Git Dates

Git commits store two dates: the author date and the committer date.

The author date refers to the initial date the commit was first created by the original author. The committer date will be updated when the commit is amended (for example, rebasing).

The date you normally see will be the author date. You can see the committer date with something like git log --pretty=fuller

❯ git log
commit e7e4140d7778376283cec62a255d35151307402c (HEAD -> master)
Author: Mark Coleman <[email protected]>
Date:   Tue Jul 5 00:14:13 2011 +0100

    preliminary import

❯ git log --pretty=fuller
commit e7e4140d7778376283cec62a255d35151307402c (HEAD -> master)
Author:     Mark Coleman <[email protected]>
AuthorDate: Tue Jul 5 00:14:13 2011 +0100
Commit:     Mark Coleman <[email protected]>
CommitDate: Tue Jul 5 00:14:13 2011 +0100

    preliminary import
Tagged: | git |
Cover Image: Towfiqu barbhuiya, via Unsplash