Change the date of a git commit

One of the greatest and worst things with git is that you can rewrite the history. Here’s a sneaky way of abusing that, I can’t think of a legitimate reason to do this.

As with anything, thanks StackOverflow for all the options I can pick from 👍.

GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="$(date)" git commit --amend --no-edit --date "$(date)"

GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="Mon 20 Aug 2018 20:19:19 BST" git commit --amend --no-edit --date "Mon 20 Aug 2018 20:19:19 BST"

Rebase to before said commit and stop for amendment:

1. git rebase <commit-hash>^ -i
2. Replace pick with e (edit) on the line with that commit (the first one)
3. quit the editor (ESC followed by :wq in VIM)
4. Either:

• GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="$(date)" git commit --amend --no-edit --date "$(date)"
• GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="Mon 20 Aug 2018 20:19:19 BST" git commit --amend --no-edit --date "Mon 20 Aug 2018 20:19:19 BST"

See here for more information around rebasing and editing in git: Split an existing git commit.

Originally published at codewithhugo.com on August 29, 2018.