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>

1 files changed, 3 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"