git-dates-modifier 0.1.0

Interactively rewrite Git commit author and committer dates.

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Git Dates Modifier

📌 Overview

Git Dates Modifier, a Python script to rewrite commit dates (author date and committer date) selectively based on commit message matching. It supports separate modification of AuthorDate and CommitterDate for each matched commit.

✨ Features

• Read the repository commit history and display AuthorDate and CommitterDate.
• Interactively specify new Author and/or Committer dates for each commit.
• Support using now to set the date to the current time.
• Preview planned changes before rewriting history.
• Uses git-filter-repo for safe and flexible history rewriting.

⚠️ Important Warning

This script rewrites Git history. Rewriting history will change commit SHAs and can cause problems for collaborators or any public branches. Make a backup and ensure you understand the consequences before running the script. Prefer using this on local branches or repositories where you can force-push and coordinate with other contributors.

🧩 Prerequisites

1. Python 3.8+ (or a Python 3.x environment).

2. git available on your PATH.

3. git-filter-repo Python package installed. Install with:

   pip install git-filter-repo
   

🛠 Installation / Setup

Option 1: Install from PyPI (Recommended)

Install from PyPI, for example, using pip:

pip install git-dates-modifier

After installation, run it inside any git repository:

git-dates-modifier

Make sure the installation path of pip is included in your PATH.

Option 2: Run from source

Copy the script and place the script at the root of your git repository.

Ensure the script is executable or run it with Python. The script checks for a .git folder in the current working directory and will fail if not executed from a repo root.

▶️ Usage

Run the script from your repository root:

git-dates-modifier

The script will:

1. Read commits (in chronological order).
2. Prompt you for new Author Date and Committer Date for each commit.
   • Press Enter to keep the original date.
   • Enter now to use the current time.
   • Use a date/time string in the format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS (example: 2025-10-24 11:22:33).
3. Build a mapping of commit messages → date changes.
4. Show a preview of planned changes.
5. Ask for confirmation before executing git-filter-repo to rewrite history.

Example prompt responses

• To skip changes for a commit: press Enter at both prompts.
• To update only the Author date: supply value only for the Author prompt.
• To set both dates to now: enter now at both prompts.

🧯 Safety & Troubleshooting

• Backup first: create a clone or branch backup: git clone --mirror . /path/to/backup or git branch backup-YYYYMMDD
• If git-filter-repo is missing, the script exits with a helpful instruction to install it.
• If the script fails during git-filter-repo, the error will be printed. Investigate the message and restore from your backup if necessary.
• The script uses exact message matching. If multiple commits share the same message body, they will receive the same changes.

📤 After Rewriting

Verify the new dates locally:

git log --format=fuller --date=iso

When ready to publish the rewritten history, force-push (with caution):

git push --force --all

Coordinate with any collaborators to avoid conflicts.

🌐 Encoding & Timezones

• Input date strings should be in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format. The script tries to parse that and append the local timezone offset.
• now sets the date to the current local time and includes the local timezone offset.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the terms described in the LICENSE file.