Let's say I have 3 unpushed commits. Now I want to change the commit message of the first or second commit (changing them for the third one is simple using git commit --amend). How to do that?
2 Answers
To rebound on the sub-question: is there a git commit --amend for a previous commit (and not just the last one), you could try something like (not tested yet, but Colin O'Dell mentions in the comments having written a script for it colinodell/git-amend-old):
git checkout -b tmp
git reset --hard HEAD~2
git commit -amend
git rebase --onto tmp HEAD@{1} master
That would be like:
x---x---x---x---x
^
|
(master*) (* = current branch)
git checkout -b tmp
x---x---x---x---x
^
|
(tmp*, master)
git reset --hard HEAD~2
x---x---x---x---x
^ ^
| |
(tmp*) (master)
git commit -amend
y (tmp*)
/
x---x---x---x---x
| ^
(HEAD@{1}) |
(master)
git rebase --onto tmp HEAD@{1} master
(tmp)
y---x'---x' (master*)
/
x---x---x---x---x (only referenced in reflog)
5 Comments
VonC
On the
rebase --onto, see stackoverflow.com/questions/1994463/…
CharlesB
why bother? rebase -i is much simpler
VonC
@CharlesB: I agree,
rebase -i is simpler, but it also interactive. Meaning you cannot include it in a script or in an alias grouping a sequence of commands.
Colin O'Dell
I've created a Bash script inspired by this answer: github.com/colinodell/git-amend-old Hopefully somebody finds it useful.
VonC
@ColinO'Dell nice one! i have included a link to your script in the answer for more visibility.
This is a job for the powerful git rebase -i command. Also, see the Interactive Rebasing section of the Git book.
4 Comments
Mot
Maybe a stupid question, but can
git rebase -i be used non-interactively?
Greg Hewgill
No, not as such. However, everything that
git rebase -i does can (in theory) be done using other, scriptable Git commands. So it would be possible to write a script to modify a previous commit message, but I don't know whether such a thing exists yet.VonC
congrats on your 15th gold badge ;) You are now a true git! (Err... git-guru, I meant) (I mean, guru about the tool name git) (I mean, you know what I mean)
Greg Hewgill
@VonC: Thanks, that one kind of snuck up on me!
commit --amendcould be scripted. Let me know if it works.