Using Git Interactive Rebase to Edit Commit Contents

Zettel#125

zettelkasten
Published

2023-09-28

Modified

2024-10-29

Edit the contents of a past Git commit while preserving subsequent commits.

Steps

  1. Start the rebase from the parent of the commit you want to edit:
git log  # Find the commit hash
git rebase -i <commit_hash>^
  1. In the editor, change pick to edit for your commit:
pick abc1234 Earlier commit
edit def5678 The commit to modify
pick ghi9012 Later commit
  1. Make your changes:
# Edit your files
git add -u # Or whatever you need to do
git commit --amend
  1. Finish the rebase:
git rebase --continue
git push --force-with-lease  # If needed

Recovery

If anything goes wrong:

git reflog  # Find the state before rebase
git reset --hard HEAD@{n}  # n is the number from reflog

But be aware that this will lose any changes you made during the rebase.