git-history-manipulations

Multiple simple shell scripts for rewriting Git history.

Installation

Clone this repository and add the scripts/ directory to your PATH to make the commands available as git subcommands:

git clone https://github.com/FlorianMichael/git-history-manipulations.git
cd git-history-manipulations
# e.g. in ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile
export PATH="$PWD/scripts:$PATH"

On Windows with Git Bash, you can do the same and add the export PATH=... line to your ~/.bashrc.

After that you can use the scripts as regular Git subcommands, for example:

git rewrite-author --help
git set-dates "2020-01-01T00:00:00" --no-dry-run
git replace-in-messages OLD NEW --no-dry-run

Commands

git rewrite-author

Rewrite all commits from a specific old email to a new name and email.

Usage (preferred):

git rewrite-author --old-email OLD_EMAIL --new-name "New Name" --new-email NEW_EMAIL [--dry-run|--no-dry-run] [--force]

Positional fallback (deprecated):

git rewrite-author OLD_EMAIL "New Name" NEW_EMAIL

git set-dates

Set all commit dates to a fixed timestamp.

Usage:

git set-dates "2020-01-01T00:00:00" [--dry-run|--no-dry-run] [--force]

git shift-dates

Shift all commit timestamps by a time offset.

Usage:

git shift-dates "+2 hours" [--dry-run|--no-dry-run] [--force]

git change-message

Replace commit messages for commits with exactly one parent.

Usage:

git change-message "New message" [--dry-run|--no-dry-run] [--force]

git replace-in-messages

Search and replace text inside all commit messages.

Usage:

git replace-in-messages OLD NEW [--dry-run|--no-dry-run] [--force]

git modify-commit

Change the author, email, and date for a specific commit hash.

Usage:

git modify-commit HASH "Name" EMAIL DATE [--dry-run|--no-dry-run] [--force]

Notes

• These scripts rewrite Git history; you may need to force-push afterward.
• Make scripts executable if needed (on Unix): chmod +x scripts/git-*.

Contact

If you encounter any issues, please report them on the issue tracker.
If you just want to talk or need help with git-history-manipulations feel free to join my Discord.