Documentation / howto / rebuild-from-update-hook.txton commit Merge branch 'js/larger-timestamps' (b15667b)
   1Subject: [HOWTO] Using post-update hook
   2Message-ID: <7vy86o6usx.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>
   3From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
   4Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 18:19:10 -0700
   5Abstract: In this how-to article, JC talks about how he
   6 uses the post-update hook to automate Git documentation page
   7 shown at https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/.
   8Content-type: text/asciidoc
   9
  10How to rebuild from update hook
  11===============================
  12
  13The pages under https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/
  14are built from Documentation/ directory of the git.git project
  15and needed to be kept up-to-date.  The www.kernel.org/ servers
  16are mirrored and I was told that the origin of the mirror is on
  17the machine $some.kernel.org, on which I was given an account
  18when I took over Git maintainership from Linus.
  19
  20The directories relevant to this how-to are these two:
  21
  22    /pub/scm/git/git.git/       The public Git repository.
  23    /pub/software/scm/git/docs/ The HTML documentation page.
  24
  25So I made a repository to generate the documentation under my
  26home directory over there.
  27
  28    $ cd
  29    $ mkdir doc-git && cd doc-git
  30    $ git clone /pub/scm/git/git.git/ docgen
  31
  32What needs to happen is to update the $HOME/doc-git/docgen/
  33working tree, build HTML docs there and install the result in
  34/pub/software/scm/git/docs/ directory.  So I wrote a little
  35script:
  36
  37    $ cat >dododoc.sh <<\EOF
  38    #!/bin/sh
  39    cd $HOME/doc-git/docgen || exit
  40
  41    unset GIT_DIR
  42
  43    git pull /pub/scm/git/git.git/ master &&
  44    cd Documentation &&
  45    make install-webdoc
  46    EOF
  47
  48Initially I used to run this by hand whenever I push into the
  49public Git repository.  Then I did a cron job that ran twice a
  50day.  The current round uses the post-update hook mechanism,
  51like this:
  52
  53    $ cat >/pub/scm/git/git.git/hooks/post-update <<\EOF
  54    #!/bin/sh
  55    #
  56    # An example hook script to prepare a packed repository for use over
  57    # dumb transports.
  58    #
  59    # To enable this hook, make this file executable by "chmod +x post-update".
  60
  61    case " $* " in
  62    *' refs/heads/master '*)
  63            echo $HOME/doc-git/dododoc.sh | at now
  64            ;;
  65    esac
  66    exec git-update-server-info
  67    EOF
  68    $ chmod +x /pub/scm/git/git.git/hooks/post-update
  69
  70There are four things worth mentioning:
  71
  72 - The update-hook is run after the repository accepts a "git
  73   push", under my user privilege.  It is given the full names
  74   of refs that have been updated as arguments.  My post-update
  75   runs the dododoc.sh script only when the master head is
  76   updated.
  77
  78 - When update-hook is run, GIT_DIR is set to '.' by the calling
  79   receive-pack.  This is inherited by the dododoc.sh run via
  80   the "at" command, and needs to be unset; otherwise, "git
  81   pull" it does into $HOME/doc-git/docgen/ repository would not
  82   work correctly.
  83
  84 - The stdout of update hook script is not connected to git
  85   push; I run the heavy part of the command inside "at", to
  86   receive the execution report via e-mail.
  87
  88 - This is still crude and does not protect against simultaneous
  89   make invocations stomping on each other.  I would need to add
  90   some locking mechanism for this.