git-commit: add a prepare-commit-msg hook

The prepare-commit-msg hook is run whenever a "fresh" commit message
is prepared, just before it is shown in the editor (if it is).
Its purpose is to modify the commit message in-place.

It takes one to three parameters.  The first is the name of the file that
the commit log message.  The second is the source of the commit message,
and can be: "message" (if a -m or -F option was given); "template" (if a
-t option was given or the configuration option commit.template is set);
"merge" (if the commit is a merge or a .git/MERGE_MSG file exists);
"squash" (if a .git/SQUASH_MSG file exists); or "commit", followed by
a commit SHA1 as the third parameter (if a -c, -C or --amend option
was given).

If its exit status is non-zero, git-commit will abort.  The hook is
not suppressed by the --no-verify option, so it should not be used
as a replacement for the pre-commit hook.

The sample prepare-commit-msg comments out the `Conflicts:` part of
a merge's commit message; other examples are commented out, including
adding a Signed-off-by line at the bottom of the commit messsage,
that the user can then edit or discard altogether.

Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <bonzini@gnu.org>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

2 files changed, 39 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/templates/hooks--commit-msg b/templates/hooks--commit-msg
index c5cdb9d7ee..4ef86eb244 100644
--- a/templates/hooks--commit-msg
+++ b/templates/hooks--commit-msg
@@ -9,6 +9,9 @@
 # To enable this hook, make this file executable.
 
 # Uncomment the below to add a Signed-off-by line to the message.
+# Doing this in a hook is a bad idea in general, but the prepare-commit-msg
+# hook is more suited to it.
+#
 # SOB=$(git var GIT_AUTHOR_IDENT | sed -n 's/^\(.*>\).*$/Signed-off-by: \1/p')
 # grep -qs "^$SOB" "$1" || echo "$SOB" >> "$1"
 
diff --git a/templates/hooks--prepare-commit-msg b/templates/hooks--prepare-commit-msg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ff0f42a1d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/templates/hooks--prepare-commit-msg
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+#
+# An example hook script to prepare the commit log message.
+# Called by git-commit with the name of the file that has the
+# commit message, followed by the description of the commit
+# message's source.  The hook's purpose is to edit the commit
+# message file.  If the hook fails with a non-zero status,
+# the commit is aborted.
+#
+# To enable this hook, make this file executable.
+
+# This hook includes three examples.  The first comments out the
+# "Conflicts:" part of a merge commit.
+#
+# The second includes the output of "git diff --name-status -r"
+# into the message, just before the "git status" output.  It is
+# commented because it doesn't cope with --amend or with squashed
+# commits.
+#
+# The third example adds a Signed-off-by line to the message, that can
+# still be edited.  This is rarely a good idea.
+
+case "$2 $3" in
+  merge)
+    sed -i '/^Conflicts:/,/#/!b;s/^/# &/;s/^# #/#/' "$1" ;;
+
+# ""|template)
+#   perl -i -pe '
+#      print "\n" . `git diff --cached --name-status -r`
+#	 if /^#/ && $first++ == 0' "$1" ;;
+
+  *) ;;
+esac
+
+# SOB=$(git var GIT_AUTHOR_IDENT | sed -n 's/^\(.*>\).*$/Signed-off-by: \1/p')
+# grep -qs "^$SOB" "$1" || echo "$SOB" >> "$1"