Git: how to commit as someone else?

Question

I'm working on a freelance project. The client (let's call him foobar) asked me to upload the code using his github account (my work PC runs 64-bit Windows 10, I have git 2.15.0) installed.

So I did these steps.

1. Go to Credential Manager -> Windows Credential -> Generic Credentials. Removed my Github account

2. On the source code directory, performed the standard procedure:

   git init
   git add *
   git commit -m "first message"
   git remote add origin https://github.com/foobar/supersecretproject.git
   git push -u origin master
   

A Github credential dialog appeared. Entered his credential.

Wait for a while, and yes the code was commited to Github. Opended the Github page, and strangely the commiter shown was me, not foobar. Strange. How to fix this? I want to commit as foobar.

Answer 1

If you only want to create a single commit on behalf of another author (not to be confused with another committer) and do not want to edit your config, you can also specify the --author argument instead:

git commit --author "Elon Musk <[email protected]>"

This will only set the author metadata of the commit, not the committer metadata about yourself. However, I would even consider this idiomatic as while the correct authorship is maintained, tracing the commit back to you in case of any troubles is still possible.

Found here.

Answer 2

If you wish to change config settings for just one repo. You can try this procedure:

1) On the terminal, change the current working directory to the local repository where you want to configure the name and email that is associated with your Git commits.

2) $ git config user.name "Elon Musk". 

3) $ git config user.email "[email protected]"

3) Confirm that you have set the Git username and email correctly:

 $ git config user.name

> Elon Musk

 $ git config user.email

> [email protected]

It's done!:)

Hope this might help!