How to Change Your Email Address in Git: A Step-by-Step Guide

When using Git, it’s important to have your correct email address associated with your commits. This helps to identify the author of the code and can be used to contact them in case of any issues or questions. But what if you need to change the email address associated with your Git commits? In this article, we’ll walk through the steps necessary to change your email address in Git.

Step 1: Check your current Git email address

Before changing your email address, you should check the email address currently associated with your Git account. To do this, open your Git terminal and enter the following command:

git config --global user.email

This will display your current email address associated with your Git account. Make a note of it for reference.

Step 2: Update your Git email address

To change your email address in Git, you’ll need to use the following command in your Git terminal:

git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

Replace “[email protected]” with the email address you want to use. This will update your Git account to use the new email address for all future commits.

Step 3: Verify the change

To verify that your Git email address has been updated, use the same command you used in Step 1 to check your current email address:

git config --global user.email

This should display the new email address you just entered in Step 2.

Step 4: Update your past commits (optional)

If you have previously made commits with your old email address, you may want to update them with your new email address. This can be done using the following command:

git filter-branch --commit-filter '
        if [ "$GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL" = "[email protected]" ];
        then
                [email protected];
                git commit-tree "$@";
        else
                git commit-tree "$@";
        fi' HEAD

Replace “[email protected]” with your old email address and “[email protected]” with your new email address. This command will go through all your past commits and update the author email to your new email address.

Step 5: Push the changes

Once you have updated your Git email address, you’ll need to push the changes to your remote repository. This can be done using the following command:

git push --force-with-lease

This will force the changes to be pushed to the remote repository, overwriting any existing commits with your new email address.

In conclusion, changing your email address in Git is a straightforward process that can be done in just a few simple steps. By following these steps, you can ensure that all your future commits will be associated with the correct email address, making it easier to track and manage your code.

Additional resources that may be helpful:

1. Git documentation on configuring your email address: https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-First-Time-Git-Setup#Your-Identity
2. How to Change Your Git Commit Email Address: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-change-your-git-commit-email-address-4c36f965dbd5/
3. How to Change the Email Address for Your Git Commits: https://www.git-tower.com/learn/git/faq/change-author-name-email
4. How to Update Your Git Commit Email: https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/keeping-your-account-and-data-secure/why-is-my-commit-associated-with-the-wrong-person-or-i-need-to-update-my-commit-email-address

These resources provide additional information and different approaches to changing your email address in Git.