The latest articles on DEV Community by Shawn (@shawnrg). https://dev.to/shawnrg https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F520935%2Fe73d83aa-e2ef-4ba5-a989-248bcbc6b561.png https://dev.to/shawnrg en Shawn Fri, 30 Apr 2021 12:13:20 +0000 https://dev.to/shawnrg/versioned-git-hooks-with-gitkraken-1nnp https://dev.to/shawnrg/versioned-git-hooks-with-gitkraken-1nnp <p>This short post will address an issue that I have been having with git-hooks in combination with GitKraken. </p> <p>Let's say you have a project that requires git-hooks, for example for formatting, running tests, code analysis, etc... And you also want these git-hooks to be versioned by git. By default git stores all your git-hooks inside <code>.git/hooks</code>, but the <code>.git</code> folder is automatically ignored.</p> <p>Now you ask: "<em>Why would you want to version git-hooks?</em>"<br> Well, Let's say you want to make sure that each developer on your project always formats his/her code. You would need to share your specific hook with each member and then if you need to change something to the hook you need to redistribute it again.</p> <h2> Git config </h2> <p>Luckily there is a way to provide git with an alternative location for your git-hooks by executing the following command:<br> </p> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>git config core.hooksPath .githooks/ </code></pre> </div> <p>And this works with most GUI clients out there like Sourcetree. But GitKraken does not take this into account and always looks at the default location namely <code>.git/hooks</code></p> <h2> Symbolic link </h2> <p>Symbolic links to the rescue! <br> symlinks have been part of almost every operating system and to explain what these are very briefly is that they work as a point to another file or folder. There are some other types of symlinks but these are not relevant for the solution.</p> <p>The idea is that you simply remove the <code>hooks</code> folder in your <code>.git</code> directory and then create a symlink with the name hooks that points to your versioned folder containing your actual git-hooks.</p> <p>I use Windows 10 and I used the <a href="https://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link Shell Extension</a> to have an extra item in my context menu.<br> <a href="https://media.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fci32d80w3g70iv1f1t32.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fci32d80w3g70iv1f1t32.png" alt="context menu to pick source"></a><br> Here you select the source folder which contains your hooks.<br> Then navigate to the <code>.git</code> folder and right-click again, now you can create your symbolic link<br> <a href="https://media.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fv3ymp59c0rgu2id8kg28.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fv3ymp59c0rgu2id8kg28.png" alt="context menu create link"></a></p> <p>Make sure you rename the link to <code>hooks</code>.</p> <p>After restarting GitKraken you can test out that it works<br> There you go, you're all set! </p> gitkraken githooks