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Adam DeHaven
Adam DeHaven

Posted on • Edited on • Originally published at adamdehaven.com

How to setup a git repository to post commit notifications to Slack

#slack #api #git #tutorial

This article explains how to install a bash script that posts a new message into a Slack channel when commits are pushed to your project's git repository.

Note that this implementation does not require the usage of GitHub, but you may also utilize local git repositories hosted on your own server.

Create a bare repository

To create a new repository on your server named foo.git, first connect to your server, then run the following commands

# Navigate on your server to the desired repository location cd /desired/path # Create the directory mkdir foo.git # Navigate inside the new directory cd foo.git # Initiate a bare git repository git init --bare --shared=2664
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Using the --bare flag ensures that the repository only contains the version control information and doesn't have any local files. This is necessary to be able to clone and push to the repository. Setting --shared=2664 sets the core.sharedRepository setting, which forces git to do all new file creation with 2664 permissions. This helps to avoid issues with multiple users pushing to the repository.

If the foo.git repository already exists and you need to fix the permissions after-the-fact, perform the following commands

# Navigate to the repository cd /path/to/repo/foo.git # Apply fixes chgrp -R swdev * #may require sudo chmod -R ug+rws * #may require sudo
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Next, edit the file /path/to/repo/foo.git/config. Under the [core] area, add or modify the following line

sharedRepository = 2664
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Install script on the server

Download the bash script to your local machine.

Copy the file from your local machine to your project with the following command

# Run command from your local machine (not on your server) scp ~/local/path/to/file/post-receive @servername.com:/repo/path/on/server/foo.git/hooks/post-receive
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Finally, change the permissions of the post-receive file on the server to allow it to be executable

# Navigate to the repository's hooks folder on your server cd /path/to/repo/on/server/foo.git/hooks # Change permissions of the post-receive file chmod +x post-receive
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Configuration

Add an incoming WebHook to your Slack team

Make note of the WebHook URL https://hooks.slack.com/services/...

Connect to your server and navigate to your repository. Add the WebHook URL via git config along with two other settings

# Navigate to repository cd /repo/path/on/server/foo.git # Add WebHook URL git config hooks.slack.webhook-url 'https://hooks.slack.com/services/...' # Set option to show all commits pushed git config hooks.slack.show-only-last-commit false # Set repository nice-name git config hooks.slack.repo-nice-name 'Our Awesome Project'
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Options

Listed below are the other options that are configurable. Most of these can also be setup when configuring the Incoming WebHook on Slack, so by not setting them here, they default to the Slack settings. It's recommended to not set these options here (unless listed above) so that the default WebHook settings are applied.

channel

Specify a channel/user to post to in Slack instead of the WebHook's default

git config hooks.slack.channel '#channel' '#channel' - Post to channel '@username' - Direct message from @slackbot to user 'groupname' - Post to group
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username

Specify a username to post as. If not specified, the default name will be used that was created on Slack

git config hooks.slack.username 'Marty McFly'
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icon-url

Specify an image to display in Slack instead of the default icon

git config hooks.slack.icon-url 'https://cdn4.iconfinder.com/data/icons/btf_LIN/LIN/256/delorean.png'
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icon-emoji

Specify an emoji to display in Slack instead of the default icon

git config hooks.slack.icon-emoji ':ghost:'
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repo-nice-name

Specify a repository nice-name that will be shown in messages

git config hooks.slack.repo-nice-name 'Our Awesome Project'
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show-only-last-commit

Specify whether you want to show only the last commit (or all commits) when pushing multiple commits

git config hooks.slack.show-only-last-commit true
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branch-regexp

Specify if you only want certain branches of the repository

git config hooks.slack.branch-regexp regexp
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Examples

Single Commit Message

Single commit message Slack message

Multiple Commit Messages

An example of multiple commit messages with git config hooks.slack.show-only-last-commit set to false

Slack Git Integration with Multiple Commits

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