Could I change my name and surname in all previous commits?

Question

I would like to change my name, surname and email in my all commits, is it possible?

Answer 1

To rewrite both author and commiter in all selected commits:

git filter-branch --commit-filter \
'if [ "$GIT_AUTHOR_NAME" = "OldAuthor Name" ]; then \
export GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="Author Name";\
export GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL=authorEmail@example.com;\
export GIT_COMMITTER_NAME="Commmiter Name";\
export GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL=commiterEmail@example.com;\
fi;\
git commit-tree "$@"'

Answer 2

Save the script below as e.g. ~/.bin/git-replace-author and run it using, e.g:

git replace-author "John Ssmith" "John Smith" "johnsmith@example.com"

With no arguments, it updates all commits with your name to use your current email address according to Git config.

DEFAULT_NAME="$(git config user.name)"
DEFAULT_EMAIL="$(git config user.email)"
export OLD_NAME="${1:-$DEFAULT_NAME}"
export NEW_NAME="${2:-$DEFAULT_NAME}"
export NEW_EMAIL="${3:-$DEFAULT_EMAIL}"

echo "Old:" $OLD_NAME "<*>"
echo "New:" "$NEW_NAME <$NEW_EMAIL>"
echo "To undo, use: git reset $(git rev-parse HEAD)"

git filter-branch --env-filter \
'if [ "$GIT_AUTHOR_NAME" = "${OLD_NAME}" ]; then
    export GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="${NEW_NAME}"
    export GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL="${NEW_EMAIL}"
    export GIT_COMMITTER_NAME="${NEW_NAME}"
    export GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL="${NEW_EMAIL}"
fi'

Raw (to download)

Answer 3

If there are no other authors, you can do:

git filter-branch --commit-filter 'export GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="authorname"; \
export GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL=mail@example.com; git commit-tree "$@"'

Answer 4

Only if you haven't pushed your commits to the world. Other wise everyone else has your old name in their repo which is unlikely you can change everyone's.

Answer 5

With Git 2.24 (Q4 2019), git filter-branch (and BFG) is deprecated.

The equivalent would be, using newren/git-filter-repo, and its example section:

cd repo
git filter-repo --mailmap my-mailmap

with my-mailmap:

Correct Name <correct@email.com> <old@email.com>

That would replace the author name and email of any commit done by anyone with <old@email.com>

See git shortlog mapping author section for the exact syntax of

Answer 6

Use git-filter-branch.

git filter-branch --commit-filter 'if [ "$GIT_AUTHOR_NAME" = "Josh Lee" ];
  then export GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="Hobo Bob"; export GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL=hobo@example.com;
  fi; git commit-tree "$@"'

This only affects the author, not the committer (which for most commits will be the same as the author). If you want to rewrite those as well, set the GIT_COMMITTER_NAME and GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL variables.

The standard warning about rewriting history applies; only do it to history that has not yet been shared.

June 2018 Update

The manual now includes a solution, using --env-filter, in its examples: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-filter-branch#_examples :

git filter-branch --env-filter '
    if test "$GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL" = "root@localhost"
    then
        GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL=john@example.com
    fi
    if test "$GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL" = "root@localhost"
    then
        GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL=john@example.com
    fi
' -- --all