How to Backdate a Git Commit

You need commits to show an earlier timestamp — local work that should look like it landed yesterday, or a branch whose dates jumped forward. git-edit-date sets both author and committer dates in a spreadsheet — no git commit --amend.

What is git-edit-date?

A free Linux CLI that rewrites commit dates (and author name/email) on the current branch. Export history to CSV, set past timestamps in Excel or LibreOffice, apply once.

↓ Download git-edit-date v1.5 Linux amd64 · free

curl -LO https://giteditdate.com/git-edit-date_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i git-edit-date_amd64.deb

How to backdate

git-edit-date export -o commits.csv
# set author_date and committer_date to earlier timestamps
git-edit-date apply -file=commits.csv
git push --force-with-lease

When you need this

Work done offline should show yesterday’s date, not “now”
You need author and committer dates to match (both in the past)
Branch-wide backdating — review every row in CSV before applying

Full walkthrough: tutorial · Also: change git commit date · commit with a specific date