automatic XML validation when using git

Recently I worked on a project which involved manually editing a bunch of XML files. Emacs is my favorite ~operating system~ editor, and it has XML validation built in (using the nXML mode). It highlights validation errors while-you-type. Unfortunately, even with Emacs showing potential issues in RED COLOR, I managed to commit a number of broken XML files to my local git repository. Subsequently when I pushed my errors to the remote 'origin' git repository, the errors broke builds.

Of course this can be completely prevented by locally using pre-commit hooks. If your local git repository validates XML files before you can commit them, and denies invalid XML files, then one part of the problem is solved.

A pre-receive hook on the receiving server side can do the same as a pre-commit hook locally: Validate XML files before letting somebody push a commit which can break the build process.

I looked around the Internet but couldn't find a lightweight quick script to do only and exactly that. That's the reason I whipped up a basic pre-commit and pre-receive hook, written in Python.

You can find the very basic and rough code at https://github.com/PeterMosmans/git-utilities. By changing the variable

reject

in the hook scripts the behaviour can be changed to reject commits and updates on validation errors, or not.

(Of course, the most obvious solution would be that I pay more attention to RED COLORED ERRORS...)