Git pre-push hooks

Question

Git got the pre-push hook in the 1.8.2 release.

Sample pre-push script: https://github.com/git/git/blob/87c86dd14abe8db7d00b0df5661ef8cf147a72a3/templates/hooks--pre-push.sample

1.8.2 release notes talking about the new pre-push hook: https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/Documentation/RelNotes/1.8.2.txt

Git got the pre-push hook in the 1.8.2 release.

Pre-push hooks are what I needed along with pre-commit hooks. Apart from protecting a branch, they can also provide extra security combined with pre-commit hooks.

And for an example on how to use (taken and adopted and enhanced from this nice entry)

Simple example to login to vagrant, run tests and then push

#!/bin/bash
# Run the following command in the root of your project to install this pre-push hook:
# cp git-hooks/pre-push .git/hooks/pre-push; chmod 700 .git/hooks/pre-push

CMD="ssh [email protected] -i ~/.vagrant.d/insecure_private_key 'cd /vagrant/tests; /vagrant/vendor/bin/phpunit'"
protected_branch='master'

# Check if we actually have commits to push
commits=`git log @{u}..`
if [ -z "$commits" ]; then
    exit 0
fi

current_branch=$(git symbolic-ref HEAD | sed -e 's,.*/\(.*\),\1,')

if [[ $current_branch = $protected_branch ]]; then
    eval $CMD
    RESULT=$?
    if [ $RESULT -ne 0 ]; then
        echo "failed $CMD"
        exit 1
    fi
fi
exit 0

As you can see the example uses a protected branch, subject of the pre-push hook.

If you are using the command line, the easiest way to do this is to write a push script that runs your unit tests and, if they succeed, completes the push.

Edit

As of git 1.8.2 this answer is outdated. See manojlds's answer above.

There isn't a hook for it, because a push isn't an operation that modifies your repository.

You can do the checks on the receiving side though, in the post-receive hook. That is where you would usually reject an incoming push. Running unit tests might be a little intensive to do in a hook, but that's up to you.

For the record, there is a patch to Git 1.6 that adds a pre-push hook. I don't know whether it works against 1.7.

Rather than mess with that, you could run push script like @kubi recommended. You could also make it a Rake task instead so it's in your repo. ruby-git could help with this. If you check the target repo, you could run tests only when pushing to the production repo.

Finally, you could run your tests in your pre-commit hook but check for what branch is being committed to. Then you could have a, say, a production branch that requires all tests pass before accepting a commit but your master doesn't care. limerick_rake may be useful in that scenario.

I would rather run the test in a pre-commit-hook. Because the change is already recorded when committing. Push and pull only exchange information about already recorded changed. If a test fails you would already have a "broken" revision in your repository. Whether you're pushing it or not.