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Alba Rincón
Alba Rincón

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How to easily add co-authors to you commits

#git #github #pairing #collaboration

Git mob allows to add co-authors to git commits in an easy way. You can follow these steps to configure it for any repo you want.

1. Install the tool ⚙️ 

npm i -g git-mob
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2. Create the co-authors file 📃

Create a file named .git-coauthors in your home directory with the following content:

{ "coauthors": { "foo": { "name": "Foo" "email": "foo@company.com" }, "bar": { "name": "Bar", "email": "bar@company.com" } } }
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The keys of each co-author object will be the ones you need to type when selecting your commit co-authors, so you can change them to whatever you prefer.

3. Create the git hook ⚓

git mob uses the git prepare-commit-msg hook to append the co-authors to the commit message. Choose one of the following options to configure it:

Option 1: Create the git prepare-commit-msg hook globally (for all repos)
Option 2: Create the git hook only for a specific repo
Option 3: Advanced case: make the git hook work alongside other prepare-commit-msg hooks


Option 1: Create the git prepare-commit-msg hook globally (for all repos)

Enable git templates:

git config --global init.templatedir '~/.git-templates'
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This tells git to copy everything in ~/.git-templates to your repo .git/ directory when you run git init.

Create the file .git-templates/hooks/prepare-commit-msg in your home folder

mkdir -p .git-templates/hooks && touch .git-templates/hooks/prepare-commit-msg
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with the following content:

#!/usr/bin/env node let exec = require('child_process').exec, fs = require('fs'); const commitMessage = process.argv[2]; // expect .git/COMMIT_EDITMSG if(/COMMIT_EDITMSG/g.test(commitMessage)){ let contents = ""; exec("git mob-print", function (err, stdout) { if(err) { process.exit(0); } // opens .git/COMMIT_EDITMSG contents = fs.readFileSync(commitMessage); if(contents.indexOf(stdout.trim()) !== -1) { process.exit(0); } const commentPos = contents.indexOf('# '); const gitMessage = contents.slice(0, commentPos); const gitComments = contents.slice(commentPos) fs.writeFileSync(commitMessage, gitMessage + stdout + gitComments); process.exit(0); }); }
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make it executable running:

chmod +x .git-templates/hooks/prepare-commit-msg
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and make it available in the repo you want by entering the repo folder and running:

git init
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Option 2: Create the git hook only for a specific repo

Create the file .git/hooks/prepare-commit-msg in your repo folder with the following content:

#!/usr/bin/env node let exec = require('child_process').exec, fs = require('fs'); const commitMessage = process.argv[2]; // expect .git/COMMIT_EDITMSG if(/COMMIT_EDITMSG/g.test(commitMessage)){ let contents = ""; exec("git mob-print", function (err, stdout) { if(err) { process.exit(0); } // opens .git/COMMIT_EDITMSG contents = fs.readFileSync(commitMessage); if(contents.indexOf(stdout.trim()) !== -1) { process.exit(0); } const commentPos = contents.indexOf('# '); const gitMessage = contents.slice(0, commentPos); const gitComments = contents.slice(commentPos) fs.writeFileSync(commitMessage, gitMessage + stdout + gitComments); process.exit(0); }); }
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and make it executable with:

chmod +x .git-templates/hooks/prepare-commit-msg
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Option 3: Advanced case: make the git hook work alongside other prepare-commit-msg hooks

Only one script can be executed in each specific git hook, so in order to run multiple scripts for one hook, we'll need to create a parent script that will invoke all others.

Change the content of you prepare-commit-msg for this:

Create a folder named prepare-commit-msg.d in the same folder and move all your other prepare-commit-msg hook scripts into it. Your hooks folder structure should look similar to:

.git-templates/hooks ├── prepare-commit-msg └── prepare-commit-msg.d ├── add-co-authors ├── some-script ├── ... └── some-other-script
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Don't forget to make every script executable with:

chmod +x {path-to-my-script}
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If you this globally remember to make it available in the repo you want by entering the repo folder and running:

git init
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4. Create the template ✍️

In your repo folder run:

git mob --installTemplate && touch .git/.gitmessage
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This will create the file .git/.git-mob-template where it will write the selected co-authors into.

5. Start a mob/pairing session 👯‍♀️

When you start working with your teammates type:

git mob foo bar
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The names you use here are the same you used on the .git-coauthors file before.

When you do git commit you'll see this already in the message:

Co-authored-by: Foo <foo@company.com> Co-authored-by: Bar <bar@company.com> # Please enter the commit message for your changes. Lines starting # with '#' will be ignored, and an empty message aborts the commit. # # On branch master
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6. Work alone 🤷

To start working by yourself just type:

git solo
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Other useful commands

  • Show current co-authors: 
git mob --print
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  • Show all available co-authors and their aliases: 
git mob --list
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Check https://github.com/findmypast-oss/git-mob for more info.

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