Git: how to commit as someone else?

Question

I'm working on a freelance project. The client (let's call him foobar) asked me to upload the code using his github account (my work PC runs 64-bit Windows 10, I have git 2.15.0) installed.

So I did these steps.

Go to Credential Manager -> Windows Credential -> Generic Credentials. Removed my Github account

On the source code directory, performed the standard procedure:

git init
git add *
git commit -m "first message"
git remote add origin https://github.com/foobar/supersecretproject.git
git push -u origin master

A Github credential dialog appeared. Entered his credential.

Wait for a while, and yes the code was commited to Github. Opended the Github page, and strangely the commiter shown was me, not foobar. Strange. How to fix this? I want to commit as foobar.

Possible duplicate of Change the author and committer name and e-mail of multiple commits in Git — 1615903
– 1615903, Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 6:16

Luke · Accepted Answer · 2025-01-09 00:56:58Z

31

If you only want to create a single commit on behalf of another author (not to be confused with another committer) and do not want to edit your config, you can also specify the --author argument instead:

git commit --author "Elon Musk <[email protected]>"

This will only set the author metadata of the commit, not the committer metadata about yourself. However, I would even consider this idiomatic as while the correct authorship is maintained, tracing the commit back to you in case of any troubles is still possible.

Found here.

edited Jan 9 at 0:56

Luke

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answered Nov 5, 2021 at 14:17

Christoph Thiede

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2 Comments

Xarvalus Over a year ago

Worth checking, difference between Author and Committer: stackoverflow.com/questions/18750808/…

Seth Over a year ago

FYI, note that the above example author name + email format is not something OP chose at random but is actually the required format. i.e. The format for the --author value is A U Thor <[email protected]>, as per this answer

Vikas Yadav · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-21 06:28:36Z

8

If you wish to change config settings for just one repo. You can try this procedure:

1) On the terminal, change the current working directory to the local repository where you want to configure the name and email that is associated with your Git commits.

2) $ git config user.name "Elon Musk". 

3) $ git config user.email "[email protected]"

3) Confirm that you have set the Git username and email correctly:

 $ git config user.name

> Elon Musk

 $ git config user.email

> [email protected]

It's done!:)

Hope this might help!

answered Dec 21, 2017 at 6:28

Vikas Yadav

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1 Comment

Xarvalus Over a year ago

This sets the user local-only (tied with current repository), notice there is NOT used '--global' flag, so the global account will remain as it was. Adding this comment as I didn't notice the difference :)

Sergi Pasoevi · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-21 05:56:30Z

1

You also need to configure your name and email for git:

git config --global user.email "[email protected]"
git config --global user.name "Your Name"

answered Dec 21, 2017 at 5:56

Sergi Pasoevi

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