How do I get notifications for commits to a repository?

Question

I'd like to know what kind of commits are being made to the Lithium framework so I can update (or rollback) when there is something major.

I'm already watching the repository, but from what I've been able to find, that only shows updates on the github dashboard.

Answer 1

Subscribe to Github's RSS feed!
Choose your news feed (all watched repos), or only Lithium's commit history.

RSS are made for that ;-)

PS: I don't see how can you find that useful since there is a couple of commits made each day on various branches, some small typo fixes, others fix bugs, and others introduce new things...

Answer 2

I just found out by accident that you can easily manage to achieve this:

• fork the project (if you haven't done it yet)
• create a pull request for yourself from the selected branch, e.g. from master of head project to master of your fork:
  • base repository: your/project ; base: master <-- head repository: original/project ; compare: master
• do NOT merge this pull request
• under the Email section of your Notifications settings enable:
  • Comments on Issues and Pull Requests
  • Pull Request reviews
  • Pull Request pushes

That's it. You will receive email notifications about every commit on master branch.

Answer 3

In addition to the other suggestions, you might try HubNotify for e-mail notifications.

Answer 4

You can leverage the GitHub Events API to perform such task and retrieve a JSON formatted response.

• syntax: GET /repos/:user/:repo/events
• example: https://api.github.com/repos/UnionOfRAD/lithium/events

Note: In order to retrieve the commits, you'll have to filter out the events of type PushEvents.

Below a quick sample

$(function() {
    $.getJSON('https://api.github.com/repos/UnionOfRAD/lithium/events?callback=?', function(data) {
        var list = $('#push-events');

        $.each(data.data, function(key, val) {
            if (val.type == "PushEvent") {
                $.each(val.payload.commits, function(key2, val2) {
                    list.append('<li id="' + val2.sha + '"><a href="https://github.com/UnionOfRAD/lithium/commit/' + val2.sha + '">'
                                + val2.message + '</a> [' + val.actor.login + ' @ ' + val.created_at + ']</li>');
                });
            }
        });
        
        if (list.children().size() == 0) {
            list.append('<li>No pushes in last ' + data.data.length + ' events.</li>');
        }
    });
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<ul id="push-events"></ul>

Answer 5

Disclaimer: I'm the original author.

This project allows you to get an e-mail when a commit gets pushed on a repository you are watching (on any branch).

Explaination: gicowa is a command-line tool written in python that lists all last commits on all GitHub repos you are watching. This tool can send its output via e-mail and can be called from your crontab. Doing that makes you receive an e-mail notification each time a commit gets pushed on a GitHub repo you are watching.

Answer 6

Go to your github project -> Settings -> notifications.

Add any address you want to notify when commits are done.

Answer 7

You go into Settings > Integrations & services for the GitHub repository and add an Email service. See Choosing the types of notifications you receive.

Answer 8

You can use GitHub webhooks and set it up with a push notification API. This is free and easy to do.

Spontit is an example of a free API that enables you to do this.

For a tutorial, see this video.

Written instructions are available in the README here.