(Updated: )
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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 👍.

Table of Contents

Set the date of the last commit to the current date

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

Set the date of the last commit to an arbitrary 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"

Set the date of an arbitrary commit to an arbitrary or current date

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.

Following any of these 3 options, you will want to run:

git rebase --continue

unsplash-logoSean Mungur

Author

Hugo Di Francesco

Co-author of "Professional JavaScript", "Front-End Development Projects with Vue.js" with Packt, "The Jest Handbook" (self-published). Hugo runs the Code with Hugo website helping over 100,000 developers every month and holds an MEng in Mathematical Computation from University College London (UCL). He has used JavaScript extensively to create scalable and performant platforms at companies such as Canon, Elsevier and (currently) Eurostar.

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