Amend the second to last commit

Question

If you found a bug in your last commit, you can simply recommit the last commit with

git commit --amend 

But if you already committed another commit, how do you resubmit the commit before that one?

---

Note: I assume, you are aware, that you should only use --amend if you are sure no other developer already used your commit upstream

Answer 1

1. commit your fixup with

   git commit -a -m "fix commit (this one will be shifted up one line)"

   (the commit message is not important, it will be obsolete once you are finished)

2. Now the magic:
   rebase the HEAD to the second last commit but edit the commit message before in that way, that you swap the last and the last but one line in the message editor:

   git rebase -i HEAD~3

   The editor will show the last 3 comits like this:

    pick 2a06f16 this was the last commit  pick 0dbc5ce the last-but-one commit  pick 2e30418 fix commit (this one will be shifted up one line)   # Rebase 011f3d0..2e30418 onto 011f3d0  # … 

   swap the last two lines so the commit message will look for example like this:

    pick 2a06f16 this was the last commit  fixup 2e30418 fix commit (this one will be shifted up one line)  pick 0dbc5ce the last-but-one commit   # Rebase 011f3d0..2e30418 onto 011f3d0  # … 

3. Check your log with

   git log HEAD~3

4. push the corrected commit-line with + to force a new push to the already existing branch with

   git push origin +branchname

Answer 2

Well, I landed on this page while searching for the same. Found a better way with many other options

git rebase -i HEAD~2 

An editor will open up with the following details

pick 4f4f96f Added git ignore pick d01e18c Added sample Blog  # Rebase 60e1cd3..d01e18c onto 60e1cd3 (2 commands) # # Commands: # p, pick <commit> = use commit # r, reword <commit> = use commit, but edit the commit message # e, edit <commit> = use commit, but stop for amending # s, squash <commit> = use commit, but meld into previous commit # f, fixup <commit> = like "squash", but discard this commit's log message # x, exec <command> = run command (the rest of the line) using shell # b, break = stop here (continue rebase later with 'git rebase --continue') # d, drop <commit> = remove commit # l, label <label> = label current HEAD with a name # t, reset <label> = reset HEAD to a label # m, merge [-C <commit> | -c <commit>] <label> [# <oneline>] 

press i, change pick to r or reword, something like below

pick 4f4f96f Added git ignore r d01e18c Added sample Blog 

PRESS esc + : + wq

Another window will open up, change the commit message

PRESS esc + : + wq

git push -f