git-edit-date

Change Git Commit Date

git-edit-date is a free Linux CLI that changes commit dates, author name, and email on your current branch. Export history to CSV, edit timestamps in Excel or LibreOffice, apply once — no git commit --amend, no interactive rebase.

Change author date, committer date, author name, and email in bulk. Works for a single tip commit or dozens of commits on the current branch — including history you already pushed (with --force-with-lease).

↓ Download .deb v1.5 Linux amd64 · free

Why CSV?

Bulk edits — change dates of multiple commits in a spreadsheet
Visual review — sort by date, spot timezone drift, compare author vs committer timestamps
One command to apply — edit the CSV, run apply, done

New here? Start with the step-by-step tutorial or read the FAQ.

Example

Say your log looks like this — wrong email, timestamps in UTC at 3 am:

Before · git log

a1b2c3d  Alice <alice@wrong.com>  2024-03-06 03:14 +0000  Fix login
e4f5a6b  Alice <alice@wrong.com>  2024-03-06 03:15 +0000  Add tests

After · git log

9f8e7d6  Alice <alice@work.com>  2024-03-05 14:30 +0100  Fix login
c5b4a39  Alice <alice@work.com>  2024-03-05 15:00 +0100  Add tests

What changed: author email and dates. Messages stay the same; commit hashes are new (history rewrite).

How

1. Export the current branch:

git-edit-date export -o commits.csv

2. Open the CSV and fix the fields you care about:

Before · commits.csv

author_email,author_date,committer_date
alice@wrong.com,2024-03-06T03:14:00Z,2024-03-06T03:14:00Z
alice@wrong.com,2024-03-06T03:15:00Z,2024-03-06T03:15:00Z

After · commits.csv

author_email,author_date,committer_date
alice@work.com,2024-03-05T14:30:00+01:00,2024-03-05T14:30:00+01:00
alice@work.com,2024-03-05T15:00:00+01:00,2024-03-05T15:00:00+01:00

3. Apply and push:

git-edit-date apply -file=commits.csv
git push --force-with-lease

Full walkthrough: how to change git commit dates.

Change author date

Git stores two timestamps: author date (when the work was written) and committer date (when the commit object was created). In the CSV, edit author_date (and optionally author_name / author_email) independently of committer_date.

Deep dive: how to change git author date · author date vs commit date.

Install

curl -LO https://giteditdate.com/git-edit-date_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i git-edit-date_amd64.deb

Heads up

Rewrites commit SHAs on the current branch only
Invalidates GPG signatures on rewritten commits
Needs git push --force-with-lease if the branch was already pushed