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Git Tips: Create git commit in the past or future!

Introduction

Commit smaller chunks of code often, and always commit in the present.

git-commit man page: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit

git commit takes author and committer information from the following environment variables if they are set:

  • GIT_AUTHOR_NAME
  • GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL
  • GIT_AUTHOR_DATE
  • GIT_COMMITTER_NAME
  • GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL
  • GIT_COMMITTER_DATE

While author/committer name and email environment variables are useful for overrides, we are more interested in GIT_AUTHOR_DATE and GIT_COMMITTER_DATE.

Date format

ISO 8601 format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS +TZOF with T replaced with space and +TZOF representing the timezone of choice (say, +0530 in the case of IST (Indian Standard Time)).

Example: 2013-05-13 09:00:00 +0530

Supported date formats are further explained on git-commit man page {{< newtabref href=””https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit#_date_formats“” title=””https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit#_date_formats“” >}}

Commit command

GIT_AUTHOR_DATE=""2020-11-30 00:12:24 +0530"" GIT_COMMITTER_DATE=""2020-11-30 00:12:24 +0530"" git commit -m ""Adding editor config""

# [main 236973a] Adding editor config
# 3 files changed, 94 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
# create mode 100644 .editorconfig

Check the outcome via git log.

git log -1

# commit 236973afc671b6812dd2713deb973f61b0dc0234 (HEAD -> main)
# Author: Pranav Kulkarni [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
# Date: Mon Nov 30 00:12:24 2020 +0530

# Adding editorconfig