Git pre-commit hook is not running on Windows

I'm just starting to look into Git hooks, but I can't seem to get them to run.

I set up a local repository, so there is now a '.git' directory in my project folder. I have added a '.cmd' file into the C:/path/to/my/project/.git/hooks directory named 'pre-commit.cmd'. Here is the contents of this file:

echo "HOOK RUNNING"
echo. 2>C:/path/to/my/project/.git/hooks/EmptyFile.txt

This should echo the text "HOOK RUNNING" and create an empty text file in that directory. However, if I commit changes through my IDE (NetBeans) or use Git Bash to commit, neither of them seem to run my pre-commit hook, as no file is created.

My understanding is that all you have to do to get a hook to run is add an executable with the name of the hook (as I have done). Am I doing something wrong?

Note: This is on a Windows 7 PC.

Name your hook pre-commit (without any file extension).

And add #!/bin/sh on the first line or #!/bin/bash.

You probably don't have the permissions to run the pre-commit file

Run in your terminal:

chmod +x .git/hooks/pre-commit

Thanks to @vaughan for giving the idea

TL;DR

Git hooks work on Git for Windows by default assuming the Git hook script is simple.

Background of Git and Windows

Please Note: Git was made for shell interpretation; thus, using Git hooks on a Windows command prompt or Windows-made PowerShell will inherently have its flaws, and complete interoperability is not to be expected.

Using Git hooks on Windows is possible, but it has many drawbacks.

Git for Windows uses a shell emulator that makes Bash and shell commands possible. This means that when a Git hook is activated by Git, the Windows version will run the command using the shell emulator. Which in turn, will convert those shell commands to commands that the Windows operating system can understand. Meaning, simple shell scripts will work right off the bat. For example, the Git hook pre-commit that ships with an initialization of a Git repository can be run without any modification.

Example of default behavior

Initialize a Git repository with the command git init
Navigate to the Git hooks directory with the command cd .git\hooks
This directory holds all the Git hook scripts. Create a file named pre-commit. Note:

The name of the file is important
Replace the contents with the following shell script
```
#!/bin/sh

echo "Hello, World!"
```
Navigate back to your root directory of the project and create a file named test.txt using the command echo "something" > text.txt
Stage the file to commit using the command git add test.txt
Commit the change and watch the pre-commit hook activate using the command git commit -m "test commit"

Verify the output to look like the following

git commit -m "test commit"
Hello, World!
[master f00ccea] test commit

Example of bad behavior

When using a very advanced shell script to do things in Git hooks, Windows shell interpretation doesn't always stack up. For example, when using the Husky Git hook plugin for NPM, along with the Prettier formatter, the commands do not map 1-1. Meaning that your pre-commit Git hook will fail on Windows.

Answering user1578653's question

A Git hook is an executable script; however, you are using a command prompt script (.cmd) and not a shell script (.sh). If you would like this behavior you described on a Windows operating system then create the file named pre-commit and place it in the .git\hooks directory (relative to the project you are working on). Then place the following content in that file.

.git\hooks\pre-commit

#!/bin/sh

echo "HOOK RUNNING"
thisCausesError 2> .git/hooks/EmptyFile.txt

You will notice that the Git hook works and outputs the words HOOK RUNNING to the console, and the thisCauseError will print an error message to standard error that will be printed to the file EmptyFile.txt.

In my case, I had set core.hooksPath to the wrong directory.

Resetting it with git config --global core.hooksPath '~/.githooks' solved the issue :)

You can verify your hooks path using git config --get core.hooksPath