I need to overwrite the date of the commit of Git, all the documentation points to --date parameter, but then leaves one without a clue to the appropriate format. I've tried every permutation I can think of, and i'm getting:
"fatal: invalid date format:"
error for each and every one.
Git 2.6+ (Q3 2015) add a new option.
See commit e4f031e (30 Jun 2015), and commit aa1462c, commit a5481a6, commit b7c1e11 (25 Jun 2015) by Jeff King (peff).
(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit d939af1, 03 Aug 2015)
introduce "format" date-mode
This feeds the format directly to
strftime.
Besides being a little more flexible, the main advantage is that your systemstrftimemay know more about your locale's preferred format (e.g., how to spell the days of the week).
--date=format:...feeds the format...to your systemstrftime.
Use--date=format:%cto show the date in your system locale's preferred format.
See thestrftimemanual for a complete list of format placeholders.
Davide Cavestro proposes in the comments the example:
git commit -m "Test" --date=format:relative:5.hours.ago
Original answer (mid 2014)
The --date option (introduced in commit 02b47cd in Dec. 2009, for git1.7.0) uses the same format than for GIT_AUTHOR_DATE, with date formats tested in commit 96b2d4f:
There you can see the various format accepted:
Mon, 3 Jul 2006 17:18:43 +02002006-07-03 17:18:43 +0200Mon Jul 3 15:18:43 20062006-07-03 (not in 1.9.1, works in 2.3.0)relative: see commit 34dc6e7:
5.seconds.ago,
2.years.3.months.ago,
'6am yesterday'
raw: see commit 7dff9b3 (git 1.6.2, March 2009)
internal raw git format - seconds since epoch plus timezone
(put another way: 'date +"%s %z"' format)
Mon Jul 3 17:18:43 2006 +0200ADTC asks and answers in the comments:
Does it accept 2006-07-03 15:18:43 for local?
Yes it does work and it takes the local time zone automatically.
With that format I don't need to bother which day of the week it is (Sun,Mon, etc).