git-timer

Commit until the time is up... or start over!

git-timer is a node.js CLI application written in LiveScript that forces you to commit before a timer is up. It can be used for learning purposes (e.g. for a Code Retreat), or just for regular use, to keep a good commit pace.

Installation

$ npm install -g git-timer

How it works

When you run it, it starts a countdown timer. You are suppose to write code and commit before the time is up. If you don't commit, the repository is reset (using git reset --hard) and the timer starts over. Else, if you commit before timeout, the timer simply resets, and you can move on to the next commit.

Advanced usage - commit only on green

To make things more challenging, you can add another rule to the game, by only allowing yourself to commit when all tests pass. You can enforce that by adding a pre-commit hook that will run your test suite before commiting.

If you are developing a node.js project and define npm test (in package.json), you just have to run git-timer -g (see section Options below for details).

Options

$ git-timer -h

Usage: git-timer [options]

Options:
    -h, --help          output usage information
    -V, --version       output the version number
    -m, --minutes [min] specify timeout in minutes (default is 5)
    -g, --green         Allow only commits on green.
                        (!) node only - requires `npm test` to be defined.
                        (!) WARNING: adds a pre-commit hook to git

• --minutes allows you to override the default timeout (5 minutes)
• --green enforces commits only on green, assuming npm test is available. It basically creates a pre-commit script so that commits are allowed only if npm test passes. Notes
  • It only works if you don't already use a pre-commit hook.
  • It can be reverted by rm .git/hooks/pre-commit
  • If you use another language, you can still use this, just replace npm test with the test command, inside the generated pre-commit script