git-promise

Simple wrapper that allows you to run any git command using a more intuitive syntax.

Getting Started

npm install git-promise --save

Once installed, you can use it in your JavaScript files like so:

const git = require("git-promise");

const branch = await git("rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD");
console.log(branch); // This is your current branch

The module will handle git exit code automatically, so

const git = require("git-promise");

try {
  await git("merge origin/master");
  // Everything was fine
} catch (err) {
  // Something went bad, maybe merge conflict?
  console.error(err);
}

err is an Error object augmented with code property. The following code:

try {
  await git('clone http://example.org/notExistingExample.git');
} catch (err) {
  console.log("MESSAGE");
  console.log(err.message);
  console.log("ERROR CODE");
  console.log(err.code);
}

will log:

MESSAGE
Cloning into 'notExistingExample'...
fatal: remote error: Repository does not exist
The requested repository does not exist, or you do not have permission to
access it.
}
ERROR CODE
128

Advanced usage

The git command accepts a second parameter that can be used to parse the output or to deal with non 0 exit code.

const git = require("git-promise");

const branch = await git("status -sb",
  (stdout) => stdout.match(/## (.*)/)[1]);
console.log(branch); // This is your current branch

The callback accepts 2 parameters, (stdout, error), where stdout is the output of the git command and error is either null or an Error in case the git command fails.

The return value of this function will be the resolved value of the promise.

If the error parameter is not specified, it'll be handled automatically and the promise will be rejected in case of non 0 error codes.

const git = require("git-promise");

git("merge-base --is-ancestor master HEAD", function (stdout, error) {
  if (!error) {
    // the branch we are on is fast forward to master
    return true;
  } else if (error.code === 1) {
    // no, it's not
    return false;
  } else {
    // some other error happened
    throw error;
  }
}).then(function (isFastForward) {
  console.log(isFastForward);
}).catch(function (err) {
  // deal with the error
});

Argument parsing

Version 1.0 changes the way the input command is parsed, so instead of executing anything that gets passed as the first parameter, it makes sure that git is the only executable used.

git("status | grep hello") won't be executed as a shell command, but everything will be passed as arguments to git, likely resulting in an error in this specific case.

If your git command stops working after upgrading to version 1.0

1. Make sure you're only executing git commands.
2. Try passing an array of arguments instead of a string. For instance: git(["merge-base", "--is-ancestor", "master", "HEAD"]);.

Chaining commands

Imagine to be on a local branch which is not fast forward with master and you want to know which commit were pushed on master after the forking point:

const git = require("git-promise");

function findForkCommit () {
  return git("merge-base master HEAD", output => output.trim());
}

function findChanges (forkCommit) {
  return git("log " + forkCommit + "..master --format=oneline",
    output => output.trim().split("\n"));
}

const forkCommit = await findForkCommit();
const commits = await findChanges(forkCommit);

Working directory

By default all git commands run in the current working directory (i.e. process.cwd()).

You can use the following syntax to run a git command in different folder

const git = require("git-promise");

await git("blame file1.js", {cwd: "src/"});

Custom git executable

By default any command tries to use git in $PATH, if you have installed git in a funky location you can override this value using gitExec.

const git = require("git-promise");

await git("status", {gitExec: "/usr/local/sbin/git"});

Utility methods

This module comes with some utility methods to parse the output of some git commands

const util = require("git-promise/util");

• util.extractStatus(output [, lineSeparator])

Parse the output of git status --porcelain and returns an object with

{
  branch: "current branch name, only if git status -b is used",
  index: {
    modified: ["list of files modified in the index"],
    added: ["list of files added in the index"],
    deleted: ["list of files deleted in the index"],
    renamed: ["list of files renamed in the index"],
    copied: ["list of files copied in the index"]
  },
  workingTree: {
    modified: ["list of files modified in the local working tree"],
    added: ["list of files added / renamed / copied in the local working tree"],
    deleted: ["list of files deleted in the local working tree"]
  }
}

The method works both with or without option -z.

• util.hasConflict(output)

Try to determine if there's a merge conflict from the output of git merge-tree

const git = require("git-promise");
const util = require("git-promise/util");

git("merge-tree <root-commit> <branch1> <branch2>").then(function (stdout) {
  console.log(util.hasConflict(stdout));
});

Release History

• 1.0.0 BREAKING CHANGE: The returned value is now a standard JavaScript Promise, not anymore a Q promise. BREAKING CHANGE: Internally the library switches from shell to execFile to avoid problems with non sanitized input commands. BREAKING CHANGE: Callbacks using 2 parameters now receive an error as second parameter instead of an error code.
• 0.3.1 Fix current working directory not switching back when command exits with error
• 0.3.0 Custom git executable with gitExec option
• 0.2.0 Change current working directory
• 0.1.0 Just started