Running filter-branch over a range of commits
git filter-branch --env-filter '
export GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL="[email protected]"
export GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="foo"' -- commita..commitb
Results in Which ref do you want to rewrite?
So it seems that filter-branch doesn't allow you to use range notation use a range between two arbitrary refs.
What is the most straight forward way of running a filter over a range of consecutive commits (somewhere within the history of a branch) if this approach isn't possible.
Answer
You cannot apply the filter-branch in the middle of the history, as said by @kan. You must apply from your known commit to the end of the history
git filter-branch --env-filter '...' SHA1..HEAD
Filter-branch can check for the commit author or other information, to chose to change or not the commit, so there are ways to accomplish what you want, see https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Rewriting-History, look for "Changing Email Addresses Globally"
Remember: if you have pushed the commits to a public repository you should not user filter-branch