Git on despatcheshttps://icle.es/tags/git/Recent content in Git on despatchesHugoenTue, 08 Jul 2025 17:18:26 +0100Automatically link to repo at current commithttps://icle.es/2025/07/08/automatically-link-to-repo-at-current-commit/Tue, 08 Jul 2025 15:39:14 +0100https://icle.es/2025/07/08/automatically-link-to-repo-at-current-commit/<p>I like writing blog posts, particularly about code, and I like to link to code on my repo from my blog post. I do this a lot. Until now, I&rsquo;ve just been copying and pasting the full link to github. However, I ran into a problem today.</p> <p>I moved a file that was referenced in a blog post. I then had to go to that blog post and update the links - this is fine if I remember the linked blog posts - but that&rsquo;s not scalable.</p>I like writing blog posts, particularly about code, and I like to link to code on my repo from my blog post. I do this a lot. Until now, I’ve just been copying and pasting the full link to github. However, I ran into a problem today.

I moved a file that was referenced in a blog post. I then had to go to that blog post and update the links - this is fine if I remember the linked blog posts - but that’s not scalable.

Also:

  • Finding the link on GitHub, then copying and pasting is annoying
  • It worries me a little that the version they are linked to could be vastly different from what I mention on the post.

I was already trying to create permalinks using tags, but that is laborious and error prone.

What if I could get Hugo to:

  • Automatically link to GitHub if the relative link is not within blog/content
  • What if I could get it to link it to the file at the last commit of the post.

The last one is something to bear in mind. If I update a blog post, I’ll have to ensure that the links are still relevant.

Alternatively, let’s allow an override at the page level where you can provide a specific commit to link to:

Step 1: Enable git info

To be able to get the commit of the post, we need to enable git info

hugo.toml

```toml enableGitInfo = true ```

layout/_default/_markup/render-link.html

```gotmpl {{- $linkPath := .Destination -}} {{/* e.g. "../scripts/tool.sh" */}} {{- $currentPath := .Page.File.Path -}} {{/* e.g. "posts/foo.md" */}} {{- $currentDir := path.Dir $currentPath -}} {{/* e.g. "posts" */}} {{- $combined := path.Join $currentDir $linkPath -}} {{/* e.g. "posts/../scripts/tool.sh" */}} {{- $resolved := path.Clean $combined -}} {{/* e.g. "scripts/tool.sh" */}} {{- $fullRepoPath := path.Join "blog/content" $resolved -}} {{/* e.g. "blog/content/scripts/tool.sh" */}} {{- $isInContent := strings.HasPrefix $fullRepoPath "blog/content/" -}} {{- if $isInContent -}} {{ $text }} {{- else -}} {{- $commit := or .Page.Params.link_commit .Page.GitInfo.Hash -}} {{ $text }} ```

Bonus: Allow per-post commit override

In the above code:

```gotmpl {{- $commit := or .Page.Params.link_commit .Page.GitInfo.Hash -}} ```

The commit id is picked up from the page parameter link_commit, or if that doesn’t exist, from the last commit of the page.

You can therefore, set the commit to use for a post with:

```yaml link_commit: ```

Conclusion

Necessity might be the mother of invention, but sometimes it takes a fine-tuned sense of frustration to detect minor needs.

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