Simple Git

A light weight interface for running git commands in any node.js application.

Installation

Easiest through npm: npm install simple-git

Dependencies

Relies on git already having been installed on the system, and that it can be called using the command git.

Usage

Include into your app using:

var simpleGit = require('simple-git')( workingDirPath );

where the workingDirPath is optional, defaulting to the current directory.

Use simpleGit by chaining any of its functions together. Each function accepts an optional final argument which will be called when that step has been completed. When it is called it has two arguments - firstly an error object (or null when no error occurred) and secondly the data generated by that call.

.clone(repoPath, localPath, handlerFn) clone a remote repo at repoPath to a local directory at localPath

.diff(options, handlerFn) get the diff of the current repo compared to the last commit with a set of options supplied as a string

.diff(handlerFn) get the diff for all file in the current repo compared to the last commit

.pull(remote, branch, handlerFn) pull all updates from the repo ('origin'/'master')

.fetch(remote, branch, handlerFn) update the local working copy database with changes from a remote repo

.fetch(handlerFn) update the local working copy database with changes from the default remote repo and branch

.tags(handlerFn) list all tags

.addTag(name, handlerFn) adds a lightweight tag to the head of the current branch

.log([options], handlerFn) list commits between options.from and options.to tags or branch (if not specified will show all history). Additionally you can provide options.file, which is the path to a file in your repository. Then only this file will be considered.

.checkout(checkoutWhat, handlerFn) checks out the supplied tag, revision or branch

.checkoutBranch(branchName, startPoint, handlerFn) checks out a new branch from the supplied start point

.checkoutLocalBranch(branchName, handlerFn) checks out a new local branch

.checkoutLatestTag(handlerFn) convenience method to pull then checkout the latest tag

.add([fileA, ...], handlerFn) adds one or more files to be under source control

.commit(message, handlerFn) commits changes in the current working directory with the supplied message

.commit(message, [fileA, ...], handlerFn) commits changes on the named files with the supplied message

.command(gitPath) sets the command to use to reference git, allows for using a git binary not available on the path environment variable

.push(remote, branch, handlerFn) pushes to a named remote and named branch

.pushTags(remote, handlerFn) pushes tags to a named remote

.silent(isSilent) sets whether the console should be used for logging errors (defaults to true when the NODE_ENV contains the string prod)

.rm([fileA, ...], handlerFn) removes any number of files from source control

.rmKeepLocal([fileA, ...], handlerFn) removes files from source control but leaves them on disk

.addRemote(name, repo, handlerFn) adds a new named remote to be tracked as name at the path repo

.removeRemote(name, handlerFn) removes the named remote

.revparse([options], handlerFn) wraps git rev-parse. Primarily used to convert friendly commit references (ie branch names) to SHA1 hashes. Options should be an array of string options compatible with the git rev-parse

.status(handlerFn) gets the status of the current repo

.show([options], handlerFn) Show various types of objects, for example the file content at a certain commit. options is the string command you want to run.

.listRemote([args], handlerFn) lists remote repositories - there are so many optional arguments in the underlying git ls-remote call, just supply any you want to use as the optional args array of strings eg: git.listRemote(['--heads', '--tags'], console.log.bind(console)).

outputHandler(handlerFn) attaches a handler that will be called with the name of the command being run and the stdout and stderr readable streams created by the child process running that command.

.then(handlerFn) calls a simple function in the current step

Release History

Bumped to a new major revision in the 1.x branch, now uses ChildProcess.spawn in place of ChildProcess.exec to add escaping to the arguments passed to each of the tasks.

Deprecated APIs

Use of these APIs is deprecated and should be avoided as support for them will be removed in future release:

.log([from, to], handlerFn) list commits between from and to tags or branch, switch to supplying the revisions as an options object instead.

Examples

// update repo and get a list of tags
require('simple-git')(__dirname + '/some-repo')
     .pull()
     .tags(function(err, tags) {
        console.log("Latest available tag: %s", tags.latest);
     });


// update repo and when there are changes, restart the app
require('simple-git')()
     .pull(function(err, update) {
        if(update && update.summary.changes) {
           require('child_process').exec('npm restart');
        }
     });

// starting a new repo
require('simple-git')()
     .init()
     .add('./*')
     .commit("first commit!")
     .addRemote('origin', 'https://github.com/user/repo.git')
     .push('origin', 'master');


// piping to the console for long running tasks
require('simple-git')()
     .outputHandler(function (command, stdout, stderr) {
        stdout.pipe(process.stdout);
        stderr.pipe(process.stderr);
     })
     .checkout('https://github.com/user/repo.git');

// update repo and print messages when there are changes, restart the app
require('simple-git')()
     .then(function() {
        console.log('Starting pull...');
     })
     .pull(function(err, update) {
        if(update && update.summary.changes) {
           require('child_process').exec('npm restart');
        }
     })
     .then(function() {
        console.log('pull done.');
     });

// get a full commits list, and then only between 0.11.0 and 0.12.0 tags
require('simple-git')()
  .log(function(err, log) {
    console.log(log);
  })
  .log('0.11.0', '0.12.0', function(err, log) {
    console.log(log);
  })