Can I configure git so it does not guess user.email configuration settings?

Question

On my system I don\'t have the user.email git configuration value set at the global level, on purpose. Instead, I configure it individually in each sandbox. This is

Answer 1

Use a pre-commit hook

You can use a pre-commit hook to prompt you to setup your project-specfic email address. For example:

#!/bin/sh

email=`git config user.email`

if ["$email" = ''] 
then
    echo "you need to set your email for this project"
    exit 1
fi

This will cause committing without the appropriate config to fail:

$ git commit -va
you need to set your email for this project
$

Use git's template to make sure it's always present

You can use git templates to make sure the hook is present in future repositories by default, by placing the hook in the templates folder:

-> tree /usr/share/git-core/templates/
/usr/share/git-core/templates/
├── branches
├── description
├── hooks
│   ├── applypatch-msg.sample
│   ├── commit-msg.sample
│   ├── post-update.sample
│   ├── pre-applypatch.sample
│   ├── pre-commit.sample
│   ├── prepare-commit-msg.sample
│   ├── pre-rebase.sample
│   └── update.sample
└── info
    └── exclude

The exact location of the templates folder may vary with OS/distribution.

For existing repositories - either create/copy the hook into place or if the git-core templates folder has been updated run git init to create the new hook file.