Re: [PATCH] commit: add --committer option

From: Matej Dujava <mdujava@kocurkovo.cz>
Date: Nov 16, 2025, 22:12 UTC
Message-ID: <aRpMW-g_rt4jStnu@kocurkovo.cz>
In-Reply-To: <CAOLTT8TLEsSAcfUomoActrUSzje5mQNE7EweXh8WtY3sOfzfkg@mail.gmail.com>

On Wed, Nov 12, 2025 at 11:58:02PM +0800, ZheNing Hu wrote:

Show 44 quoted lines

>Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com> 于2025年11月11日周二 22:38写道：
>>
>> On 11/11/2025 13:01, ZheNing Hu wrote:
>> > Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com> 于2025年11月11日周二 00:50写道：
>> >> On 09/11/2025 10:22, ZheNing Hu via GitGitGadget wrote:
>> >>> From: ZheNing Hu <adlternative@gmail.com>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>       This patch introduces the --committer option to git-commit, providing:
>> >>>
>> >>>        1. Consistency with the existing --author option
>> >>>        2. A more convenient alternative to environment variables
>> >>>        3. Better support for automated workflows and scripts
>> >>>        4. Improved user experience when managing multiple identities
>> >>
>> >> What's the use case for the same person committing under different
>> >> identities? We already have a config mechanism to set different
>> >> identities for different repositories but I'm struggling to see why
>> >> someone would want to create commits under multiple identities in a
>> >> single repository. For scripts it easy enough to set the relevant
>> >> environment variables if a tool wants to create commits under its own
>> >> identity.
>> >>
>> >
>> > I frequently need to distinguish between different user.name and user.email
>> > configurations on our company's internal GitHub.
>> >
>> > The current problems are:
>> >
>> > When I misconfigure (which happens occasionally), git commit --author only fixes
>> > the author part, I still need to additionally set GIT_COMMITTER_NAME and
>> > GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL environment variables to fix the committer information
>> > These environment variables are painful to use, requiring manual setup
>> > every time
>>
>> I'm afraid I don't quite follow. If you are amending existing commits to
>> fix them up after you have corrected your configuration then they will
>> have the correct committer automatically when you run "git commit
>> --amend --author=..." to correct the author. If you are committing
>> before you have realized that user.{name,email} are misconfigured then I
>> don't see how "--committer" helps because you have not yet realized
>> anything is wrong.
>>
>

Hi

I use includeIf pattern in a config to separate identities

~/.gitconfig:
```
  [includeIf "gitdir:~/.local/src/personal/"]
      path ~/.gitconfig-personal
  [includeIf "gitdir:~/.local/src/companyA/"]
      path ~/.gitconfig-companyA
  [includeIf "gitdir:~/.local/src/companyB/"]
      path ~/.gitconfig-companyB
```

then each
~/.gitconfig-IDENTITY:
```
  [user]
      name = ...
      email = ...
      signingkey = ...
```

Show 5 quoted lines

>You're right that after realizing the misconfiguration and correcting the
>repository's user.name and user.email, running `git commit --amend` will
> fix the committer information, but the author remains unchanged. Users
>then need an additional `git commit --amend --author=...` to fix the author,
>which does work but requires an extra step.

For just one commit, after you fix identity (update .git/config or move project so includeIf uses correct config) then `git commit --amend --reset-author` should get right identity for both commiter and author.

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>
>I see your point that this becomes more cumbersome when dealing with
>multiple commits. In such cases, users currently need to use something like:
>
>```
>GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="..." GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL="..." \
>GIT_COMMITTER_NAME="..." GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL="..." \
>git rebase -f <target>
>```

In my test ^ (using 2.51.2) did not set specified AUTHOR identity, but using:

   git rebase <target> -fx "git commit --amend --no-edit --reset-author"

is close to rewriting commits with new identity, but this will change both dates (committer, author).

If --reset-author is not used but either GIT_AUTHOR_* are exported or --author '...' is used in a -x arg, then author date is kept untouched.

Show 20 quoted lines

>
>This is indeed tedious and error-prone, especially when you want
>to quickly fix and push commits to the platform.
>
>`git commit --amend --author --committer` or a new `git rebase
>--author --committer`
>would provide a more user-friendly workflow for correcting identity
>information after misconfiguration, eliminating the need to manually
>set multiple
>environment variables or run multiple commands.
>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Phillip
>>
>
>Thanks
>
>ZheNing Hu
>

-- Thanks, Matej