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GIT-HOOK(1) Git Manual GIT-HOOK(1)

NAME

git-hook - Run git hooks

SYNOPSIS

git hook run [--ignore-missing] [--to-stdin=<path>] <hook-name> [-- <hook-args>]
git hook list [-z] <hook-name>

DESCRIPTION

A command interface for running git hooks (see githooks(5)), for use by other scripted git commands.

This command parses the default configuration files for sets of configs like so:

[hook "linter"]


  event = pre-commit


  command = ~/bin/linter --cpp20

In this example, [hook "linter"] represents one script - ~/bin/linter --cpp20 - which can be shared by many repos, and even by many hook events, if appropriate.

To add an unrelated hook which runs on a different event, for example a spell-checker for your commit messages, you would write a configuration like so:

[hook "linter"]


  event = pre-commit


  command = ~/bin/linter --cpp20
[hook "spellcheck"]


  event = commit-msg


  command = ~/bin/spellchecker

With this config, when you run git commit, first ~/bin/linter --cpp20 will have a chance to check your files to be committed (during the pre-commit hook event`), and then ~/bin/spellchecker will have a chance to check your commit message (during the commit-msg hook event).

Commands are run in the order Git encounters their associated hook.<name>.event configs during the configuration parse (see git-config(1)). Although multiple hook.linter.event configs can be added, only one hook.linter.command event is valid - Git uses "last-one-wins" to determine which command to run.

So if you wanted your linter to run when you commit as well as when you push, you would configure it like so:

[hook "linter"]


  event = pre-commit


  event = pre-push


  command = ~/bin/linter --cpp20

With this config, ~/bin/linter --cpp20 would be run by Git before a commit is generated (during pre-commit) as well as before a push is performed (during pre-push).

And if you wanted to run your linter as well as a secret-leak detector during only the "pre-commit" hook event, you would configure it instead like so:

[hook "linter"]


  event = pre-commit


  command = ~/bin/linter --cpp20
[hook "no-leaks"]


  event = pre-commit


  command = ~/bin/leak-detector

With this config, before a commit is generated (during pre-commit), Git would first start ~/bin/linter --cpp20 and second start ~/bin/leak-detector. It would evaluate the output of each when deciding whether to proceed with the commit.

For a full list of hook events which you can set your hook.<name>.event to, and how hooks are invoked during those events, see githooks(5).

Git will ignore any hook.<name>.event that specifies an event it doesn’t recognize. This is intended so that tools which wrap Git can use the hook infrastructure to run their own hooks; see "WRAPPERS" for more guidance.

In general, when instructions suggest adding a script to .git/hooks/<hook-event>, you can specify it in the config instead by running:

git config set hook.<some-name>.command <path-to-script>
git config set --append hook.<some-name>.event <hook-event>

This way you can share the script between multiple repos. That is, cp ~/my-script.sh ~/project/.git/hooks/pre-commit would become:

git config set hook.my-script.command ~/my-script.sh
git config set --append hook.my-script.event pre-commit

SUBCOMMANDS

run

Runs hooks configured for <hook-name>, in the order they are discovered during the config parse. The default <hook-name> from the hookdir is run last. See githooks(5) for supported hook names.

Any positional arguments to the hook should be passed after a mandatory -- (or --end-of-options, see gitcli(7)). See githooks(5) for arguments hooks might expect (if any).

list [-z]

Print a list of hooks which will be run on <hook-name> event. If no hooks are configured for that event, print a warning and return 1. Use -z to terminate output lines with NUL instead of newlines.

OPTIONS

--to-stdin

For "run"; specify a file which will be streamed into the hook’s stdin. The hook will receive the entire file from beginning to EOF.

--ignore-missing

Ignore any missing hook by quietly returning zero. Used for tools that want to do a blind one-shot run of a hook that may or may not be present.

-z

Terminate "list" output lines with NUL instead of newlines.

WRAPPERS

git hook run has been designed to make it easy for tools which wrap Git to configure and execute hooks using the Git hook infrastructure. It is possible to provide arguments and stdin via the command line, as well as specifying parallel or series execution if the user has provided multiple hooks.

Assuming your wrapper wants to support a hook named "mywrapper-start-tests", you can have your users specify their hooks like so:

[hook "setup-test-dashboard"]


  event = mywrapper-start-tests


  command = ~/mywrapper/setup-dashboard.py --tap

Then, in your mywrapper tool, you can invoke any users' configured hooks by running:

git hook run mywrapper-start-tests \


  # providing something to stdin


  --stdin some-tempfile-123 \


  # execute hooks in serial


  # plus some arguments of your own...


  -- \


  --testname bar \


  baz

Take care to name your wrapper’s hook events in a way which is unlikely to overlap with Git’s native hooks (see githooks(5)) - a hook event named ‘mywrappertool-validate-commit` is much less likely to be added to native Git than a hook event named validate-commit. If Git begins to use a hook event named the same thing as your wrapper hook, it may invoke your users’ hooks in unintended and unsupported ways.

CONFIGURATION

hook.<name>.command

The command to execute for hook.<name>. <name> is a unique "friendly" name that identifies this hook. (The hook events that trigger the command are configured with hook.<name>.event.) The value can be an executable path or a shell oneliner. If more than one value is specified for the same <name>, only the last value parsed is used. See git-hook(1).

hook.<name>.event

The hook events that trigger hook.<name>. The value is the name of a hook event, like "pre-commit" or "update". (See githooks(5) for a complete list of hook events.) On the specified event, the associated hook.<name>.command is executed. This is a multi-valued key. To run hook.<name> on multiple events, specify the key more than once. An empty value resets the list of events, clearing any previously defined events for hook.<name>. See git-hook(1).

hook.<name>.enabled

Whether the hook hook.<name> is enabled. Defaults to true. Set to false to disable the hook without removing its configuration. This is particularly useful when a hook is defined in a system or global config file and needs to be disabled for a specific repository. See git-hook(1).

SEE ALSO

githooks(5)

GIT

Part of the git(1) suite

03/01/2026 Git 2.53.0.697.g625c4f