if date is not None:
        # git-2.2.0 added "%cI", which expands to an ISO-8601 -compliant
        # datestamp. However we prefer "%ci" (which expands to an "ISO-8601
        # -like" string, which we must then edit to make compliant), because
        # it's been around since git-1.5.3, and it's too difficult to