7641

I wrote the wrong thing in a commit message.

How can I change the message? The commit has not been pushed yet.

1
  • 868
    For those somewhat new to git: Laurie's point about having not yet pushed is important. Like rebasing, this is changing the history. If someone has cloned/pulled from your repo between the original and rewritten history then they won't be able to pull after the rewrite (for that branch).
    – Pat Notz
    Commented Oct 10, 2008 at 20:12

27 Answers 27

18679
+150

Amending the most recent commit message

git commit --amend

will open your editor, allowing you to change the commit message of the most recent commit. Additionally, you can set the commit message directly in the command line with:

git commit --amend -m "New commit message"

…however, this can make multi-line commit messages or small corrections more cumbersome to enter.

Make sure you don't have any working copy changes staged before doing this or they will get committed too. (Unstaged changes will not get committed.)

Changing the message of a commit that you've already pushed to your remote branch

If you've already pushed your commit up to your remote branch, then - after amending your commit locally (as described above) - you'll also need to force push the commit with:

git push <remote> <branch> --force
# Or
git push <remote> <branch> -f

Warning: force-pushing will overwrite the remote branch with the state of your local one. If there are commits on the remote branch that you don't have in your local branch, you will lose those commits.

Warning: be cautious about amending commits that you have already shared with other people. Amending commits essentially rewrites them to have different SHA IDs, which poses a problem if other people have copies of the old commit that you've rewritten. Anyone who has a copy of the old commit will need to synchronize their work with your newly re-written commit, which can sometimes be difficult, so make sure you coordinate with others when attempting to rewrite shared commit history, or just avoid rewriting shared commits altogether.


Perform an interactive rebase

Another option is to use interactive rebase. This allows you to edit any message you want to update even if it's not the latest message.

In order to do a Git squash, follow these steps:

// n is the number of commits up to the last commit you want to be able to edit
git rebase -i HEAD~n

Once you squash your commits - choose the e/r for editing the message:

Screenshot of terminal while editing commit

Important note about interactive rebase

When you use git rebase -i HEAD~n there can be more than n commits. Git will "collect" all the commits in the last n commits, and if there was a merge somewhere in between that range you will see all the commits as well, so the outcome will be n + .

Good tip:

If you have to do it for more than a single branch and you might face conflicts when amending the content, set up git rerere and let Git resolve those conflicts automatically for you.


Documentation

36
  • 277
    However git commit --amend isnt as powerful as git rebase -i. Commented Jul 5, 2010 at 8:40
  • 82
    @jeffjose, It definitely doesn't need to be. Also, git commit --amend can fix up the (a?) master commit.
    – strager
    Commented Jul 14, 2010 at 6:02
  • 125
    If you've already pushed, just force push again: git push -f origin branchname
    – hughes
    Commented May 2, 2012 at 14:12
  • 193
    @hughes isn't git push -f a bit dangerous if other people are using the same repository?
    – Armand
    Commented Nov 8, 2012 at 7:48
  • 107
    If you don't want to rewrite the entire commit message, go for git commit --amend -c HEAD. This will open the editor pre-populated with your old commit message, so you can change it.
    – Sam
    Commented Nov 14, 2012 at 15:38
2675
git commit --amend -m "your new message"
16
  • 9
    I did git commit --amend -m "New message", but pushing to Github generated the "Merge the remote changes before pushing again". After pull, commit --amend, and push again, the new message doesn't appear. Instead I have "Merge branch 'master' of github.com:[myrepo]" Commented Oct 14, 2011 at 16:58
  • 8
    @DaveEveritt you most likely pushed your commit upstream before trying to fix it. Commented Apr 25, 2013 at 8:21
  • 12
    @Kyralessa not true. In bash you can easily compose multiline commit messages by just not closing the quote until you're done (hitting return at the end of each line within the quotes).
    – hobs
    Commented Jun 11, 2013 at 21:11
  • 42
    I don't get how an answer that looks a lot like just the main idea of an answer that was written two years ago and also the accepted answer gets so many votes. Strange. (nothing wrong with the answer though) Commented Jan 15, 2014 at 5:30
  • 11
    @AmalMurali, well. My point wasn't so much about the popularity of the question, nor the utility of the answer. But this particular answer is not the oldest answer, nor does it offer any further insight into the accepted answer. It appears to be a copy of a section of the accepted answer. That was my point. CHEERS! Commented May 21, 2014 at 20:16
2503

If the commit you want to fix isn’t the most recent one:

  1. git rebase --interactive $parent_of_flawed_commit

    If you want to fix several flawed commits, pass the parent of the oldest one of them.

    Use -p (--preserve-merges) if there was a merge after the flawed commit (thanks @ahven)

  2. An editor will come up, with a list of all commits since the one you gave.

    1. Change pick to reword (or on old versions of Git, to edit) in front of any commits you want to fix.
    2. Once you save, Git will replay the listed commits.

  3. For each commit you want to reword, Git will drop you back into your editor. For each commit you want to edit, Git drops you into the shell. If you’re in the shell:

    1. Change the commit in any way you like.
    2. git commit --amend
    3. git rebase --continue

Most of this sequence will be explained to you by the output of the various commands as you go. It’s very easy; you don’t need to memorise it – just remember that git rebase --interactive lets you correct commits no matter how long ago they were.


Note that you will not want to change commits that you have already pushed. Or maybe you do, but in that case you will have to take great care to communicate with everyone who may have pulled your commits and done work on top of them. How do I recover/resynchronise after someone pushes a rebase or a reset to a published branch?

12
  • 46
    Can one change the message of the first commit (which doesn't have a parent)?
    – 13ren
    Commented Jan 21, 2010 at 19:57
  • 28
    This is mentioned in one of the other answers but I will put a note of it here. Since git 1.6.6 you can use reword in place of pick to edit the log message.
    – MitMaro
    Commented May 31, 2010 at 13:27
  • 92
    Incidentally, $parent_of_flawed_commit is equivalent to $flawed_commit^.
    – Peeja
    Commented Nov 28, 2010 at 23:26
  • 70
    Never EVER do this (or rebase in general) if you have already pushed upstream! Commented May 31, 2011 at 19:14
  • 24
    Use -p (--preserve-merges) if there was a merge after the flawed commit.
    – ahven
    Commented Jan 31, 2012 at 14:37
827

To amend the previous commit, make the changes you want and stage those changes, and then run

git commit --amend

This will open a file in your text editor representing your new commit message. It starts out populated with the text from your old commit message. Change the commit message as you want, then save the file and quit your editor to finish.

To amend the previous commit and keep the same log message, run

git commit --amend -C HEAD

To fix the previous commit by removing it entirely, run

git reset --hard HEAD^

If you want to edit more than one commit message, run

git rebase -i HEAD~commit_count

(Replace commit_count with number of commits that you want to edit.) This command launches your editor. Mark the first commit (the one that you want to change) as “edit” instead of “pick”, then save and exit your editor. Make the change you want to commit and then run

git commit --amend
git rebase --continue

Note: You can also "Make the change you want" from the editor opened by git commit --amend

5
  • 24
    git rebase -i HEAD~commit_count will also allow you to change the commit messages of however many commits you choose. Just mark the chosen commits as "reword" instead of "pick".
    – Joe
    Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 20:21
  • 4
    What if you don't want to rebase? You just want to change an older message? Commented Apr 21, 2016 at 8:56
  • 4
    git reset --hard annihilates uncommitted changes. Please replace --hard with --soft.
    – eel ghEEz
    Commented Feb 28, 2018 at 17:44
  • 4
    Agreed, git reset --hard is a perfectly legitimate command, but it is misleading given the question. You use --hard if you committed changes you want to throw away, not if you made a typo in the commit message! Commented Jul 22, 2019 at 13:52
  • @Joe you should have just move your comment as answer. It's the most versatile solution I think.
    – mr5
    Commented May 17 at 2:44
412

As already mentioned, git commit --amend is the way to overwrite the last commit. One note: if you would like to also overwrite the files, the command would be

git commit -a --amend -m "My new commit message"
1
  • 5
    And if you don't want to add everything, you can first do git add file.ext then just git commit --amend Commented Sep 22, 2015 at 5:56
368

You also can use git filter-branch for that.

git filter-branch -f --msg-filter "sed 's/errror/error/'" $flawed_commit..HEAD

It's not as easy as a trivial git commit --amend, but it's especially useful, if you already have some merges after your erroneous commit message.

Note that this will try to rewrite every commit between HEAD and the flawed commit, so you should choose your msg-filter command very wisely ;-)

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  • 4
    Is there a version of this that does not change the commit if the regex doesn't find anything? Commented Mar 28, 2013 at 20:08
  • 3
    AFAIK filter-branch --msg-filter will generate new commits in any case. However, you could check within the msg-filter, if the sed succeeded and use this information when the filter-branch operation ends to reset your tree to refs/original.
    – Mark
    Commented Mar 29, 2013 at 16:16
  • 4
    @DavidHogue This is only true when using the filter-branch method. The commit IDs following a modified commit do not change if you use the interactive rebase.
    – Mark
    Commented Jul 6, 2013 at 19:08
  • 7
    @Mark Yes they do, they are required to. Commit ids are dependent on previous commits. If they didn't change, git would be useless.
    – mrr
    Commented Jan 11, 2014 at 4:45
  • 2
    You need $flawed_commit^..HEAD, not $flawed_commit..HEAD. as stated by the man page: «The command will only rewrite the positive refs mentioned in the command line (e.g. if you pass a..b, only b will be rewritten).»
    – Ángel
    Commented Jul 29, 2014 at 11:18
339

I prefer this way:

git commit --amend -c <commit ID>

Otherwise, there will be a new commit with a new commit ID.

8
  • 10
    For me, using your command above actually creates a new commit with a new commit ID plus an extra commit saying "merge branch" as a default commit message.
    – Jan
    Commented Mar 29, 2013 at 16:27
  • 49
    Amending always creates a new commit with a new commit ID. The commit ID is the SHA hash of the contents of the commit, including the commit message and authored/committed timestamps. This is a feature of Git that, barring hash collisions, ensures that two commits with the same ID are exactly the same commit, with exactly the same content, history and so on. Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 9:30
  • 8
    Agree with Emil. Additionally, reading the docs - it seems that all "-c" does is tell git which commit's message to use as the default/template for your new commit..Really its already going to do "-c <commit ID>" by default, so no need to specify it.
    – Gal
    Commented Sep 29, 2013 at 19:12
  • 2
    The -c does a few things. It uses the old message by default, but it also copies authorship information (person and time). -C does the same thing except that it does not ask you to edit the message. Commented Dec 28, 2014 at 2:55
  • 3
    Like @SantanuDey , it didn't work for me. I got fatal: Option -m cannot be combined with -c/-C/-F/--fixup. Commented Apr 14, 2015 at 5:22
318

If you are using the Git GUI tool, there is a button named Amend last commit. Click on that button and then it will display your last commit files and message. Just edit that message, and you can commit it with a new commit message.

Or use this command from a console/terminal:

git commit -a --amend -m "My new commit message"
2
  • 7
    This answer is literally identical to this older one. Have you checked existing answers before supplying another one? Commented May 2, 2019 at 1:15
  • 2
    This answer is not literally identical. It is not even identical in the meaning, as this answer adds the information that this can be done in a GUI too. Not sure to which GUI he is referring. I know that GitHub Desktop has this feature, and most other GUI clients probably too, or they can do more. Commented May 18, 2023 at 14:39
291

You can use Git rebasing. For example, if you want to modify back to commit bbc643cd, run

$ git rebase bbc643cd^ --interactive

In the default editor, modify 'pick' to 'edit' in the line whose commit you want to modify. Make your changes and then stage them with

$ git add <filepattern>

Now you can use

$ git commit --amend

to modify the commit, and after that

$ git rebase --continue

to return back to the previous head commit.

1
  • 2
    If you want to make sure your change from git commit --amend took affect you can use git show and it will show the new message. Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 20:12
282
  1. If you only want to modify your last commit message, then do:

    git commit --amend
    

That will drop you into your text editor and let you change the last commit message.

  1. If you want to change the last three commit messages, or any of the commit messages up to that point, supply HEAD~3 to the git rebase -i command:

    git rebase -i HEAD~3
    
3
  • 7
    This earlier answer already says that you can use git commit --amend, and it also says that you can use git rebase -i HEAD~commit_count, all you did was plug in 3 for commit_count.
    – user456814
    Commented Jul 23, 2014 at 12:21
  • 1
    Downvoted as well. People just don't bother to read existing answers. Commented May 2, 2019 at 1:16
  • 1
    This is not complete answer, missing "Find the commit you want, change pick to r (reword)..." as explained explained here stackoverflow.com/a/28421811/1818723 Commented Jul 13, 2021 at 15:41
267

If you have to change an old commit message over multiple branches (i.e., the commit with the erroneous message is present in multiple branches) you might want to use:

git filter-branch -f --msg-filter \
'sed "s/<old message>/<new message>/g"' -- --all

Git will create a temporary directory for rewriting and additionally backup old references in refs/original/.

  • -f will enforce the execution of the operation. This is necessary if the temporary directory is already present or if there are already references stored under refs/original. If that is not the case, you can drop this flag.

  • -- separates filter-branch options from revision options.

  • --all will make sure that all branches and tags are rewritten.

Due to the backup of your old references, you can easily go back to the state before executing the command.

Say, you want to recover your master and access it in branch old_master:

git checkout -b old_master refs/original/refs/heads/master
1
  • 4
    This answer doesn't address the OP's question, as they're purely interested in fixing a commit they've only just done. I regularly use git commit --amend to fix up comments or add files I forgot to git add, but only ever before I've git pushed. I also use git filter-branch when I want to totally mess with the version history, but the OP doesn't want this, so this answer needs a big health warning - don't try this at home, peeps!!
    – kbro
    Commented Jun 29, 2013 at 3:17
264

If it's your last commit, just amend the commit:

git commit --amend -o -m "New commit message"

(Using the -o (--only) flag to make sure you change only the commit message)


If it's a buried commit, use the awesome interactive rebase:

git rebase -i @~9   # Show the last 9 commits in a text editor

Find the commit you want, change pick to r (reword), and save and close the file. Done!



Miniature Vim tutorial (or, how to rebase with only 8 keystrokes 3jcwrEscZZ):

  • Run vimtutor if you have time
  • hjkl correspond to movement keys
  • All commands can be prefixed with a "range", e.g. 3j moves down three lines
  • i to enter insert mode — text you type will appear in the file
  • Esc or Ctrlc to exit insert mode and return to "normal" mode
  • u to undo
  • Ctrlr to redo
  • dd, dw, dl to delete a line, word, or letter, respectively
  • cc, cw, cl to change a line, word, or letter, respectively (same as ddi)
  • yy, yw, yl to copy ("yank") a line, word, or letter, respectively
  • p or P to paste after, or before current position, respectively
  • :wEnter to save (write) a file
  • :q!Enter to quit without saving
  • :wqEnter or ZZ to save and quit

If you edit text a lot, then switch to the Dvorak keyboard layout, learn to touch-type, and learn Vim. Is it worth the effort? Yes.



ProTip™: Don't be afraid to experiment with "dangerous" commands that rewrite history* — Git doesn't delete your commits for 90 days by default; you can find them in the reflog:

$ git reset @~3   # Go back three commits
$ git reflog
c4f708b HEAD@{0}: reset: moving to @~3
2c52489 HEAD@{1}: commit: more changes
4a5246d HEAD@{2}: commit: make important changes
e8571e4 HEAD@{3}: commit: make some changes
... earlier commits ...
$ git reset 2c52489
... and you're back where you started

* Watch out for options like --hard and --force though — they can discard data. * Also, don't rewrite history on any branches you're collaborating on.

3
  • 5
    The vim part is completely off-topic, and instead of encouraging users to spend time learning to use an arcane editor, why not teach them something more on-topic, like how to set up the default git editor to be something user friendly, like nano? We're talking about trivial modifications that need to be made to a text file, not hardcore coding that would generate a flame war about the "best" text editor. Commented May 2, 2019 at 1:19
  • 5
    @DanDascalescu: Because it's quicker to learn Vim using the instructions above than perform several rebases using nano. The whole reason git opens a text editor and not its own interface for rebasing is because Vim exists: it's lightweight, installed by default on most systems, and very easy to learn enough to perform a rebase with ease: e.g. ddjjpZZ moves a commit 2 down. There's nothing arcane about basic Vim knowledge; it takes 10min to become more comfortable with Vim than nano.
    – Zaz
    Commented May 2, 2019 at 22:07
  • 5
    The -o flag is exactly what I was looking for: how to change the commit message without adding staged files. Thank you!
    – Liran H
    Commented Apr 25, 2022 at 8:32
229

Use

git commit --amend

To understand it in detail, an excellent post is 4. Rewriting Git History. It also talks about when not to use git commit --amend.

4
  • 2
    Is there a good way to fix commit messages already pushed to a public repository? So far I have come to the conclusion that, once pushed, my commit message typos and thinkos have to live forever. Commented Jun 4, 2013 at 11:32
  • 2
    In a word, NOPE! There is no GOOD way to retract something you have pushed. All retractions are BAD to a greater or lesser degree. You need to adopt the discipline of working in a branch in your own private repository, doing multiple commits as you add a bit, test a bit, tweak a bit. Then merge your entire branch into a single commit, write a new commit message describing the overall change, PROOFREAD it, and push.
    – kbro
    Commented Jun 29, 2013 at 3:29
  • 1
    Just to point out the obvious that one doesn't have to make a single commit when going back from a feature branch. What many people do is rebase on the target branch (to make things look clean) then merge with the option to suppress fast-forwarding. Agree with the main point of being careful before you push up though.
    – ShawnFumo
    Commented Sep 11, 2013 at 18:20
  • 2
    The git commit --amend answer had already been given (several times) before you wrote yours. Why did you post it again? If you wanted to add a link to "Rewriting Git History" you could've edited one of the existing answers, or left a comment. Commented May 2, 2019 at 1:17
201

Amend

You have a couple of options here. You can do

git commit --amend

as long as it's your last commit.

Interactive rebase

Otherwise, if it's not your last commit, you can do an interactive rebase,

git rebase -i [branched_from] [hash before commit]

Then inside the interactive rebase you simply add edit to that commit. When it comes up, do a git commit --amend and modify the commit message. If you want to roll back before that commit point, you could also use git reflog and just delete that commit. Then you just do a git commit again.

186

If you are using the Git GUI, you can amend the last commit which hasn't been pushed with:

Commit/Amend Last Commit
169

I use the Git GUI as much as I can, and that gives you the option to amend the last commit:

Tick that box

Also, git rebase -i origin/masteris a nice mantra that will always present you with the commits you have done on top of master, and give you the option to amend, delete, reorder or squash. No need to get hold of that hash first.

1
  • 2
    It's the lower right portion of the Windows Git Gui. Just select the 'Amend Last Commit' toggle, and it will populate with the most recent commit info.
    – wbdarby
    Commented Jan 29, 2016 at 16:51
150

For anyone looking for a Windows/Mac GUI to help with editing older messages (i.e. not just the latest message), I'd recommend Sourcetree. The steps to follow are below the image.

Sourcetree interactive rebase

For commits that haven't been pushed to a remote yet:

  1. Make sure you've committed or stashed all current changes (i.e., so there are no files listed in the "File Status" tab) - it won't work otherwise.
  2. In the "Log / History" tab, right click on the entry with an adjoining line in the graph one below the commit(s) you wish to edit and select "Rebase children of <commit ref> interactively..."
  3. Select the whole row for a commit message you wish to change (click on the "Message" column).
  4. Click the "Edit Message" button.
  5. Edit the message as desired in the dialog that comes up and then click OK.
  6. Repeat steps 3-4 if there are other commit messages to change.
  7. Click OK: Rebasing will commence. If all is well, the output will end "Completed successfully". NOTE: I've sometimes seen this fail with Unable to create 'project_path/.git/index.lock': File exists. when trying to modify multiple commit messages at the same time. Not sure exactly what the issue is, or whether it will be fixed in a future version of Sourcetree, but if this happens would recommend rebasing them one at a time (slower but seems more reliable).

...Or... for commits that have already been pushed:

Follow the steps in this answer, which are similar to above, but require a further command to be run from the command line (git push origin <branch> -f) to force-push the branch. I'd recommend reading it all and applying the necessary caution!

1
  • 2
    out of all answers — this is the most appropriate for all git newbies ^^^ (use a free program SourceTree and apply "Rebase children of" on a commit before the one you want to edit)
    – revelt
    Commented Jun 29, 2019 at 5:53
141

Wow, so there are a lot of ways to do this.

Yet another way to do this is to delete the last commit, but keep its changes so that you won't lose your work. You can then do another commit with the corrected message. This would look something like this:

git reset --soft HEAD~1
git commit -m 'New and corrected commit message'

I always do this if I forget to add a file or do a change.

Remember to specify --soft instead of --hard, otherwise you lose that commit entirely.

4
  • 5
    This does the exact same thing as git commit --amend except that it is a 2-step process. Commented Dec 28, 2014 at 2:58
  • 4
    @JosephK.Strauss I believe ammending the commit also keeps original commit author and date information, having the new commiter and date info separately. I'm not sure this approach does that.
    – everag
    Commented May 7, 2016 at 23:13
  • 4
    @EvertonAgner You are correct. --amend will keep the author information, but the question only asks to change the message. Commented May 9, 2016 at 13:59
  • Small correction over here you to added the files back again if all files than git add . can be used an post that git commit -m "New message" and git push origin BRANCH_NAME Commented May 27, 2021 at 13:47
132

If you just want to edit the latest commit, use:

git commit --amend

or

git commit --amend -m 'one line message'

But if you want to edit several commits in a row, you should use rebasing instead:

git rebase -i <hash of one commit before the wrong commit>

Git rebase editing

In a file, like the one above, write edit/e or one of the other options, and hit save and exit.

Now you'll be at the first wrong commit. Make changes in the files, and they'll be automatically staged for you. Type

git commit --amend

Save and exit that and type

git rebase --continue

to move to next selection until finished with all your selections.

Note that these things change all your SHA hashes after that particular commit.

2
  • 2
    git rebase -i <hash of one commit before the wrong commit> works for me. thanks.
    – Viraths
    Commented Apr 13, 2018 at 0:57
  • All the messages in the rebase file are one liners, but I have originally multiple new lines. I'm afraid it'll get all messed up if save it that way. I tried to arrange the edit in the original form but the message gets trimmed to the the first line, so I had to reset the changes. How do I preserve the original text form?
    – Multifix
    Commented Sep 8, 2023 at 19:29
130

If you only want to change your last message you should use the --only flag or its shortcut -o with commit --amend:

git commit --amend -o -m "New commit message"

This ensures that you don't accidentally enhance your commit with staged stuff. Of course it's best to have a proper $EDITOR configuration. Then you can leave the -m option out, and Git will pre-fill the commit message with the old one. In this way it can be easily edited.

4
  • 1
    The "top" answer doesn't answer the question. It just gives a general introduction to git commit --amend. The question was very specific, therefore longer != better. The decisive mentioning of the -o flag would probably be buried in the rest of the information. I'm also not comfortable editing an answer which has so many votes already. Commented Jul 20, 2014 at 20:51
  • 2
    That being said you're free to edit the top answer, since there is a real danger that people are using that as the "correct" answer. It can easily happen to amend your commit with staged stuff -- it happened to me, and it's really annoying when you happen to push that. But still, quantity is no guarantee for correctness. Neither in number of answers nor in number of votes. Commented Jul 20, 2014 at 20:51
  • 1
    I wouldn't go so far to say that the top answer is "incorrect" and that it "doesn't answer the question". It definitely works and answers the question, you just need to make sure that you don't have staged changes when you try to amend. But I see your point about having to warn people about that. I'll edit it in later if I have time.
    – user456814
    Commented Jul 21, 2014 at 21:26
  • 2
    To be fair: even though the --only option with --amend is available since git 1.3.0 it didn't work correctly till it was fixed in 1.7.11.3 (ea2d4ed35902ce15959965ab86d80527731a177c). So the right answer back in 2008 would probably have been something like: git stash; git commit --amend; git stash pop. Commented Jul 21, 2014 at 23:00
106

Update your last wrong commit message with the new commit message in one line:

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

Or, try Git reset like below:

# You can reset your head to n number of commit
# NOT a good idea for changing last commit message,
# but you can get an idea to split commit into multiple commits
git reset --soft HEAD^

# It will reset you last commit. Now, you
# can re-commit it with new commit message.

Using reset to split commits into smaller commits

git reset can help you to break one commit into multiple commits too:

# Reset your head. I am resetting to last commits:
git reset --soft HEAD^
# (You can reset multiple commit by doing HEAD~2(no. of commits)

# Now, reset your head for splitting it to multiple commits
git reset HEAD

# Add and commit your files separately to make multiple commits: e.g
git add app/
git commit -m "add all files in app directory"

git add config/
git commit -m "add all files in config directory"

Here you have successfully broken your last commit into two commits.

2
  • 3
    If all you want to do is to edit the message of your last commit, using a soft reset for that purpose is over-kill. Just use git commit --amend, exactly like how it says in the top voted answer. Additionally, git reset --soft HEAD^ works identically to the soft reset in this earlier answer, because they both reset back to the first parent commit.
    – user456814
    Commented Jul 21, 2014 at 23:15
  • 3
    I only bother to add git reset in the solution just to give an idea to split one commit message into multiple commit messages. Because, I have faced that problem when, I was starting to use git. Sometimes, this can be really helpfull. :)
    – przbadu
    Commented Jul 22, 2014 at 6:29
96

On this question there are a lot of answers, but none of them explains in super detail how to change older commit messages using Vim. I was stuck trying to do this myself, so here I'll write down in detail how I did this especially for people who have no experience in Vim!

I wanted to change my five latest commits that I already pushed to the server. This is quite 'dangerous' because if someone else already pulled from this, you can mess things up by changing the commit messages. However, when you’re working on your own little branch and are sure no one pulled it you can change it like this:

Let's say you want to change your five latest commits, and then you type this in the terminal:

git rebase -i HEAD~5

*Where 5 is the number of commit messages you want to change (so if you want to change the 10th to last commit, you type in 10).

This command will get you into Vim there you can ‘edit’ your commit history. You’ll see your last five commits at the top like this:

pick <commit hash> commit message

Instead of pick you need to write reword. You can do this in Vim by typing in i. That makes you go in to insert mode. (You see that you’re in insert mode by the word INSERT at the bottom.) For the commits you want to change, type in reword instead of pick.

Then you need to save and quit this screen. You do that by first going in to ‘command-mode’ by pressing the Escbutton (you can check that you’re in command-mode if the word INSERT at the bottom has disappeared). Then you can type in a command by typing :. The command to save and quit is wq. So if you type in :wq you’re on the right track.

Then Vim will go over every commit message you want to reword, and here you can actually change the commit messages. You’ll do this by going into insert mode, changing the commit message, going into the command-mode, and save and quit. Do this five times and you’re out of Vim!

Then, if you already pushed your wrong commits, you need to git push --force to overwrite them. Remember that git push --force is quite a dangerous thing to do, so make sure that no one pulled from the server since you pushed your wrong commits!

Now you have changed your commit messages!

(As you see, I'm not that experienced in Vim, so if I used the wrong 'lingo' to explain what's happening, feel free to correct me!)

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    <nitpick>There are no "threads" on Stack Overflow, because it's not a discussion forum, there are only "questions", "answers", and "posts".</nitpick>. Also, not all versions of Vim are the same, not all of them will let you delete characters in insertion mode (makes sense in a way, right?). If you want to always be able to delete characters in Vim, X and x will do that (little x deletes characters in front of the cursor, X will delete behind). If you make mistakes, you can use u repeatedly to undo. Finally, r is shorthand for reword in the interactive rebase editor.
    – user456814
    Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 17:47
  • 1
    To change a word in vim is cw typed at its beginning (though the question is not about vim, I agree). Commented Dec 5, 2015 at 6:25
  • You don't need to use that abomination. You can set your git editor to something sane and user-friendly, like nano or Midnight Commander's mcedit. Commented May 2, 2019 at 1:28
  • Pure gold, thank you. I've used reword to modify my previously committed (& pushed) message
    – J011195
    Commented Jun 18, 2023 at 19:56
81

You can use git-rebase-reword

It is designed to edit any commit (not just last) same way as commit --amend

$ git rebase-reword <commit-or-refname>

It is named after the action on rebase interactive to amend a commit: "reword". See this post and man -section interactive mode-

Examples:

$ git rebase-reword b68f560
$ git rebase-reword HEAD^
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    This requires installing an external program. In my opinion, it would be better to learn to use the built-in tools and aliases more effectively. I would type: g c; g rb -i @~9 (commit and rebase), move the new commit to where I want it, change commit to f (fixup), and save. If you wanted something faster than that, you could alias git commit --fixup=<commit>; git rebase -i --autosquash <commit>^
    – Zaz
    Commented Apr 29, 2015 at 15:25
81

I have added the aliases reci and recm for recommit (amend) it. Now I can do it with git recm or git recm -m:

$ vim ~/.gitconfig

[alias]

    ......
    cm = commit
    reci = commit --amend
    recm = commit --amend
    ......
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58

I realised that I had pushed a commit with a typo in it. In order to undo, I did the following:

git commit --amend -m "T-1000, advanced prototype"
git push --force

Warning: force pushing your changes will overwrite the remote branch with your local one. Make sure that you aren't going to be overwriting anything that you want to keep. Also be cautious about force pushing an amended (rewritten) commit if anyone else shares the branch with you, because they'll need to rewrite their own history if they have the old copy of the commit that you've just rewritten.

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    Nothing gets ever "overwritten" in git. In this case the branch pointer will be set to your new commit and the old commit will get stale if no references are left to it and it might get cleaned up after a few weeks. (Until then others still can find and reference it, e.g. by looking into the reflog.) Commented Sep 4, 2014 at 23:47
53

I like to use the following:

  1. git status
  2. git add --all
  3. git commit -am "message goes here about the change"
  4. git pull <origin master>
  5. git push <origin master>
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47

If you have not pushed the code to your remote branch (GitHub/Bitbucket) you can change the commit message on the command line as below.

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

If you're working on a specific branch do this:

git commit --amend -m "BRANCH-NAME: new message"

If you've already pushed the code with the wrong message, and you need to be careful when changing the message. That is, after you change the commit message and try pushing it again, you end up with having issues. To make it smooth, follow these steps.

Please read my entire answer before doing it.

git commit --amend -m "BRANCH-NAME : your new message"

git push -f origin BRANCH-NAME                # Not a best practice. Read below why?

Important note: When you use the force push directly you might end up with code issues that other developers are working on the same branch. So to avoid those conflicts, you need to pull the code from your branch before making the force push:

 git commit --amend -m "BRANCH-NAME : your new message"
 git pull origin BRANCH-NAME
 git push -f origin BRANCH-NAME

This is the best practice when changing the commit message, if it was already pushed.

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