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Changing Git Commit History's Metadata

Table of Contents

Changing the Author of the Last Commit

You can specify a new author for the most recent commit with the --author flag: 

git commit --amend --author="new author name"
This will also pull up your editor to change the commit message.
To prevent opening the editor, add the --no-edit flag.

If you want to, you can also use --reset-author: 

git commit --amend --no-edit --reset-author

Using --reset-author updates both the author and committer details to the details in your current .gitconfig file.

Change the Author of Commits Using git rebase

First, if you haven't already, you will likely want to fix your name in your .gitconfig:

git config --global user.name "New Author Name"
git config --global user.email "<email@address.example>"

This is optional, but it will also make sure to reset the committer's name too, assuming that's what you need.

Modifying the First Commit (Root Commit)

If you also need to modify the very first commit (root commit) in your history, add --root to the git rebase command: 

git rebase -i --root --exec 'git commit --amend --no-edit --reset-author'
With this you can be sure that the rebase includes the root commit.

Change the Author for a Range of Commits

To rewrite metadata for a range of commits using a rebase: 

git rebase -r <some commit before all of your bad commits> \

    --exec 'git commit --amend --no-edit --reset-author'


git rebase -i <commit before your first bad commit> \

    --exec 'git commit --amend --no-edit --reset-author'

  • git rebase Command:
    • git rebase -i <commit>: Initiates an interactive rebase starting from the specified <commit>.
    • --exec flag: --exec allows you to execute a shell command (git commit --amend --no-edit --reset-author) after each commit is applied during the rebase process.

--exec will run the git commit step after each commit is rewritten (as if you ran git commit && git rebase --continue repeatedly).

If you also want to change your first commit (also called the 'root' commit), you will have to add --root to the rebase call.

This will change both the committer and the author to your user.name/user.email configuration.
If you did not want to change that config, you can use:

--author "New Author Name <email@address.example>"
instead of 
--reset-author  # Note that doing this won't update the committer, just the author.

Change the Author for the Entire Project Repo History

git rebase -r --root --exec "git commit --amend --no-edit --reset-author"

Customizing Author Information

If you need to set a specific author for all commits (instead of using the default user.name and user.email), use the --author option: 

--author "New Author Name <email@address.example>"
If you only want to update the author and leave the committer unchanged, use the --author option instead.