setgitperms.perl
 144for an example of how to do this.
 145
 146[[pre-receive]]
 147pre-receive
 148-----------
 149
 150This hook is invoked by `git-receive-pack` on the remote repository,
 151which happens when a `git push` is done on a local repository.
 152Just before starting to update refs on the remote repository, the
 153pre-receive hook is invoked.  Its exit status determines the success
 154or failure of the update.
 155
 156This hook executes once for the receive operation. It takes no
 157arguments, but for each ref to be updated it receives on standard
 158input a line of the format:
 159
 160  <old-value> SP <new-value> SP <ref-name> LF
 161
 162where `<old-value>` is the old object name stored in the ref,
 163`<new-value>` is the new object name to be stored in the ref and
 164`<ref-name>` is the full name of the ref.
 165When creating a new ref, `<old-value>` is 40 `0`.
 166
 167If the hook exits with non-zero status, none of the refs will be
 168updated. If the hook exits with zero, updating of individual refs can
 169still be prevented by the <<update,'update'>> hook.
 170
 171Both standard output and standard error output are forwarded to
 172`git-send-pack` on the other end, so you can simply `echo` messages
 173for the user.
 174
 175[[update]]
 176update
 177------
 178
 179This hook is invoked by `git-receive-pack` on the remote repository,
 180which happens when a `git push` is done on a local repository.
 181Just before updating the ref on the remote repository, the update hook
 182is invoked.  Its exit status determines the success or failure of
 183the ref update.
 184
 185The hook executes once for each ref to be updated, and takes
 186three parameters:
 187
 188 - the name of the ref being updated,
 189 - the old object name stored in the ref,
 190 - and the new objectname to be stored in the ref.
 191
 192A zero exit from the update hook allows the ref to be updated.
 193Exiting with a non-zero status prevents `git-receive-pack`
 194from updating that ref.
 195
 196This hook can be used to prevent 'forced' update on certain refs by
 197making sure that the object name is a commit object that is a
 198descendant of the commit object named by the old object name.
 199That is, to enforce a "fast forward only" policy.
 200
 201It could also be used to log the old..new status.  However, it
 202does not know the entire set of branches, so it would end up
 203firing one e-mail per ref when used naively, though.  The
 204<<post-receive,'post-receive'>> hook is more suited to that.
 205
 206Another use suggested on the mailing list is to use this hook to
 207implement access control which is finer grained than the one
 208based on filesystem group.
 209
 210Both standard output and standard error output are forwarded to
 211`git-send-pack` on the other end, so you can simply `echo` messages
 212for the user.
 213
 214The default 'update' hook, when enabled--and with
 215`hooks.allowunannotated` config option turned on--prevents
 216unannotated tags to be pushed.
 217
 218[[post-receive]]
 219post-receive
 220------------
 221
 222This hook is invoked by `git-receive-pack` on the remote repository,
 223which happens when a `git push` is done on a local repository.
 224It executes on the remote repository once after all the refs have
 225been updated.
 226
 227This hook executes once for the receive operation.  It takes no
 228arguments, but gets the same information as the
 229<<pre-receive,'pre-receive'>>
 230hook does on its standard input.
 231
 232This hook does not affect the outcome of `git-receive-pack`, as it
 233is called after the real work is done.
 234
 235This supersedes the <<post-update,'post-update'>> hook in that it gets
 236both old and new values of all the refs in addition to their
 237names.
 238
 239Both standard output and standard error output are forwarded to
 240`git-send-pack` on the other end, so you can simply `echo` messages
 241for the user.
 242
 243The default 'post-receive' hook is empty, but there is
 244a sample script `post-receive-email` provided in the `contrib/hooks`
 245directory in git distribution, which implements sending commit
 246emails.
 247
 248[[post-update]]
 249post-update
 250-----------
 251
 252This hook is invoked by `git-receive-pack` on the remote repository,
 253which happens when a `git push` is done on a local repository.
 254It executes on the remote repository once after all the refs have
 255been updated.
 256
 257It takes a variable number of parameters, each of which is the
 258name of ref that was actually updated.
 259
 260This hook is meant primarily for notification, and cannot affect
 261the outcome of `git-receive-pack`.
 262
 263The 'post-update' hook can tell what are the heads that were pushed,
 264but it does not know what their original and updated values are,
 265so it is a poor place to do log old..new. The
 266<<post-receive,'post-receive'>> hook does get both original and
 267updated values of the refs. You might consider it instead if you need
 268them.
 269
 270When enabled, the default 'post-update' hook runs
 271`git-update-server-info` to keep the information used by dumb
 272transports (e.g., HTTP) up-to-date.  If you are publishing
 273a git repository that is accessible via HTTP, you should
 274probably enable this hook.
 275
 276Both standard output and standard error output are forwarded to
 277`git-send-pack` on the other end, so you can simply `echo` messages
 278for the user.