Change the commit message for an already committed commit in GitHub

To change the commit message for an already committed commit in GitHub, you can follow these steps:

1. Open your terminal or command prompt.
2. Navigate to the local repository directory on your computer using the cd command.

3. Run the following command to open an interactive rebase:

   git rebase -i HEAD~<number_of_commits>
   

   Replace <number_of_commits> with the number of commits you want to modify. For example, if you want to modify the last commit, use HEAD~1.

4. Your default text editor will open with a list of the commits you specified in the previous step.

5. Locate the commit message you want to change and replace pick with reword or just r next to that commit. This tells Git that you want to edit the commit message.
6. Save and close the file.
7. Another text editor will open, displaying the current commit message. Modify the message to your desired text and save the file.
8. Once you have saved the new commit message, the rebase operation will proceed, applying your changes.
9. If there are no conflicts, the rebase will complete successfully. If there are conflicts, you'll need to resolve them manually.
10. After the rebase is finished, you can push the changes to the remote repository using the git push --force command.

Important: Be cautious when using git push --force as it rewrites the commit history, and if others have already pulled the original commit, it can cause conflicts for them. It's generally recommended to avoid modifying commits that have already been pushed to a shared repository unless you are absolutely sure it won't cause any issues.

Remember to use this method responsibly and communicate with your team members if you're working on a shared repository.

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