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Fixing Git Commit Authorship

So you and your pair are doing it right, committing each piece of functionality for the day's project as you go along. Then the day ends, and you decide to push your work to GitHub to receive some precious green squares. But what's this? All the commits are attributed to App Academy Student! Or worse, a classmate accidentally added --global to the git config command, and now all the attributions are belong to them!

But there's still hope. Though you may not know it yet, you have the power to rewrite a Git repository's history. This means you can change the recorded author name and email, even after the history has been written. This power can be quite dangerous if not yielded with the utmost care and wisdom. Therefore, take heed of the advice that follows, lest you lose your beloved code.

Caveats

  • Never rewrite history in a repo you're sharing with someone else who already has the commits on their computer. Rewriting history changes the commit hashes, so the other person will have huge issues pulling and pushing if you change the hashes of existing commits on the shared repo.
  • If you've cloned the repo from somewhere (e.g. a project skeleton), this command will rewrite the authorship for all commits, even those that aren't yours. This probably isn't what you want; unearned squares just don't feel the same.

The Command

Follow these steps to rewrite your history so all commits have your name and email.

  1. Create a backup branch. That way, if something goes wrong, you can always get back to your original state.

    git branch wrong-author

    Seriously, any time you rewrite commits for any reason, backup the branch first!

  2. Run this command in the Terminal from within your repo's root directory, being sure to put your information in place of the placeholders

    git filter-branch -f --env-filter "GIT_AUTHOR_NAME='your_full_name'; GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL='your_email'; GIT_COMMITTER_NAME='your_full_name'; GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL='your_email';" HEAD

  3. If you've already pushed your repo to GitHub (or elsewhere), add -f to git push to force push, as all your commits now have different hash's from what they were before you rewrote the history.

  4. Go to your GitHub profile and bask in the glory of your newly-acquired green squares.