Question

How do I edit or reword a merge commit’s message?

git commit --amend works if it’s the last commit made (HEAD), but what if it comes before HEAD?

git rebase -i HEAD~5 doesn’t list the merge commits.

Answer 1

If you add the --preserve-merges option (or its synonym, -p) to the git rebase -i command then git will try to preserve the merges when rebasing, rather than linearizing the history, and you should be able to amend the merge commits as well:

git rebase -i -p HEAD~5

Note. --perserve-merges has been deprecated in favour of --rebase-merges as of git v2.22 (https://www.infoq.com/news/2019/07/git-2-22-rebase-merges/).