Re: [PATCH] git-commit: add a prepare-commit-msg hook

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jan 20, 2008, 22:28 UTC
Message-ID: <7vd4rw6siv.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.LSU.1.00.0801191119050.5731@racer.site>

Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> writes:

Show 6 quoted lines

> Of course, there is a fourth of "two other" possibilities:
>
> Make a script calling git-commit with "-F - -e" and pipe your generated 
> template into it.
>
> Use this script whenever you want to create a new commit.

I think that the approach has one huge advantage. Commands other than "git commit" itself ("git merge", "git rebase", "git am", etc.) do call "git commit" to record the changes they made. I suspect these command would not want this template behaviour, and not adding this custom commit message "feature" to "git commit" would avoid the risk of breaking them.

At the same time, this exact issue could be a drawback. Some of them _might_ want it. But in that case, the the custom template "hook" needs to be told _why_ it is being called, so that it can adjust its behaviour.