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hcarrasko
Asked: 2020-12-18 09:32:08 +0800 CST 2020-12-18 09:32:08 +0800 CST

How to modify the message of a particular commit?

  • 772

I would like to modify the message of a particular commit, I know that with the following command I can modify the message of the last commit made:

git commit --amend -m "your new message"

But how can I modify the message of the penultimate commit made? It's possible?

git

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You can use git rebaseto go to an old commit. For example, if you have these commits:

    HEAD
Commit1  aac723ab
Commit2  cdc213ff
Commit3  aff521cd

    and you want to modify the Commit 2you would do the following:

    git rebase --interactive cdc213ff^

    In the editor that will come out (the default) put edit, ror rewordinstead of pickin the line of the commit you want to modify.

    Something like that:

    Before:

    pick cdc213ff Mensaje del commit que deseas modificar

    After:

    reword cdc213ff Mensaje del commit que deseas modificar

    Make your changes (if any) and then make the new commit:

    git commit --all --amend -m "Tu nuevo mensaje"

    And after that:

    git rebase --continue

    To return to your HEADprevious.

    Caution:

    This is not recommended in public repositories since if there are programmers who based their changes on subsequent commits, they will have a kind of ghost code and it will cause a lot of confusion. But in your case, if you're just going to change the message then there's not much of a problem. You can see those recommendations here.

    • 11

  2. What you have to do is an rebaseinteractive ( -i) using the same command reword.

    First run git rebase -i <hash-del-commit>~1to ask to make rebasethe current branch interactive from the previous commit ( ~1) that you want to modify. That will fire you $EDITORwith a list of all the commits that exist from that to the top of your branch, indicating the pick, hash and message of each one. Something like:

    pick abcdef0 Mensaje del commit más nuevo
pick bcdef01 Mensaje del commit anterior
...
pick fde2152 Mensaje del commit a editar

    Change pickto ror rewordin the line of the commit to edit. Something like that:

    pick abcdef0 Mensaje del commit más nuevo
pick bcdef01 Mensaje del commit anterior
...
r fde2152 Mensaje del commit a editar

    Save the file and exit the editor, and it's gitgoing to go back to that commitand fire the $EDITORagain, but this time with the commit message there. Something like:

    Mensaje del commit a editar

Este mensaje es el que habías escrito en el primer
git commit, y que ahora querés reemplazar por uno nuevo

    Edit the post to make it the way you want, save the file, exit the editor, and gitapply all the missing commits so your branch looks the same, except for having the updated post.

    Do not forget that you are modifying the history of your repository , so if you had published the commit to which you are editing the message or any of its successors, you can generate conflicts with the rest of your team.

    • 5

  3. This implies rewriting history. You must take into account that it is CONTRAINDICATED to rewrite the history of commits that are already in a remote.

    That said, you can rewrite the history and therefore change the message of a commit using the command git-rebasewith the following syntax:

    git rebase $COMMITID~1

    Then git opens an editor with content similar to the following:

    pick af65427 foo
pick 1d4ba60 bar
pick 9679424 baz
pick 4ac4adc bax

    In this editor you change the word pick to the word reword

    pick af65427 foo
reword 1d4ba60 bar
pick 9679424 baz
pick 4ac4adc bax

    Git will then open an editor where you can capture the new message of your commit.

    barbarbar

# Please enter the commit message for your changes. Lines starting
# with '#' will be ignored, and an empty message aborts the commit.
#
# Author:    asdfasdf <[email protected]>
# Date:      Wed Nov 18 11:45:44 2015 -0600
#
# interactive rebase in progress; onto 1b90076
# Last commands done (2 commands done):
#    pick af65427 actualizacion shells para produccion
#    reword 1d4ba60 acualizacion shell extract_correct_invalid_account
# Next commands to do (2 remaining commands):
#    pick 9679424 correccion test, dado que usuario es requerido
#    pick 4ac4adc validacion cuando viene MXP en movimientos de cuenta
# You are currently editing a commit while rebasing branch 'develop' on '1b90076'.
#
# Changes to be committed:
#   modified:   xxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xx
#
# Untracked files:
#   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxx.log
#   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/foo.txt

    Once you close the editor, git will rewrite post-reword commits and update your current branch reference

    Cheers

    • 5