GitSwarm 2016.3-2 Documentation

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• Custom Git Hooks
  • Setup
  • Custom error messages

Custom Git Hooks

Note: Custom Git hooks must be configured on the filesystem of the GitSwarm server. Only GitSwarm server administrators will be able to complete these tasks. Please explore webhooks as an option if you do not have filesystem access. For a user configurable Git hook interface, please see GitSwarm Enterprise Edition Git Hooks.

Git natively supports hooks that are executed on different actions. Examples of server-side git hooks include pre-receive, post-receive, and update. See Git SCM Server-Side Hooks for more information about each hook type.

As of gitlab-shell version 2.2.0 (which requires GitSwarm 2015.2+), GitSwarm administrators can add custom git hooks to any GitLab project.

Setup

Normally, Git hooks are placed in the repository or project's hooks directory. GitSwarm creates a symlink from each project's hooks directory to the gitlab-shell hooks directory for ease of maintenance between gitlab-shell upgrades. As such, custom hooks are implemented a little differently. Behavior is exactly the same once the hook is created, though.

Follow the steps below to set up a custom hook:

1. Pick a project that needs a custom Git hook.
2. On the GitSwarm server, navigate to the project's repository directory. For an source installation the path is usually /home/git/repositories/<group>/<project>.git. For package installations the path is usually /var/opt/gitswarm/git-data/repositories/<group>/<project>.git.
3. Create a new directory in this location called custom_hooks.
4. Inside the new custom_hooks directory, create a file with a name matching the hook type. For a pre-receive hook the file name should be pre-receive with no extension.
5. Make the hook file executable and make sure it's owned by git.
6. Write the code to make the Git hook function as expected. Hooks can be in any language. Ensure the 'shebang' at the top properly reflects the language type. For example, if the script is in Ruby the shebang will probably be #!/usr/bin/env ruby.

That's it! Assuming the hook code is properly implemented the hook will fire as appropriate.

Custom error messages

Note: This feature was introduced in GitSwarm 2016.10.

If the commit is declined or an error occurs during the Git hook check, the STDERR or STDOUT message of the hook will be present in GitSwarm's UI. STDERR takes precedence over STDOUT.