Stop a git commit by a specific author using pre-commit hook

Hi All,

My plan is to use git to keep track of changes in /etc but when committing I want to have the person making the change specify themselves as author by adding the --author option on the commandline.

So I would like to stop accidental commits as root.

I tried creating this pre-commit hook but it is not working - git var is still returning root even if I specify the author on commit line.

TIA Adrian

AUTHOR=`git var GIT_AUTHOR_IDENT | sed -n 's/^\(.*>\).*$/\1/p'`
if [ "$AUTHOR" == "root <root@localhost>" ];
then
   echo "Please commit under your own user name instead of \"$AUTHOR\":"
   echo 'git commit --author="Adrian"'
   echo "or if your name is not already in logs use full ident"
   echo 'git commit --author="Adrian Cornish <a@localhost>"'
   exit 1
fi
exit 0