Set up a default directory structure on git init

Question

I would like to optimise my git workflow by automating creation of .gitignore, README, LICENSE and other files on git init command.

To do that I RTFM of git init at http://git-scm.com/docs/git-init and it tells me to do one of the following:

1. Use git init --template=<template_directory>, but it's bothersome.
2. Alter the contents of the $GIT_TEMPLATE_DIR environment variable, but I would rather not.
3. Set the init.templatedir configuration variable. Now we're talking!

So I sudo mkdir /usr/share/git-core/templates/my_template and touch some files in it, then I vim ~/.gitconfig and append:

[init]     templatedir = /usr/share/git-core/templates/my_template 

And git config -l tells me:

...
init.templatedir=/usr/share/git-core/templates/my_template
...

Happy with myself, I go to my development playground directory and:

$ git init Initialized empty Git repository in /the/current/directory $ ls -a .   ..  .git 

Bummer... where are the files? :(

Quick check:

$ ls -a /usr/share/git-core/templates/my_template .   ..  .gitignore  LICENSE README.md $ git --version git version 1.8.2.1 

It seems that $ git init --template=/usr/share/git-core/templates/my_template doesn't work either.

So what is it that I'm doing wrong here? Incorrect configuration directive? Bad template or its location (I'm on OSX)? Should template be a git repo? A bare one?

Answer 1

The behavior you're seeing is the expected git behavior:

If you read the manual correctly about the template directory:

TEMPLATE DIRECTORY

The template directory contains files and directories that will be copied to the $GIT_DIR after it is created.

The files which are copied from the template directory are placed in your GIT_DIR which defaults to the .git directory under your repo's root directory.

git init does not support templates for the work-tree as far as I know. If this behavior is required, you should be able to get away with writing some simple bash aliases or functions to do this for you.

Answer 2

You can do it, but it will require a few extra steps.

1. Create your default directory structure as though it were a normal repo:

   mkdir template && cd template git init && touch README.md && cat ~/.gitignore_global > .gitignore git add --all && git commit -m "init" 

(strictly speaking this last commit isn't necessary here, but you have to do them eventually, so why not now)

2. Now remove your working tree and move .git files up:

   mv .git/* ./ && rm -r README.md .gitignore .git 

3. You may now set this as your default template, but for the sake of example:

   mkdir ../myrepo && cd ../myrepo git init --template=../template 

   (Note the interesting message: Reinitialized existing Git repository... )

4. Now the important step: (your repo is up to date, but your working tree is not):

   git reset --hard 

   (if you skip the commit earlier, you will have to commit here before resetting)

In the future, assuming you've set your default template, you simply

git init && git reset --hard 

(I have no direct references, but this chapter sure helps.)