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Motd message on git cloning

From
Adam Stankiewicz <sheerun@sher.pl>
Date
Nov 18, 2012, 16:04 UTC
Message-ID
<CANCidP-d0tXfo6ZsC80LmaS1CJ475rew2D7ztrx9TkNa94a-uw@mail.gmail.com>

I'm dreaming about git feature that shows custom message on git clone. It would be extremely helpful for informing the person cloning about init scripts he/she need to execute (for example submodule inits or hooks set up). For now there is no way to make sure cloning person will receive such message (unless he/she will read the README).

The server does not need to know if it's fetch or clone, if programmer executes git clone on client side, then the MOTD message would be shown.

I think good candidate for MOTD message is .git/description (because for now no one seems to care about setting repository description). Another option is to introduce .git/motd file that would consist of some maximum number of non-control ASCII characters.

I don't really see any security concerns. Git could filter any control characters from MOTD out, and automation script could add --no-motd flag. The could also be limit on MOTD file size so no one could "flood" the terminal window with MOTD messages.

Also it's important to me that such message would be shown automatically by default and could be turned off, not the other way (for example --motd flag).

Some other tools like brew package manager have this feature from the beginning and I find it extremely helpful.

What do you think?
Next: Drew Northup
Message 1 of 3 in “Motd message on git cloning”
  1. Adam StankiewiczNov 18, 2012
  2. Drew NorthupNov 18, 2012
  3. Adam StankiewiczNov 18, 2012

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