pre-commit hooks are fundamentally broken
a day ago
- Pre-commit hooks run on the working tree, not the index, causing issues with staged changes.
- They interfere with rebasing, especially interactive rebases, and can fail when files are missing.
- They prevent saving work-in-progress commits and are not suitable for incomplete code.
- Pre-commit hooks are often slow, unreliable, and implemented in broken ways.
- The author recommends using pre-push hooks instead, which avoid most of these issues.
- The only acceptable use for pre-commit hooks is to prevent committing credentials.
- Tips for pre-push hooks: run on the index, be fast and quiet, and do not auto-install.