You can just use this and not have to overwrite your name/email: git commit -m "message" --author=<author> You can even pass a different commit date with

You can just use this and not have to overwrite your name/email: git commit -m "message" --author=<author> You can even pass a different commit date with --date=<date>. It's actually a really useful feature when you're migrating a project from a different SCM system to git.