Documentation / hooks.txton commit git-commit: document log message formatting convention (936f32d)
   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
  93The default 'post-commit' hook, when enabled, demonstrates how to
  94send out a commit notification e-mail.
  95
  96update
  97------
  98
  99This hook is invoked by `git-receive-pack` on the remote repository,
 100which happens when a `git push` is done on a local repository.
 101Just before updating the ref on the remote repository, the update hook
 102is invoked.  Its exit status determines the success or failure of
 103the ref update.
 104
 105The hook executes once for each ref to be updated, and takes
 106three parameters:
 107
 108 - the name of the ref being updated,
 109 - the old object name stored in the ref,
 110 - and the new objectname to be stored in the ref.
 111
 112A zero exit from the update hook allows the ref to be updated.
 113Exiting with a non-zero status prevents `git-receive-pack`
 114from updating the ref.
 115
 116This hook can be used to prevent 'forced' update on certain refs by
 117making sure that the object name is a commit object that is a
 118descendant of the commit object named by the old object name.
 119That is, to enforce a "fast forward only" policy.
 120
 121It could also be used to log the old..new status.  However, it
 122does not know the entire set of branches, so it would end up
 123firing one e-mail per ref when used naively, though.
 124
 125Another use suggested on the mailing list is to use this hook to
 126implement access control which is finer grained than the one
 127based on filesystem group.
 128
 129The standard output of this hook is sent to `stderr`, so if you
 130want to report something to the `git-send-pack` on the other end,
 131you can simply `echo` your messages.
 132
 133
 134post-update
 135-----------
 136
 137This hook is invoked by `git-receive-pack` on the remote repository,
 138which happens when a `git push` is done on a local repository.
 139It executes on the remote repository once after all the refs have
 140been updated.
 141
 142It takes a variable number of parameters, each of which is the
 143name of ref that was actually updated.
 144
 145This hook is meant primarily for notification, and cannot affect
 146the outcome of `git-receive-pack`.
 147
 148The 'post-update' hook can tell what are the heads that were pushed,
 149but it does not know what their original and updated values are,
 150so it is a poor place to do log old..new.
 151
 152When enabled, the default 'post-update' hook runs
 153`git-update-server-info` to keep the information used by dumb
 154transports (e.g., HTTP) up-to-date.  If you are publishing
 155a git repository that is accessible via HTTP, you should
 156probably enable this hook.
 157
 158The standard output of this hook is sent to `/dev/null`; if you
 159want to report something to the `git-send-pack` on the other end,
 160you can redirect your output to your `stderr`.