Boosted by @ferrix@mastodon.online
I've just published a reference for anyone using git while trans, explaining how to hide or remove your deadname in git repositories
Please share ❤️
https://code.curly.kiwi/2026/02/27/using-git-while-trans/
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Brooke
@nerdnz@cloudisland.nz
mastodon 4.5.18Nerd. Tries to do the right thing.
Cares about cats, justice, transparency, and accessibility.
Helped make https://policepolicy.nz
269 Followers
109 Following
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Joined November 17, 2023
Pronouns:
she/her
NZ First wrote their definitions bill after anti-trans hate group SUFW showed them a petition demanding such a bill. They gathered 2,245 signatures in 4 months
This petition *against* the bill just surpassed that in less than 4 hours ❤️
Please stand with us
Tonight I've published a reference document on the inspiration and history of NZ First's transphobic definitions bill. If you plan to make a submission, as I do, I hope this background can help you plan and write your submission
Do you ever think about just how fucking dumb this timeline is?
If you'll be in Auckland on Saturday 13 June, make sure you're coming to this protest against NZ First's transphobic definitions bill
Replying to
There are other ways to fix old names against old commits, but they involve recreating the entire git history since then. That's not always feasible
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@SRAZKVT@tech.lgbt Yeah, it's a safety issue and it's really not treated like one. Hard to go back in time and change that early design decision though, can't rewrite that history unfortunately
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@csolisr Depends on how many times you change your name I suppose. In my experience, force pushing a change like this in any particular project is either completely unviable or not a problem at all. I'm not sure there are all that many cases where it's somewhere in between
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@maltelau@expressional.social Yeah history rewriting is usually only really viable on personal projects and the like
Being aware of mailmap as an option is certainly better than not being aware. It definitely does have its own downsides, which I hope I laid out clearly, but it's something individual contributors could make a call on based on their own priorities
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@ferricoxide@blahaj.zone Yeah rewriting history in _any_ way means the old commits are gone and replaced with fresh new ones. Commit metadata like author name is used for generating commit hashes so there's no way to modify it without reconstructing a brand new commit. But it is possible to do that in a way that preserves the commit date part of the metadata
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@ferricoxide@blahaj.zone The history rewriting approach I've mentioned doesn't change commit dates - I wanted to make sure I found something that preserved as much metadata as possible
Rewriting the history like that is unlikely to be viable on work projects or open source ones with lots of collaborators, but it is a good option to know about for things like personal projects
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@benbe@social.chaotikum.org Yeah, if your old email contains your old name that's true. The old email is the only old info used for matching though, you don't separately have to add an old name
But that is common at work, yeah. I basically added this today:
```
Brooke Hart
```
But I think in this case it's worth the enduring link. Means my old commits show up for everyone using the right name, when using tools like the Git Blame extension I use in VS Code at work
Git really was not designed with "people might change their names" in mind, but I was glad to find this solution I could finally put in place at work today
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@schrumpelnase@sueden.social Thanks, I found a way once to do this just using git from the command line, and rewrote history for one of my personal projects. Hadn't thought about looking for a tool like this
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@forthy42@mastodon.net2o.de No .mailmap is visible to everone, it's a file in the repo. It would be visible only for you if you didn't commit it
It's true that it doesn't rewrite history, but in cases where rewriting history is not an option (commonly the case at work) then this is an option that doesn't require rewriting history
It's not perfect, and has downsides. But it may be the best option available in many cases
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@benbe@social.chaotikum.org Yep, it's a definite downside. I'm hoping it will be pretty rare that people look at this file, at least, and in my case it's for a closed source project, but that won't be true for everyone in a similar position
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@megahbite@cloudisland.nz @caitelatte@cloudisland.nz Git was clearly not designed with "people might change their names" in mind 😬
Does anyone know how/if I can get the Tusky app for Android to stop sending me a push notification for every boost? I can't find a setting for this
I still want boosts in my notifications feed, and I still want push notifications for replies and DMs, so filtering out boosts (assuming that even works) or turning off all notifications aren't great options
NZF transphobic definitions bill submission
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@sitharus@cloudisland.nz What sort of disabilities are you trying to cater for? I wonder if it might be a good idea to reach out to Blind Low Vision NZ
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@tongpu@hachyderm.io I was looking today for a way to fix the way my old pre-transition commits show up in a git blame extension for VS Code, and this seems to work for that. I expect it works for other commands too but haven't tested a wide range