pre-commit.md

Pre-commit Tutorial

pre-commit is a tool used to manage and maintain pre-commit hooks. These hooks help ensure that your code meets certain standards before it's committed to a repository. Here's how to set up and use pre-commit.

Step 1: Inside a Git Repository

Ensure you are within an initialized Git repository. If you're not, you can initialize one using:

git init

Step 2: Create a .pre-commit-config.yaml File

This file defines the hooks you'd like to use. You can either manually create this file or use the pre-commit sample-config command to generate a sample configuration. Then, adjust it according to your needs.

pre-commit sample-config > .pre-commit-config.yaml

Within this file, you can specify multiple sources for hooks and the particular hooks you wish to use.

Step 3: Install the pre-commit Hooks

By executing the following command, pre-commit will be installed into the .git/hooks/ directory, ensuring it runs every time an attempt to commit is made.

pre-commit install

Step 4: Manually Running Hooks

Before making a commit, you might want to manually run the hooks to ensure everything is functioning as expected. This is especially useful when adding new hooks or making significant changes.

pre-commit run --all-files

Step 5: Making a Git Commit

Now, every time you try to make a Git commit, pre-commit will automatically run the hooks you've specified in .pre-commit-config.yaml.

git add <your-changes>
git commit -m "Your commit message"

If any of the hooks detect issues, they will halt the commit and report the problems. You can then fix these issues and try to commit again.

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Conclusion

In essence, pre-commit is a powerful tool that ensures code meets certain standards before it's committed to a repository. By automating these checks, it assists teams in maintaining code quality and catching potential issues early on.