release: v2.2.0 - change @Last modified by only when the file's content…

[cldmv-bot]

@cldmv/fix-headers v2.2.0 Changelog

Release Date: October 2026
Release Type: Minor
Branch: release/2.2.0

---

Overview

Version 2.2.0 changes what @Last modified by means. It now names whoever last edited the file's content, the part of the file outside the header, instead of whoever last ran fix-headers. A run that only rewrites a header (a date format conversion, a corrected @Project, new spacing or margin) keeps the recorded editor, so running the tool never claims other people's files. @Author was already the original author and stays that way unless forceAuthorUpdate is set.

No option was removed, the fixHeaders API and the header format are unchanged, and @Last modified time is still restamped whenever a header is rewritten. See the upgrade notes for the one behaviour change that can show up in an existing setup.

---

✨ Features

@Last modified by follows content edits, not header rewrites (#128, closes #127)

Before, any run that changed a header could write the identity detected for that run into @Last modified by, and with forceLastModifiedAuthorUpdate it did so on every file. With a shared config that forces the author fields, whoever ran the tool became the last editor of every file it touched, including files they never opened.

fix-headers now decides whether a file's content was edited by comparing it with the file at git HEAD. The header is taken out of both versions, along with the blank lines after it, and what is left is compared:

File	Content edited?	@Author	@Last modified by	@Last modified time
Tracked, body the same as at HEAD, header rewritten	no	kept	kept	now
Tracked, body differs from HEAD	yes	kept	run identity	now
Not in HEAD (new, untracked or ignored, or no commits yet)	yes	kept (filled when missing)	run identity	now
Outside a git work tree, header rewritten	cannot tell, treated as no	kept	kept	now
Header already current, content not edited	no	unchanged	unchanged	unchanged

• Header-only rewrites keep the recorded editor. The date format (normalizeDateFormat), an epoch repair, @Date (fixCreatedDate), a time zone conversion, the frame, spacing and margin, and the @Project, @Filename and @Copyright values all rewrite the header without changing who last edited the file. @Last modified time still moves, because the header did.
• A content edit makes the run's identity the last editor. That is the identity detected for the run (authorName / authorEmail, or git as described under useGpgSignerAuthor). A missing field is filled with it in every case, and a file with no header gets it in both fields. Adding a header to a committed file is not a content edit, so a later header-only run by someone else keeps whoever was recorded then.
• A repeat edit by the editor already recorded is stamped once. When the body differs from HEAD and the recorded time is older than the file's last commit, the edit has not been stamped yet, so @Last modified time is restamped even though the editor is unchanged. Once stamped, the time is newer than the last commit and running fix-headers again changes nothing until the next commit.
• forceLastModifiedAuthorUpdate keeps its meaning (write the run identity as @Last modified by on every file, edited or not), and forceAuthorUpdate still replaces an existing @Author / @Email. With content-edit detection, forceLastModifiedAuthorUpdate is no longer needed for normal use, and the README says so. The --help text for both force flags is reworded to match what they do.
• The issues result follows the same rule. The lastModifiedByName / lastModifiedByEmail entries appear only when the value that would be written really differs from the existing header, which now depends on whether the content was edited.

The check compares the working tree with HEAD, so run fix-headers before committing (a pre-commit hook, or npm run fix:headers before git commit). Content committed without a run is not detected later, because by then the body matches HEAD. The README gains an Author and last modified section with the same table and rules.

🧪 Tests

• New suite tests/last-modified-content-edit.test.vitest.mjs covers header-only rewrites that keep the editor, body edits that take the run identity, @Author preserved for a different runner, forceAuthorUpdate still replacing it, untracked and new files, files outside a git work tree, and the one-time restamp of a repeat edit. tests/core-edge.test.vitest.mjs and tests/sample-output.test.vitest.mjs are updated for the new issues output. Coverage stays at 100%.

📚 Documentation

• NEW: docs/changelog/v2/v2.2.0.md: this changelog.
• README: a new Author and last modified section, a matching Key Features entry, and reworded --force-author-update / --force-last-modified-author-update CLI and API entries (#128).

🔧 Dependencies

No dependency updates. ignore, the only runtime dependency, is unchanged.

---

Upgrade notes

• No breaking changes: no option was removed and the API is unchanged.
• @Last modified by can differ from before after a run. A header-only rewrite no longer writes the run's identity into it, and a content edit now does. A config that sets forceLastModifiedAuthorUpdate keeps the old behaviour (the run identity on every file) and can drop that option once its files carry the right editor.
• Run the tool before you commit. The edit check reads the working tree against HEAD, so a hook or script that runs fix-headers after the commit will see an unchanged body and keep the recorded editor.
• Outside a git work tree nothing is detected as an edit, so recorded editors are kept and only @Last modified time moves when a header is rewritten.
• Preview the effect on your project with --dry-run --diff --verbose.

👥 Contributors

• @Shinrai

---

Metric	Coverage
Statements	100.0%
Branches	100.0%
Functions	100.0%
Lines	100.0%

Avg: 100.0% · e643b86 · Node lts/*

Co-authored-by: Shinrai Shinrai@users.noreply.github.com

[cldmv-bot]

🔒 Dependency Review

• ✅ 0 vulnerable package(s)
• ✅ 0 package(s) with incompatible licenses
• ✅ 0 package(s) with invalid SPDX license definitions
• ✅ 0 package(s) with unknown licenses
• ✅ 0 denied package(s)
• ✅ 0 package(s) with OpenSSF Scorecard score < 3

Full job summary

[cldmv-bot]

📦 Bundle size unchanged

File	Raw	Δ Raw	Gzipped	Δ Gzipped
bin/fix-headers.mjs	51.8 kB	+472 B (+0.9%)	17.6 kB	+360 B
dist/index.cjs	1.6 kB	—	940 B	—
dist/index.mjs	42.6 kB	+438 B (+1.0%)	14.7 kB	+330 B
Total	96.0 kB	+910 B	33.2 kB	+690 B

_{📊 Generated by bundle-size. Brotli sizes also measured but omitted from the table for brevity.}