Show HN: Git-knife – edit commit messages, authors, and dates like a spreadsheet

iamcoder18•about 1 hour ago

This is cool, but has anyone ever needed to rewrite commit authors or dates?

simonw•23 minutes ago

I've needed to do this for a bunch of reasons.

1. Sometimes I do a scraping project where I want the commit dates to match when the data actually changed, reconstructed from sources like the Internet Archive or the dates on https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/release-notes/system-pro... - for example here: https://github.com/simonw/research/commits/main/extract-syst... - or this project that attempted to reconstruct the history of Tim Berners-Lee's original browser: https://github.com/simonw/1991-WWW-NeXT-Implementation/commi...

2. Sometimes I split a Git repo into two, and I want to preserve the commit history (authors and dates) on the files that end up in the new repo - effectively replay the history of just one folder from the original to help create the new one.

3. I occasionally mess up cleaning up and merging a PR from an open source contributor such that the work is incorrectly credited to me. I'll fix the commit so that it credits the right person.

fmorel•19 minutes ago

git-filter-repo is amazing for the second case. I've used it to split repos and rename folders multiple times.

simonw•17 minutes ago

Yeah, I wrote a TIL about that a few years ago: https://til.simonwillison.net/git/rewrite-repo-specific-file...

xp84•about 1 hour ago

Yes, for instance it could be useful if someone’s been accidentally committing with a bogus email address. Or if you’re cleaning up some sort of mess and would like to recreate an accurate history.

Obviously as with any “force push” situation, the usual caveats apply if this is on a branch others have checked out, but if the mess is big enough, it is sometimes worth it to send everyone a script to reset or just to have people delete and re-check-out.

schainks•31 minutes ago

If someone's been committing with a bogus email address and they're still working on the project, shouldn't they clean up their own commits?

blazarquasar•27 minutes ago

Yeah, using this tool for example?

webstrand•11 minutes ago

Usually its me who has been committing with a bogus email address, because I don't like having my real user/email set in my $HOME/.gitconfig

f1shy•42 minutes ago

Yes. Absolutely! Many times I had a wrong configured terminal and messed up the author. Often I work in different projects, privately and in my work, and I use different authors for both

icase•about 1 hour ago

yes; when i wanted to make it look like i didn’t procrastinate for a week and implement the entire feature in one day

mellosouls•about 1 hour ago

Hmmm, this seems to be making easy something you normally should not do.

Carrok•about 1 hour ago

So, exactly like a knife? Generally we don't want to cut people open, but when we need to do it, like during surgery, a sharp knife sure helps.