I've been having some issues trying to rebase and change commit messages in one of my first projects. The problem is that I don't like the current messages, and when I attempt to change them, I get an error saying that the 'dist' folder won't allow me to change them. I've already added it to my .gitignore, but it still seems to be causing trouble. I want to rebase while keeping the original commit dates intact. The project uses vanilla JS with Parcel. Any suggestions? Thanks!
2 Answers
To figure out your issue, it's important to be more specific about what you're doing. Most likely, using `git rebase -i` is the way to go for changing commit messages. The documentation on that can be found on GitHub's website. Just keep in mind that the .gitignore file only helps manage changes for new commits and doesn't impact existing ones unless you're altering the content itself. Git operates independently of the programming language used in your project, treating all files as text or binary.
When you're running `git rebase -i --root --committer-date-is-author-date`, it's likely that Git is halting because of uncommitted files in your working directory. Before proceeding with the rebase, ensure you've either stashed or committed those changes. Git needs to temporarily revert to an earlier commit to carry out the rebase, and it can't do that with untracked files in the way.
That's odd! It sounds like you've committed all your files, so check if there are any lingering untracked files. If so, consider cleaning those up—it might allow you to proceed without the merge errors.
I see that you've committed some changes prior to adding the dist folder to your .gitignore. That could indeed be the source of your issue. You'll need to address that if you want to tweak those commit messages.