How are there GitHub commits that date before 2008?

[tejas13]

I was browsing some code history for a project that I’m assigned to and I saw a commit from 2003. How is this possible? Just curious.

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[Eric Anderson]

My guess is that they have used one of the many tools to convert an existing repository to Git from some other older source code control tool.

Many who used to use something else have move over to Git.  A good conversion tool will keep their commit history and preserve the dates for their old commits.

Then it is just a matter of uploading their converted Git repository.

[krishoza15]

But how are the commits still carries the same username. Also checkout this profile https://github.com/lattner where commits are there from 2001 even when git was not even invented. 

[Eric Anderson]

Please read my answer again.  Even before Git was created, people used other tools for source control.  Then later on they switched to using Git.  When people switch, they often use a tool to convert their software repository to Git -- including keeping the history of changes that have ever been made using the older tool.

If the same users worked on the project before and after the switch, there is no reason to expect them to have different usernames.  They can continue to use the same usernames as before.  They would just switch to using Git to add more changes, instead of using the tool they had been using before.

With a good tool to convert an old repository into a Git repository, there is nothing strange at all about finding a history for a given user of changes that go back to before Git had been created (because they weren't using Git to make those older changes).