The Archivist's Tools

Aliases, hooks, and Git configuration

Git aliases - Shorthand incantations

Some Git commands are long to type and you use them dozens of times a day. Aliases let you create personalized shortcuts.

Creating aliases

The syntax is simple:

git config --global alias.SHORTCUT "COMMAND"

Here are the most common aliases:

# Status shortcut
git config --global alias.st status

# Checkout shortcut
git config --global alias.co checkout

# Branch shortcut
git config --global alias.br branch

# Commit shortcut
git config --global alias.ci commit

# Log with graph - the most useful!
git config --global alias.lg "log --oneline --graph --all"

Using aliases

Once configured, you can use them immediately:

# Instead of "git status"
git st

# Instead of "git checkout main"
git co main

# Instead of "git branch"
git br

# Instead of "git commit -m 'message'"
git ci -m "message"

# Instead of "git log --oneline --graph --all"
git lg

Checking existing aliases

# View all configured aliases
git config --get-regexp alias

Git hooks - The guardian quills

Hooks are scripts that execute automatically at key moments in the Git workflow. They are silent guardians that check, validate, and protect your work.

Where do hooks live?

Every Git repository contains a .git/hooks/ folder with hook examples:

ls .git/hooks/

You will see files like pre-commit.sample, commit-msg.sample, etc. To activate a hook, simply create a file with the right name (without .sample) and make it executable.

The most useful hooks

Creating a pre-commit hook

A hook is simply a script. Here is an example that checks for the presence of "TODO" in staged files:

#!/bin/bash
# .git/hooks/pre-commit
# Checks that no staged file contains "TODO"

files=$(git diff --cached --name-only)

if [ -z "$files" ]; then
    exit 0
fi

if git diff --cached --diff-filter=ACM | grep -q "TODO"; then
    echo "WARNING: One or more files contain 'TODO'!"
    echo "Affected files:"
    git diff --cached --name-only | while read f; do
        if git show ":$f" 2>/dev/null | grep -q "TODO"; then
            echo "  - $f"
        fi
    done
    echo ""
    echo "The commit is allowed, but remember to handle these TODOs."
fi

exit 0

chmod +x .git/hooks/pre-commit

Creating a commit-msg hook

This hook checks that the commit message meets a minimum format:

#!/bin/bash
# .git/hooks/commit-msg
# Rejects commit messages shorter than 10 characters

message=$(cat "$1")
length=${#message}

if [ "$length" -lt 10 ]; then
    echo "REJECTED: Commit message is too short ($length characters)."
    echo "  Minimum required: 10 characters."
    echo "  Message received: \"$message\""
    exit 1
fi

exit 0

chmod +x .git/hooks/commit-msg

Advanced Git configuration

Beyond aliases and hooks, Git offers many configuration options that improve your comfort at work.

The default editor

# Visual Studio Code
git config --global core.editor "code --wait"

# Vim
git config --global core.editor "vim"

# Nano (the simplest)
git config --global core.editor "nano"

The default branch

git config --global init.defaultBranch main

All your new repositories will use main instead of master as the default branch.

Pull behavior

# Rebase instead of merge on pull (recommended)
git config --global pull.rebase true

# Or force classic merge
git config --global pull.rebase false

With pull.rebase true, a git pull will automatically rebase instead of creating a merge commit. This keeps the history cleaner.

Conflict style

git config --global merge.conflictstyle diff3

The diff3 style adds an extra section in merge conflicts: in addition to "the left version" and "the right version", you also see the original common version. This makes it much easier to understand what changed on each side.

<<<<<<< HEAD
Your branch version
||||||| merged common ancestors
Original version (before both modifications)
>>>>>>> feature
Other branch version

The .gitconfig file - The big picture

All these configurations are stored in a ~/.gitconfig file (on Linux/macOS) or C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\.gitconfig (on Windows).

You can view it directly:

# View the full configuration
git config --global --list

# Or open the file in your editor
git config --global --edit

The file looks like this:

[user]
    name = Your Name
    email = your@email.com
[alias]
    st = status
    co = checkout
    br = branch
    ci = commit
    lg = log --oneline --graph --all
[core]
    editor = code --wait
[init]
    defaultBranch = main
[pull]
    rebase = true
[merge]
    conflictstyle = diff3

Practical exercise - Forge your tools

Step 1 - Create the repository

mkdir archivists-tools
cd archivists-tools
git init -b main

Step 2 - Configure the aliases

git config --global alias.st status
git config --global alias.co checkout
git config --global alias.br branch
git config --global alias.ci commit
git config --global alias.lg "log --oneline --graph --all"

Step 3 - Test the aliases

# Verify that the aliases work
git st
git lg

git st should display the repository status and git lg should display the graph (empty for now).

Step 4 - Create the pre-commit hook

cat > .git/hooks/pre-commit << 'HOOK'
#!/bin/bash
# pre-commit hook: warns if staged files contain "TODO"

files=$(git diff --cached --name-only)

if [ -z "$files" ]; then
    exit 0
fi

if git diff --cached --diff-filter=ACM | grep -q "TODO"; then
    echo "WARNING: One or more files contain 'TODO'!"
    echo "Affected files:"
    git diff --cached --name-only | while read f; do
        if git show ":$f" 2>/dev/null | grep -q "TODO"; then
            echo "  - $f"
        fi
    done
    echo ""
    echo "The commit is allowed, but remember to handle these TODOs."
fi

exit 0
HOOK

Make it executable:

chmod +x .git/hooks/pre-commit

Step 5 - Test the pre-commit hook

echo "# Task list" > tasks.txt
echo "TODO: Add validation" >> tasks.txt
git add tasks.txt
git commit -m "Add the task list with TODO"

You should see the hook's warning before the commit is created.

Step 6 - Create the commit-msg hook

cat > .git/hooks/commit-msg << 'HOOK'
#!/bin/bash
# commit-msg hook: rejects messages shorter than 10 characters

message=$(cat "$1")
length=${#message}

if [ "$length" -lt 10 ]; then
    echo "REJECTED: Commit message is too short ($length characters)."
    echo "  Minimum required: 10 characters."
    echo "  Message received: \"$message\""
    exit 1
fi

exit 0
HOOK

Make it executable:

chmod +x .git/hooks/commit-msg

Step 7 - Test the commit-msg hook

First, test with a message that is too short (it should be rejected):

echo "Testing the commit-msg hook" > test-hook.txt
git add test-hook.txt
git commit -m "test"

The commit should be rejected because "test" is fewer than 10 characters.

Now try again with a proper message:

git commit -m "Add the test file for hooks"

This time, the commit should go through.

Step 8 - Run the verification

bash verifier.sh

.\verifier.ps1

Command summary