Simple Git Ex

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

Installation

Easiest through npm: npm install simple-git-ex

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.

API	What it does
.add([fileA, ...], handlerFn)	adds one or more files to be under source control
.addAnnotatedTag(tagName, tagMessage, handlerFn)	adds an annotated tag to the head of the current branch
.addConfig(key, value[, handlerFn])	add a local configuration property
.addRemote(name, repo, handlerFn)	adds a new named remote to be tracked as name at the path repo
.addTag(name, handlerFn)	adds a lightweight tag to the head of the current branch
.branch([options, ][handlerFn])	gets a list of all branches, calls handlerFn with two arguments, an error object and BranchSummary instance. When supplied, the options can be either an array of arguments supported by the branch command or a standard options object.
.branchLocal([handlerFn])	gets a list of local branches, calls handlerFn with two arguments, an error object and BranchSummary instance
.catFile(options[, handlerFn])	generate cat-file detail, options should be an array of strings as supported arguments to the cat-file command
.checkout(checkoutWhat, handlerFn)	checks out the supplied tag, revision or branch. checkoutWhat can be one or more strings to be used as parameters appended to the git checkout command.
.checkoutBranch(branchName, startPoint, handlerFn)	checks out a new branch from the supplied start point
.checkoutLocalBranch(branchName, handlerFn)	checks out a new local branch
.deleteLocalBranch(branchName, handlerFn)	deletes a local branch
.checkoutLatestTag(handlerFn)	convenience method to pull then checkout the latest tag
.clone(repoPath, localPath, [options], [handlerFn])	clone a remote repo at repoPath to a local directory at localPath with an optional array of additional arguments to include between git clone and the trailing repo local arguments
.commit(message, handlerFn)	commits changes in the current working directory with the supplied message where the message can be either a single string or array of strings to be passed as separate arguments (the git command line interface converts these to be separated by double line breaks)
.commit(message, [fileA, ...], options, handlerFn)	commits changes on the named files with the supplied message, when supplied, the optional options object can contain any other parameters to pass to the commit command, setting the value of the property to be a string will add name=value to the command string, setting any other type of value will result in just the key from the object being passed (ie: just name), an example of setting the author is below
.customBinary(gitPath)	sets the command to use to reference git, allows for using a git binary not available on the path environment variable
.cwd(workingDirectory)	Sets the current working directory for all commands after this step in the chain
.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
.diffSummary(handlerFn)	gets a summary of the diff for files in the repo, uses the git diff --stat format to calculate changes. Handler is called with a nullable error object and an instance of the DiffSummary
.diffSummary(options, handlerFn)	includes options in the call to diff --stat options and returns a DiffSummary
.fetch([options, ] handlerFn)	update the local working copy database with changes from the default remote repo and branch, when supplied the options argument can be a standard options object either an array of string commands as supported by the git fetch. On success, the returned data will be an instance of the FetchSummary
.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
.init(bare, handlerFn)	initialize a repository, optional bare parameter makes intialized repository bare
.tags(handlerFn)	list all tags
.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. For any other set of options, supply options as an array of strings to be appended to the git log command. To use a custom splitter in the log format, set options.splitter to be the string the log should be split on. Options can also be supplied as a standard options object for adding custom properties supported by the git log command.
.listFiles(branch, handlerFn)	Lists the files of a branch. Command git ls-tree -r --name-only
.mergeFromTo(from, to, [[options,] handlerFn])	merge from one branch to another, when supplied the options should be an array of additional parameters to pass into the git merge command
.mirror(repoPath, localPath, handlerFn])	clone and mirror the repo to local
.pull(handlerFn)	Pulls all updates from the default tracked repo
.pull(remote, branch, handlerFn)	pull all updates from the specified remote branch (eg 'origin'/'master')
.pull(remote, branch, options, handlerFn)	Pulls from named remote with any necessary options
.push(remote, branch[, options] handlerFn)	pushes to a named remote/branch, supports additional options from the git push command.
.pushTags(remote, handlerFn)	pushes tags to a named remote
.rebase([options,] handlerFn)	Rebases the repo, options should be supplied as an array of string parameters supported by the git rebase command, or an object of options (see details below for option formats).
.removeRemote(name, handlerFn)	removes the named remote
.rm([fileA, ...], handlerFn)	removes any number of files from source control
.rmKeepLocal([fileA, ...], handlerFn)	removes files from source control but leaves them on disk
.silent(isSilent)	sets whether the console should be used for logging errors (defaults to true when the NODE_ENV contains the string prod)
.stashList([options, ][handlerFn])	Retrieves the stash list, optional first argument can be an object specifying options.splitter to override the default value of :, alternatively options can be a set of arguments as supported by the git stash list command.
.stash([options, ][ handlerFn])	Stash the working directory, optional first argument can be an array of string arguments or options object to pass to the git stash command.
.subModule(args [, handlerFn])	Run a git submodule command with on or more arguments passed in as an args array
.submoduleAdd(repo, path[, handlerFn])	adds a new sub module
.submoduleInit([args, ][handlerFn])	inits sub modules, args should be an array of string arguments to pass to the git submodule init command
.submoduleUpdate([args, ][handlerFn])	updates sub modules, args should be an array of string arguments to pass to the git submodule update command
.getRemotes([verbose], handlerFn)	gets a list of the named remotes, when the verbose option is supplied as true, includes the URLs and purpose of each ref
.reset([resetMode,] handlerFn)	resets the repository, the optional first argument can either be an array of options supported by the git reset command or one of the string constants hard or soft, if omitted the reset will be a soft reset to head, handlerFn: (err)
.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 single value string or array of string commands you want to run
.checkIgnore([filepath, ...], handlerFn)	checks if filepath excluded by .gitignore rules
.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
.clean(mode [, options [, handlerFn]])	clean the working tree. Mode should be "n" - dry run or "f" - force
.raw(args[, handlerFn])	Execute any arbitrary array of commands supported by the underlying git binary. When the git process returns a non-zero signal on exit and it printed something to stderr, the commmand will be treated as an error, otherwise treated as a success.
.revert(commit [, options [, handlerFn]])	reverts one or more commits in the working copy. The commit can be any regular commit-ish value (hash, name or offset such as HEAD~2) or a range of commits (eg: master~5..master~2). When supplied the options argument contain any options accepted by git-revert.
.then(handlerFn)	calls a simple function in the current step

How to Specify Options

For .pull or .commit options are included as an object, the keys of which will all be merged as trailing arguments in the command string. When the value of the property in the options object is a string, that name value pair will be included in the command string as name=value. For example:

// results in 'git pull origin master --no-rebase'
git().pull('origin', 'master', {'--no-rebase': null})

// results in 'git pull origin master --rebase=true'
git().pull('origin', 'master', {'--rebase': 'true'})

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.

Complex Requests

When no suitable wrapper exists in the interface for creating a request, it is possible to run a command directly using git.raw([...], handler). The array of commands are passed directly to the git binary:

const git = require('simple-git');
const path = '/path/to/repo';

git(path).raw(
   [
      'config',
      '--global',
      'advice.pushNonFastForward',
      'false'
   ], (err, result) = {

      // err is null unless this command failed
      // result is the raw output of this command

   });

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');
 
    // push with -u
    require('simple-git')()
         .add('./*')
         .commit("first commit!")
         .addRemote('origin', 'some-repo-url')
         .push(['-u', 'origin', 'master'], function () {
            // done.
         });
 
    // 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);
        });
 
    // set the local configuration for author, then author for an individual commit
    require('simple-git')()
        .addConfig('user.name', 'Some One')
        .addConfig('user.email', '[e-mail]')
        .commit('committed as "Some One"', 'file-one')
        .commit('committed as "Another Person"', 'file-two', { '--author': '"Another Person <[e-mail]>"' });
 
    // get remote repositories
    require('simple-git')()
        .listRemote(['--get-url'], function(err, data) {
            if (!err) {
                console.log('Remote url for repository at ' + __dirname + ':');
                console.log(data);
            }
        });