Implementing Server-Side Git Hooks for Changelog Validation

When receiving new code, checking the git log and maintaining a proper CHANGELOG is essential; this article explains how to enforce changelog standards using Git server‑side hooks in GitLab.

Server‑side Git hooks (pre‑receive, update, post‑receive) run on the GitLab server after a push; the pre‑receive hook can reject commits that do not meet the required format.

Configuration steps include locating the repository’s physical path via the GitLab PostgreSQL database, creating a custom_hooks directory, adding a pre-receive script, and setting executable permissions (chmod +777).

The provided shell script reads commit information, checks that the commit message starts with “modify”, and aborts the push with a non‑zero exit code if the check fails.

#!/bin/bash

echo "开始提交信息检查..."

# 从标准输入获取本次提交的commit id及分支的信息
read normalInput
ARR=($normalInput)
parentCommitId=${ARR[0]}
currentCommitId=${ARR[1]}
branch=${ARR[2]}

echo "您提交的分支为：$branch"

# 获取commit的信息，用户，邮箱，msg等
user=$(git log --pretty=format:"%an" $currentCommitId -1)
echo "提交者为：$user"

commitDate=$(git log --pretty=format:"%cd" $currentCommitId -1)
echo "提交日期为：$commitDate"

msg=$(git log --pretty=format:"%s" $currentCommitId -1)
echo "提交的备注为：$msg"

flag=$(echo $msg | grep "modify.*")
if [ -z "$flag" ]; then
    echo "[ERROR]提交信息校验未通过，需以modify开头"
    exit 1
fi

A Python version of the hook performs similar validation, converting timestamps to a common timezone, ignoring merge‑request commits, and ensuring commit messages start with a JIRA ticket pattern; it exits with an error when the pattern is missing.

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- encoding: utf-8 -*-

import sys, re, datetime
import fileinput
import shlex, subprocess
import dateutil.parser
import pytz

def datestring2timezone(datestring, timezone='Asia/Shanghai', dateformat='%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'):
    """将带有时区的时间统一化规定的时区时间
    :param datestring: svn/git时间, eg:2011-01-19T05:13:13.421543Z，2018-11-09 17:38:37 +0800
    :param timezone: 统一时区，默认是中国时区
    :param dateformat: 转换成时间格式
    :return:
    """
    local_time = dateutil.parser.parse(datestring).astimezone(pytz.timezone(timezone))
    da = datetime.datetime.strftime(local_time, dateformat)
    return da

print("Begin check your commit info")
origin_commit, curr_commit, branch = None, None, None
for line in fileinput.input():
    line_list = line.strip().split()
    if len(line_list) >= 3:
        origin_commit, curr_commit, branch = line_list[:3]
        break

commit_user = subprocess.check_output(shlex.split('git log --pretty=format:"%an" {} -1'.format(curr_commit)), shell=False)
commit_date = subprocess.check_output(shlex.split('git log --pretty=format:"%cd" {} -1'.format(curr_commit)), shell=False)
commit_msg = subprocess.check_output(shlex.split('git log --pretty=format:"%s" {} -1'.format(curr_commit)), shell=False)

RULE_MERGE_REQUEST = r'^Merge branch .*(into|.*)'
if re.search(RULE_MERGE_REQUEST, str(commit_msg), flags=0):
    commit_user = subprocess.check_output(shlex.split('git log --no-merges --date-order --pretty=format:"%an" -1'), shell=False)
    commit_date = subprocess.check_output(shlex.split('git log --no-merges --date-order --pretty=format:"%cd" -1'), shell=False)
    commit_msg = subprocess.check_output(shlex.split('git log --no-merges --date-order --pretty=format:"%s" -1'), shell=False)

start_date = "2021-07-07 19:00:00"
if start_date >= datestring2timezone(commit_date):
    sys.exit(0)

if not re.search(r'^JIRA-[0-9]{4,6}', str(commit_msg), flags=0):
    print("ERROR:Comment must start with DPT-
. E.g.: DPT-1234")
    sys.exit(1)
sys.exit(0)

After configuring the hook, a local push that violates the rules is rejected, demonstrating the enforcement mechanism; further extensions can integrate with tools like JIRA for richer workflows.