fix author on last several commits

gistfile1.txt

In the case where just the top few commits have bad authors, you can do this all inside git rebase -i using the exec command and the --amend commit, as follows:

git rebase -i HEAD^^^^^^ # as required
which presents you with the editable list of commits:

pick abcd Someone else's commit
pick defg my bad commit 1
pick 1234 my bad commit 2
Then add exec ... --author="..." lines after all lines with bad authors:

pick abcd Someone else's commit
pick defg my bad commit 1
exec git commit --amend --author="New Author Name <email@address.com>" -C HEAD
pick 1234 my bad commit 2
exec git commit --amend --author="New Author Name <email@address.com>" -C HEAD
save and run.

This solution may be longer to type than some others, but it's highly controllable - I know exactly what commits it hits.

Thanks to @asmeurer for the inspiration.

[credit to Alex Brown on StackOverflow]