Change git email for previous commits

Question

So I read a lot about how to change previous commit\'s email address but for some reason mine is not updating.

I did like 40 commits to my private repo with my loca

Answer 1

As you mentioned in your question (the link to the answer you found), this is the script indeed.

Note:

filter-branch is doing a rebase (will rewrite the history of the branch) which means that everyone who had a copy of the branch will have to delete and checkout it again.

---

The script origin is from here - Git-Tools-Rewriting-History:

# Loop over all the commits and use the --commit-filter
# to change only the email addresses

git filter-branch --commit-filter '

    # check to see if the committer (email is the desired one)
    if [ "$GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL" = "<Old Email>" ];
    then
            # Set the new desired name
            GIT_COMMITTER_NAME="<New Name>";
            GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="<New Name>";

            # Set the new desired email
            GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL="<New Email>";
            GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL="<New Email>";

            # (re) commit with the updated information
            git commit-tree "$@";
    else
            # No need to update so commit as is
            git commit-tree "$@";
    fi' 
HEAD

---

What does the script do?

Its looping over all your commits and once you find match its replacing the name and email of the committer.

Answer 2

You can indeed do his for many commits at once like this:

git rebase -i HEAD~40 -x "git commit --amend --author 'Author Name <author.name@mail.com>' --no-edit"

I worked this out better in this answer.