How can one change the timestamp of an old commit in Git?

The answers to How to modify existing, unpushed commits? describe a way to amend previous commit messages that haven't yet been pushed upstream. The new messages inherit the timestamps of the original commits. This seems logical, but is there a way to also re-set the times?

Answers:

Use git filter-branch with an env filter that sets GIT_AUTHOR_DATE and GIT_COMMITTER_DATE for the specific hash of the commit you're looking to fix.

This will invalidate that and all future hashes.

Example:

If you wanted to change the dates of commit 119f9ecf58069b265ab22f1f97d2b648faf932e0, you could do so with something like this:

git filter-branch --env-filter 
    'if [ $GIT_COMMIT = 119f9ecf58069b265ab22f1f97d2b648faf932e0 ]
     then
         export GIT_AUTHOR_DATE='Fri Jan 2 21:38:53 2009 -0800'
         export GIT_COMMITTER_DATE='Sat May 19 01:01:01 2007 -0700'
     fi'

Answers:

You can do an interactive rebase and choose edit for the commit whose date you would like to alter. When the rebase process stops for amending the commit you type in for instance:

git commit --amend --date='Wed Feb 16 14:00 2011 +0100'

Afterwards you continue your interactive rebase.

UPDATE (in response to the comment of studgeek): to change the commit date instead of the author date:

GIT_COMMITTER_DATE='Wed Feb 16 14:00 2011 +0100' git commit --amend

The lines above set an environment variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE which is used in amend commit.

Everything is tested in Git Bash.

Answers:

A better way to handle all of these suggestions in one command is

LC_ALL=C GIT_COMMITTER_DATE='$(date)' git commit --amend --no-edit --date '$(date)'

This will set the last commit's commit and author date to 'right now.'

Answers:

Here is a convenient alias that changes both commit and author times of the last commit to a time accepted by date --date:

[alias]
    cd = '!d='$(date -d '$1')' && shift && GIT_COMMITTER_DATE='$d' 
            git commit --amend --date '$d''

Usage: git cd <date_arg>

Examples:

git cd now  # update the last commit time to current time
git cd '1 hour ago'  # set time to 1 hour ago

Edit: Here is a more-automated version which checks that the index is clean (no uncommitted changes) and reuses the last commit message, or fails otherwise (fool-proof):

[alias]
    cd = '!d='$(date -d '$1')' && shift && 
        git diff-index --cached --quiet HEAD --ignore-submodules -- && 
        GIT_COMMITTER_DATE='$d' git commit --amend -C HEAD --date '$d'' 
        || echo >&2 'error: date change failed: index not clean!'

Answers:

The following bash function will change the time of any commit on the current branch.

Be careful not to use if you already pushed the commit or if you use the commit in another branch.

# rewrite_commit_date(commit, date_timestamp)
#
# !! Commit has to be on the current branch, and only on the current branch !!
# 
# Usage example:
#
# 1. Set commit 0c935403 date to now:
#
#   rewrite_commit_date 0c935403
#
# 2. Set commit 0c935403 date to 1402221655:
#
#   rewrite_commit_date 0c935403 1402221655
#
rewrite_commit_date () {
    local commit='$1' date_timestamp='$2'
    local date temp_branch='temp-rebasing-branch'
    local current_branch='$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)'

    if [[ -z '$date_timestamp' ]]; then
        date='$(date -R)'
    else
        date='$(date -R --date '@$date_timestamp')'
    fi

    git checkout -b '$temp_branch' '$commit'
    GIT_COMMITTER_DATE='$date' git commit --amend --date '$date'
    git checkout '$current_branch'
    git rebase '$commit' --onto '$temp_branch'
    git branch -d '$temp_branch'
}

Answers:

Building on theosp's answer, I wrote a script called git-cdc (for change date commit) that I put in my PATH.

The name is important: git-xxx anywhere in your PATH allows you to type:

git xxx
# here
git cdc ... 

That script is in bash, even on Windows (since Git will be calling it from its msys environment)

#!/bin/bash
# commit
# date YYYY-mm-dd HH:MM:SS

commit='$1' datecal='$2'
temp_branch='temp-rebasing-branch'
current_branch='$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)'

date_timestamp=$(date -d '$datecal' +%s)
date_r=$(date -R -d '$datecal')

if [[ -z '$commit' ]]; then
    exit 0
fi

git checkout -b '$temp_branch' '$commit'
GIT_COMMITTER_DATE='$date_timestamp' GIT_AUTHOR_DATE='$date_timestamp' git commit --amend --no-edit --date '$date_r'
git checkout '$current_branch'
git rebase  --autostash --committer-date-is-author-date '$commit' --onto '$temp_branch'
git branch -d '$temp_branch'

With that, you can type:

git cdc @~ '2014-07-04 20:32:45'

That would reset author/commit date of the commit before HEAD (@~) to the specified date.

git cdc @~ '2 days ago'

That would reset author/commit date of the commit before HEAD (@~) to the same hour, but 2 days ago.

---

Ilya Semenov mentions in the comments:

For OS X you may also install GNU coreutils (brew install coreutils), add it to PATH (PATH='/usr/local/opt/coreutils/libexec/gnubin:$PATH') and then use '2 days ago' syntax.

Answers:

Just do git commit --amend --reset-author --no-edit. For older commits, you can do an interactive rebase and choose edit for the commit whose date you want to modify.

git rebase -i <ref>

Then amend the commit with --reset-author and --no-edit to change the author date to the current date:

git commit --amend --reset-author --no-edit

Finally continue with your interactive rebase:

git rebase --continue

Answers:

To change both the author date and the commit date:

GIT_COMMITTER_DATE='Wed Sep 23 9:40 2015 +0200' git commit --amend --date 'Wed Sep 23 9:40 2015 +0200'

Answers:

If you want to perform the accepted answer (https://stackoverflow.com/a/454750/72809) in standard Windows command line, you need the following command:

git filter-branch -f --env-filter 'if [ $GIT_COMMIT = 578e6a450ff5318981367fe1f6f2390ce60ee045 ]; then export GIT_AUTHOR_DATE='2009-10-16T16:00+03:00'; export GIT_COMMITTER_DATE=$GIT_AUTHOR_DATE; fi'

Notes:

• It may be possible to split the command over multiple lines (Windows supports line splitting with the carret symbol ^), but I didn't succeed.
• You can write ISO dates, saving a lot of time finding the right day-of-week and general frustration over the order of elements.
• If you want the Author and Committer date to be the same, you can just reference the previously set variable.

Many thanks go to a blog post by Colin Svingen. Even though his code didn't work for me, it helped me find the correct solution.

Answers:

if it is previous last commit.

git rebase  -i HEAD~2
git commit --amend --date=now

if you already push to orgin and can force use:

git push --force 

if you can't force the push and if it is pushed, you can't change the commit! .

Answers:

I wrote a script and Homebrew package for this. Super easy to install, you can find it on GitHub PotatoLabs/git-redate page.

Syntax:

git redate -c 3

You just have to run git redate and you'll be able to edit all the dates in vim of the most recent 5 commits (there's also a -c option for how many commits you want to go back, it just defaults to 5). Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions!

Answers:

If you want to get the exact date of another commit (say you rebase edited a commit and want it to have the date of the original pre-rebase version):

git commit --amend --date='$(git show -s --format=%ai a383243)'

This corrects the date of the HEAD commit to be exactly the date of commit a383243 (include more digits if there are ambiguities). It will also pop up an editor window so you can edit the commit message.

That's for the author date which is what you care for usually - see other answers for the committer date.

Answers:

Each commit is associated with two dates, the committer date and the author date. You can view these dates with:

git log --format=fuller

If you want to change the author date and the committer date of the last 6 commits, you can simply use an interactive rebase :

git rebase -i HEAD~6

.

pick c95a4b7 Modification 1
pick 1bc0b44 Modification 2
pick de19ad3 Modification 3
pick c110e7e Modification 4
pick 342256c Modification 5
pick 5108205 Modification 6

# Rebase eadedca..5108205 onto eadedca (6 commands)
#
# Commands:
# p, pick = use commit
# r, reword = use commit, but edit the commit message
# e, edit = use commit, but stop for amending
# s, squash = use commit, but meld into previous commit
# f, fixup = like 'squash', but discard this commit's log message
# x, exec = run command (the rest of the line) using shell
# d, drop = remove commit

For all commits where you want to change the date, replace pick by edit (or just e), then save and quit your editor.

You can now amend each commit by specifying the author date and the committer date in ISO-8601 format:

GIT_COMMITTER_DATE='2017-10-08T09:51:07' git commit --amend --date='2017-10-08T09:51:07'

The first date is the commit date, the second one is the author date.

Then go to the next commit with :

git rebase --continue

Repeat the process until you amend all your commits. Check your progression with git status.

Answers:

There are already many great answers, but when I want to change date for multiple commits in one day or in one month, I don't find a proper answer. So I create a new script for this with explaintion, hope it will help someone:

#!/bin/bash

# change GIT_AUTHOR_DATE for commit at Thu Sep 14 13:39:41 2017 +0800
# you can change the data_match to change all commits at any date, one day or one month
# you can also do the same for GIT_COMMITTER_DATE

git filter-branch --force --env-filter '

date_match='^Thu, 14 Sep 2017 13+'              

# GIT_AUTHOR_DATE will be @1505367581 +0800, Git internal format 
author_data=$GIT_AUTHOR_DATE;                   
author_data=${author_data#@}                  
author_data=${author_data% +0800}                # author_data is 1505367581     

oneday=$((24*60*60))

# author_data_str will be 'Thu, 14 Sep 2017 13:39:41 +0800', RFC2822 format
author_data_str=`date -R -d @$author_data`      

if [[ $author_data_str =~ $date_match ]];
then
    # remove one day from author_data
    new_data_sec=$(($author_data-$oneday))
    # change to git internal format based on new_data_sec
    new_data='@$new_data_sec +0800'             
    export GIT_AUTHOR_DATE='$new_data'
fi
' --tag-name-filter cat -- --branches --tags

The date will be changed:

AuthorDate: Wed Sep 13 13:39:41 2017 +0800

Answers:

I created this npm package to change date of old commits.

https://github.com/bitriddler/git-change-date

Sample Usage:

npm install -g git-change-date
cd [your-directory]
git-change-date

You will be prompted to choose the commit you want to modify then to enter the new date.

If you want to change a commit by specific hash run this git-change-date --hash=[hash]

Answers:

git commit --amend --date='now'

Answers:

If commit not yet pushed then I can use something like that:

git commit --amend --date=' Wed Mar 25 10:05:44 2020 +0300'

after that git bash opens editor with the already applied date so you need just to save it by typing in the VI editor command mode ':wq' and you can push it

Answers:

How to Edit Multiple Commit Dates

Other answers aren't very convenient for editing several commit dates. I've come back to this question after a few years to share a technique.

To change the dates of the last 4 commits:

git rebase -i HEAD~4

Edit the rebase as follows, inserting exec lines to modify dates as needed:

pick 4ca564e Do something
exec git commit --amend --no-edit --date "1 Oct 2019 12:00:00 PDT"
pick 1670583 Add another thing
exec git commit --amend --no-edit --date "2 Oct 2019 12:00:00 PDT"
pick b54021c Add some tests
exec git commit --amend --no-edit --date "3 Oct 2019 12:00:00 PDT"
pick e8f6653 Fix the broken thing
exec git commit --amend --no-edit --date "4 Oct 2019 12:00:00 PDT"

Answers:

For those using Powershell

git rebase DESIRED_REF^ -i

$commitDateString = '2020-01-22T22:22:22'
$env:GIT_COMMITTER_DATE = $commitDateString
git commit --amend --date $commitDateString
$env:GIT_COMMITTER_DATE = ''

git rebase --continue

Credit to https://mnaoumov.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/git-change-date-of-commit/

Answers:

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"

Source: https://codewithhugo.com/change-the-date-of-a-git-commit/

Answers: