title: Difference between author and committer in Git?
body: <p>I am trying to make a commit like</p>
  
  <pre class="lang-bash prettyprint-override"><code>git commit --author="John Doe &lt;john@doe.com&gt;" -m "&lt;the usual commit message&gt;"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>where John Doe is some user in whose name I want to make the commit.</p>
  
  <p>It appears all right in <code>git log</code>. However, when I do a <code>gitk</code>, <strong>the author name is correct, but the committer name is picked from my global git config settings</strong> (and is thus set to my name/email).</p>
  
  <h2>Questions</h2>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>What is the difference between the two (committer vs author)?</p></li>
  <li><p>Should I be setting the committer as well to the other user?</p></li>
  <li><p>If yes, how?</p></li>
  </ol>