# Adding co-authors to Git commits

How do you share credit for a new or altered piece of code when one person commits the change in a pair programming or mob programming session? And when you have questions about a particular change, how can you see in Git who has been working on that change, besides the committer? *You add co-autors to your commits.* This gist contains information on how to do that, so that the Git commit message contains a list of co-authors, and all co-autors for a commit are automatically listed in GitHubs web UI. 

GitHub has some info on specifying co-authors [here](https://help.github.com/en/github/committing-changes-to-your-project/creating-a-commit-with-multiple-authors). This is good info, pretty straightforward. The gist of it (pun intended) is to include at least one blank line and then a line for each co-author like so `Co-authored-by: name <name@example.com>` at the very end of your commit message. 

GitHub's recipe tells you [how to find the right e-mail address to use](https://help.github.com/en/github/committing-changes-to-your-project/creating-a-commit-with-multiple-authors#required-co-author-information) (the GitHub-provided `no-reply` address if appropriate), as well as [how to create co-authored commits using GitHub Desktop](https://help.github.com/en/github/committing-changes-to-your-project/creating-a-commit-with-multiple-authors#creating-co-authored-commits-using-github-desktop), [how to create co-authored commits when using the web editor on GitHub](https://help.github.com/en/github/committing-changes-to-your-project/creating-a-commit-with-multiple-authors#creating-co-authored-commits-on-github), and [how to create co-authored commits on the command line](https://help.github.com/en/github/committing-changes-to-your-project/creating-a-commit-with-multiple-authors#creating-co-authored-commits-on-the-command-line). The latter is most relevant for our team. 

The recipe created by GitHub is a good one. Use it! :) ...But there is one thing which might be a source of confusion - the number of empty lines required between the end of the commit description and the co-author section. The GitHub recipe includes the following tip: 

>If you're using a text editor on the command line to type your commit message, ensure there are *two lines* between the end of your commit description and the `Co-authored-by:` commit trailer.

The thing is that when I do this, no matter how many blank lines I put between the co-author info and the previous part of the commit message in the editor, the resulting *actual* commit message contains only *one* empty line there. But it's OK, the actual requirement seems to be *at least one empty line (i.e. two "newline" characters) between the description and the co-author section*. So there's no need to worry and do `git commit --amend` to fix the commit message like I did, the end result displayed in the GitHub UI is the same as long as there is one empty line before the co-author section. :) 

To avoid having to remember how to do this every time I make a commit during a pair/mob programming session, I added this info to my commit message template, which is described [here](https://gist.github.com/lisawolderiksen/a7b99d94c92c6671181611be1641c733). So when I do `git commit` and my editor opens, I have all the info I need to write a good commit message - including how to credit co-authors. :)