Required co-author information
Before you can add a co-author to a commit, you must know the appropriate email to use for each co-author. For the co-author's commit to count as a contribution, you must use the email associated with their account on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance.
Creating co-authored commits using GitHub Desktop
You can use GitHub Desktop to create a commit with a co-author. For more information, see "Write a commit message and push your changes" and GitHub Desktop.
Creating co-authored commits on the command line
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Collect the name and email address for each co-author.
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Type your commit message and a short, meaningful description of your changes. After your commit description, instead of a closing quotation, add two empty lines.
$ git commit -m "Refactor usability tests. > >
Tip: If you're using a text editor on the command line to type your commit message, ensure there are two newlines between the end of your commit description and the
Co-authored-by:
commit trailer. -
On the next line of the commit message, type
Co-authored-by: name <name@example.com>
with specific information for each co-author. After the co-author information, add a closing quotation mark.If you're adding multiple co-authors, give each co-author their own line and
Co-authored-by:
commit trailer.$ git commit -m "Refactor usability tests. > > Co-authored-by: NAME <NAME@EXAMPLE.COM> Co-authored-by: AUTHOR-NAME <ANOTHER-NAME@EXAMPLE.COM>"
The new commit and message will appear on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance the next time you push. For more information, see "Pushing changes to a remote repository."
Creating co-authored commits on GitHub Enterprise Server
After you've made changes in a file using the web editor on GitHub Enterprise Server, you can create a co-authored commit by adding a Co-authored-by:
trailer to the commit's message.
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Collect the name and email address for each co-author.
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After making your changes together, at the bottom of the page, type a short, meaningful commit message that describes the changes you made.
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In the text box below your commit message, add
Co-authored-by: name <name@example.com>
with specific information for each co-author. If you're adding multiple co-authors, give each co-author their own line andCo-authored-by:
commit trailer. -
Click Commit changes or Propose changes.
The new commit and message will appear on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance.
Further reading
- "Viewing contributions on your profile"
- "Why are my contributions not showing up on my profile?"
- "Viewing a project's contributors"
- "Changing a commit message"
- "Committing and reviewing changes to your project" in the GitHub Desktop documentation