mdbook-gitinfo 0.1.2

An mdBook preprocessor that injects Git metadata (e.g., commit hash, date, tag) into your rendered book. This is useful for displaying build provenance or version information.

Features

• Injects the latest Git commit information for each/per chapter/subchapter.
• Fully configurable output format using template variables.
• Supports date and time formatting.
• Renders a styled footer below each chapter with Git metadata.
• Supports the html renderer.

Installation

From package manager:

cargo install mdbook-gitinfo

Clone this repository and install it using Cargo:

cargo install --path .

Make sure the binary (mdbook-gitinfo) is in your PATH.

Configuration

Add the following to your book.toml:

[preprocessor.gitinfo]
enable = true
template = "Date: {{date}}{{sep}}branch: {{branch}}{{sep}}commit: {{hash}}"
separator = " • "
font-size = "0.8em"
date-format = "%Y-%m-%d"
time-format = "%H:%M:%S"
branch = "main" # default is main, therefore optional

Example Output

With the above configuration, this footer will be injected:

<footer>
  <span class="gitinfo-footer" style="font-size:0.8em;...">
    Date: 2025-06-23 16:19:28 • branch: main • commit: 2160ec5
  </span>
</footer>

[!NOTE] date and time formatting use chrono format specifiers

Format	Meaning	Example
%Y	Year with century	2025
%y	Year without century (00-99)	25
%m	Month number (01-12)	06
%b	Abbreviated month name	Jun
%B	Full month name	June
%d	Day of month (01-31)	24
%e	Day of month, space-padded	24
%a	Abbreviated weekday	Mon
%A	Full weekday name	Monday
%j	Day of year (001–366)	176

Format	Meaning	Example
%H	Hour (00-23)	14
%I	Hour (01-12)	02
%p	AM/PM	PM
%M	Minute (00-59)	05
%S	Second (00-60, leap-sec aware)	09
%f	Microseconds (000000-999999)	123456
%z	+hhmm timezone offset	+0100
%:z	+hh:mm timezone offset	+01:00
%Z	Time zone name	BST

Template Variables

You can use the following placeholders in the template string:

• {{hash}}: Short commit hash (git rev-parse --short HEAD)

• {{long}}: Full commit hash

• {{tag}}: Git tag (from git describe)

• {{date}}: Timestamp of the latest commit, formatted

• {{sep}}: Separator (defaults to " • ")

.github/workflow/...

In order for mdbook-gitinfo to reference the correct commit whilst using actions/checkout@v4, set fetch-depth as 0:

...
jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
    concurrency:
      group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
...

Compatibility

• mdbook-gitinfo is tested with mdbook 0.4.x.

• Only the html renderer is supported.

License

Apache-2.0

Author

CompEng0001