Git Editor: Git History Rewriting Tool

Git Editor is a powerful Rust-based command-line utility designed to safely rewrite Git commit timestamps within a specified date range. Perfect for fixing commit dates, adding consistency to repositories, or reconstructing development timelines.

Features

• Rewrite commit timestamps within a specified date range
• Preserve commit order and relationships
• Maintain author and committer information
• Compatible with any Git repository
• Docker support for containerized execution

Installation

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.72+ (Install Rust)
• Git (Install Git)
• OpenSSL development libraries

From Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/git-editor.git
cd git-editor

# Build the project
cargo build --release

# The binary will be available at target/release/git-editor

Usage

git-editor --repo-path "/path/to/repo" --email "user@example.com" --name "Author Name" --start "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS" --end "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS"

Arguments

Examples

# Rewrite commits to occur between January 1 and January 7, 2023
git-editor --repo-path "/path/to/repo" --email "john.doe@example.com" --name "John Doe" --start "2023-01-01 00:00:00" --end "2023-01-07 23:59:59"

# Using the Makefile (after editing the parameters)
make run

How It Works

Git Editor operates by:

1. Validating the provided repository path and Git environment
2. Generating a list of timestamps between the start and end dates
3. Creating a mapping between original commits and new commit timestamps
4. Rewriting the Git history while preserving parent-child relationships
5. Updating branch references to point to the new commit history

The tool ensures that commit order is maintained and distributes commits evenly across the specified time range.

Warning

This tool rewrites Git history. Always work on a separate branch or backup your repository before running Git Editor on important code bases.

Development

Project Structure

git-editor/
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs        # Entry point
│   ├── args.rs        # Command line argument handling
│   ├── datetime.rs    # Date and time functions
│   ├── validator.rs   # Input validation
│   ├── rewrite.rs     # Git history rewriting logic
│   ├── types.rs       # Type definitions
│   ├── heatmap.rs     # GitHub contribution data handling
│   └── utils/         # Utility functions
├── Cargo.toml         # Project dependencies
├── Dockerfile         # Docker configuration
└── Makefile           # Build automation

Testing

cargo test

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.