As discussed with op on irc: if you have a valid case to change the
author from a previous commit to yourself, you can't!

Below diff drops the -A $GOT_AUTHOR check:

diffstat /home/mark/src/got
 M  got/got.c                  |  0+   5-
 M  include/got_error.h        |  1+   1-
 M  lib/error.c                |  0+   2-
 M  regress/cmdline/commit.sh  |  0+  20-

4 files changed, 1 insertion(+), 28 deletions(-)

diff /home/mark/src/got
commit - f72ce919dd6d6c15679c5174c47912ac55be1e18
path + /home/mark/src/got
blob - 2c1701bd7583e22c83fc62c3bfca5fb2a5492585
file + got/got.c
--- got/got.c
+++ got/got.c
@@ -9133,11 +9133,6 @@ cmd_commit(int argc, char *argv[])
 	if (error)
 		goto done;
 
-	if (author != NULL && !strcmp(committer, author)) {
-		error = got_error(GOT_ERR_COMMIT_REDUNDANT_AUTHOR);
-		goto done;
-	}
-
 	if (author == NULL)
 		author = committer;
 
blob - f6291e8407d22bd8dea75ff94f8f7b88ebafcb78
file + include/got_error.h
--- include/got_error.h
+++ include/got_error.h
@@ -172,7 +172,7 @@
 #define GOT_ERR_BAD_TAG_SIGNATURE 154
 #define GOT_ERR_VERIFY_TAG_SIGNATURE 155
 #define GOT_ERR_SIGNING_TAG	156
-#define GOT_ERR_COMMIT_REDUNDANT_AUTHOR 157
+/* 157 is currently unused */
 #define GOT_ERR_BAD_QUERYSTRING	158
 #define GOT_ERR_INTEGRATE_BRANCH 159
 #define GOT_ERR_BAD_REQUEST	160
blob - 041a41fbd209cbb7d7131b52327e59668eea4f41
file + lib/error.c
--- lib/error.c
+++ lib/error.c
@@ -219,8 +219,6 @@ static const struct got_error got_errors[] = {
 	{ GOT_ERR_BAD_TAG_SIGNATURE, "invalid tag signature" },
 	{ GOT_ERR_VERIFY_TAG_SIGNATURE, "cannot verify signature" },
 	{ GOT_ERR_SIGNING_TAG, "unable to sign tag" },
-	{ GOT_ERR_COMMIT_REDUNDANT_AUTHOR, "specified author is equal to the "
-	    "default one"},
 	{ GOT_ERR_BAD_QUERYSTRING, "invalid query string" },
 	{ GOT_ERR_INTEGRATE_BRANCH, "will not integrate into a reference "
 	    "outside the \"refs/heads/\" reference namespace" },
blob - 6005da9a4302b4e31d5dc9469c9c35b7abef803f
file + regress/cmdline/commit.sh
--- regress/cmdline/commit.sh
+++ regress/cmdline/commit.sh
@@ -764,26 +764,6 @@ test_commit_cmdline_author() {
 
 	echo "modified alpha" > $testroot/wt/alpha
 
-	# first try with a -A equals to $GOT_AUTHOR
-	(cd $testroot/wt && got commit -A "$GOT_AUTHOR" -m 'edit alpha') \
-		> /dev/null 2> $testroot/stderr
-	ret=$?
-	if [ $ret -eq 0 ]; then
-		test_done "$testroot" 1
-		return 1
-	fi
-
-	echo 'got: specified author is equal to the default one' \
-	     > $testroot/stderr.expected
-	cmp -s $testroot/stderr.expected $testroot/stderr
-	ret=$?
-	if [ $ret -ne 0 ]; then
-		diff -u $testroot/stderr.expected $testroot/stderr
-		test_done "$testroot" $ret
-		return 1
-	fi
-
-	# try again with a different author
 	local author="Foo <foo@example.com>"
 	(cd $testroot/wt && got commit -A "$author" -m 'edit alpha') \
 		> /dev/null

-- 
Mark Jamsek <fnc.bsdbox.org|got.bsdbox.org>
GPG: F2FF 13DE 6A06 C471 CA80  E6E2 2930 DC66 86EE CF68