Running filter-branch over a range of commits
git filter-branch --env-filter '
export GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL="[email protected]"
export GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="foo"' -- commita..commitb
Results in Which ref do you want to rewrite?
So it seems that filter-branch doesn't allow you to use range notation use a range between two arbitrary refs.
What is the most straight forward way of running a filter over a range of consecutive commits (somewhere within the history of a branch) if this approach isn't possible.
Solution 1:
You cannot apply the filter-branch in the middle of the history, as said by @kan. You must apply from your known commit to the end of the history
git filter-branch --env-filter '...' SHA1..HEAD
Filter-branch can check for the commit author or other information, to chose to change or not the commit, so there are ways to accomplish what you want, see https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Rewriting-History, look for "Changing Email Addresses Globally"
Remember: if you have pushed the commits to a public repository you should not user filter-branch
Solution 2:
The cleanest solution I found was to do the following:
- Create a temporary branch at
refb. - Apply the branch filter on
refa..temp. - Rebase onto the temporary branch and delete it.
ie.
git branch temp refb
git filter-branch --env-filter '
export GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL="[email protected]"' refa..temp
git rebase temp
git branch --delete temp