What is the purpose of the GIT_AUTHOR_DATE vs GIT_COMMITTER_DATE environment variables?

Question

Git — Hard

What is the purpose of the GIT_AUTHOR_DATE vs GIT_COMMITTER_DATE environment variables?

Accepted Answer

GIT_AUTHOR_DATE and GIT_COMMITTER_DATE serve distinct purposes. The author date records when a change was initially made, while the committer date marks when it was added to the repository. This distinction is crucial after operations like cherry-picking or rebasing. The correct answer highlights this difference.