Setting the Commit Author to Pair Programmers' Names in Git

In beezwax’s webdev division we generally work in pairs, but our commit logs didn’t used to show this. We wouldn’t bother to reconfigure the git author every time we sat down with a new pair so our git log only recorded one of the programmers’ names. Bryan Helmcamp has a nice script for setting your git commit author in pair programming situations. Here’s another one which works interactively.

Interactively set the git commit author to pair programmers’ names:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
#
# Git pre-commit hook:
# Install at .git/hooks/pre-commit and set as executable
#
# Interactively sets git commit author for pair programming
#
###################################################
# Configuration

me = "Sam Goldstein"
my_email = 'sam_g@beezwax.net'
pair_email = 'webdev@beezwax.net'

developers = [
  "Ian Smith-Heisters",
  "Jesse Sanford",
  "Noah Thorp"
]

###################################################

puts "Pairing? (enter number):"
developers.each_with_index do |name, index|
  puts "  #{index + 1}: #{name}"
end

choice = File.new("/dev/tty").readline.chomp
unless choice =~ /Ad*Z/
  puts "Bad input `#{choice}'"
  exit 1
end

commit_name = me
commit_name += ' & ' + developers[choice.to_i - 1] unless choice == ''
commit_email = choice == '' ? my_email : pair_email

puts "...setting *commit author* to `#{commit_name}'"
puts "...setting *commit email* to `#{commit_email}'"

`git config user.name '#{commit_name}'`
`git config user.email '#{commit_email}'`

Now when you’re ready to commit you’ll be asked if this is a paired programming session.

$ git commit
Pairing? (enter number):
  1: Ian Smith-Heisters
  2: Jesse Sanford
  3: Noah Thorp
1
...setting *commit author* to `Sam Goldstein & Ian Smith-Heisters'
...setting *commit email* to `webdev@beezwax.net'

Hitting return will run the commit as you alone, but if you enter a number your commits can look like this:

commit c0228797a81efb6e89a61f5c5e96856ff527e217
Author: Sam Goldstein & Ian Smith-Heisters <webdev@beezwax.net>

It requires no extra effort (ok 1 keystroke), and works great if you don’t want to run a bunch of git config commands each time you’re ready to commit.