Simple git hook enforcing Arlo Belshee's commit notation with hints, put in a repo as .git/hooks/commit-msg

commit-msg

#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys, os, re
from subprocess import check_output

# Collect the parameters
commit_msg_filepath = sys.argv[1]

allowed_prefixes = (
        'f - ', 'F - ', 'F!! ', 'F**',
        'b - ', 'B - ', 'B!! ', 'B**',
        'r - ', 'R - ', 'R!! ', 'R**',
        'd - ', 'D - ', 'D!! ', 'D**',
)

with open(commit_msg_filepath, 'r') as f:
        content = f.read()
        if not content.startswith(allowed_prefixes):
            print("commit-msg: ERROR! The commit message must start with one of '%s'" % ', '.join(allowed_prefixes))
            print()
            print("Consider: ")
            print("F!! Change includes unit tests for new behavior")
            print("F** No automatic tests, or unfinished implementation")
            print("R** Remodeled by editing code, even in small chunks")
            print("Or see the full list at https://github.com/RefactoringCombos/ArlosCommitNotation")
            sys.exit(1)

Nice article about what this is by @mscottford