Fossil Forum

Problem: before-commit hooks are not run during a --dry-run commit.

Why I think this is a problem

• It makes it hard to test before-commit hooks without making real commits.
• It is not documented anywhere.
• The current hooks documentation recommends using a --dry-run commit to test a before-commit hook, which doesn't work.

How I think it should work instead

• fossil commit --dry-run should do a dry run commit and run the hooks, failing the dry run commit if any hook exits with non-zero.
• fossil commit --dry-run --no-verify should to a dry run commit and skip running the hooks.

Reproduction steps

Set up test checkout:

$ mkdir test
$ cd test
$ fossil init test.fossil
$ fossil open test.fossil
$ touch test1.txt
$ fossil add test1.txt

Set up hooks:

$ fossil hook add --command "echo '0xBADF00D'" --type 'before-commit' --sequence 0
$ fossil hook add --command "exit 1" --type 'before-commit' --sequence 1
$ fossil hook list
  0: type = before-commit
     command = echo '0xBADF00D'
     sequence = 0

  1: type = before-commit
     command = exit 1
     sequence = 1
$ fossil hook test 0
0xBADF00D
$ fossil hook test 1

Make a commit with --dry-run and --trace:

Expectation:

• The output includes the string '0xBADF00D' because hook 0 was executed.
• The output includes the trace log for both hooks.
• The output reflects that the dry run commit failed due to hook 1 being executed and exiting with a non-zero code.

Reality:

• No hooks are run because this if condition evaluates to false.

$ fossil commit --dry-run --trace --comment 'Add test1.txt'
******* Commit Description *******
checkout /home/test_mctesterson/test/
repository /home/test_mctesterson/test/test.fossil
user test_mctesterson
branch trunk
tags trunk
ADDED      test1.txt
checkin-comment
Add test1.txt
***** End Commit Description *****
C Add\stest1.txt
D 2026-09-28T02:23:52.735
F test1.txt a7ffc6f8bf1ed76651c14756a061d662f580ff4de43b49fa82d80a4b80f8434a
P 077e973c406b0ac33f2915e962d5531b059498dfe089decd264c236ec7af7cb5
R 2606381a2056697fd6fd8e24703f6cec
U test_mctesterson
Z ac3ce44124c67039bf7d302e58dd5467
New_Version: c15ff8d600f6de402e8852c8b628d37c1a95adbe49f955fb732b0a19765f75e9