NAME¶

git-tag - Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG

SYNOPSIS¶

git tag [-a | -s | -u <keyid>] [-f] [-m <msg> | -F <file>]
        <tagname> [<commit> | <object>]
git tag -d <tagname>...
git tag [-n[<num>]] -l [--contains <commit>] [--points-at <object>]
        [--column[=<options>] | --no-column] [--create-reflog] [--sort=<key>]
        [--format=<format>] [--[no-]merged [<commit>]] [<pattern>...]
git tag -v <tagname>...

DESCRIPTION¶

Add a tag reference in refs/tags/, unless -d/-l/-v is given to delete, list or verify tags. Unless -f is given, the named tag must not yet exist. If one of -a, -s, or -u <keyid> is passed, the command creates a tag object, and requires a tag message. Unless -m <msg> or -F <file> is given, an editor is started for the user to type in the tag message. If -m <msg> or -F <file> is given and -a, -s, and -u <keyid> are absent, -a is implied. Otherwise just a tag reference for the SHA-1 object name of the commit object is created (i.e. a lightweight tag). A GnuPG signed tag object will be created when -s or -u <keyid> is used. When -u <keyid> is not used, the committer identity for the current user is used to find the GnuPG key for signing. The configuration variable gpg.program is used to specify custom GnuPG binary. Tag objects (created with -a, -s, or -u) are called "annotated" tags; they contain a creation date, the tagger name and e-mail, a tagging message, and an optional GnuPG signature. Whereas a "lightweight" tag is simply a name for an object (usually a commit object). Annotated tags are meant for release while lightweight tags are meant for private or temporary object labels. For this reason, some git commands for naming objects (like git describe) will ignore lightweight tags by default.

OPTIONS¶

-a, --annotate -s, --sign -u <keyid>, --local-user=<keyid> -f, --force -d, --delete -v, --verify -n<num> -l <pattern>, --list <pattern> --sort=<key> --column[=<options>], --no-column --contains [<commit>] --points-at <object> -m <msg>, --message=<msg> -F <file>, --file=<file> --cleanup=<mode> --create-reflog <tagname> <commit>, <object> <format> --[no-]merged [<commit>]

CONFIGURATION¶

By default, git tag in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your committer identity (of the form Your Name <your@email.address>) to find a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify it in the repository configuration as follows:

DISCUSSION¶

On Re-tagging¶

What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would want to re-tag? If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to replace the old one. And you’re done. But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read your repository directly), then others will have already seen the old tag. In that case you can do one of two things: However, Git does not (and it should not) change tags behind users back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a git pull on your tree shouldn’t just make them overwrite the old one. If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change the tag for them by updating your own one. This is a big security issue, in that people MUST be able to trust their tag-names. If you really want to do the insane thing, you need to just fess up to it, and tell people that you messed up. You can do that by making a very public announcement saying: Does this seem a bit complicated? It should be. There is no way that it would be correct to just "fix" it automatically. People need to know that their tags might have been changed.

On Automatic following¶

If you are following somebody else’s tree, you are most likely using remote-tracking branches (eg. refs/remotes/origin/master). You usually want the tags from the other end. On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to get tags from there. This happens more often for people near the toplevel but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling from each other do not necessarily want to automatically get private anchor point tags from the other person. Often, "please pull" messages on the mailing list just provide two pieces of information: a repo URL and a branch name; this is designed to be easily cut&pasted at the end of a git fetch command line: becomes: In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow the other person’s tags. One important aspect of Git is its distributed nature, which largely means there is no inherent "upstream" or "downstream" in the system. On the face of it, the above example might seem to indicate that the tag namespace is owned by the upper echelon of people and that tags only flow downwards, but that is not the case. It only shows that the usage pattern determines who are interested in whose tags. A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing the boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are primarily interested in the networking part of the kernel") who may have their own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release candidate from the networking group to be proposed for general consumption with 2.6.21 release") to another circle of people (e.g. "people who integrate various subsystem improvements"). The latter are usually not interested in the detailed tags used internally in the former group (that is what "internal" means). That is why it is desirable not to follow tags automatically in this case. It may well be that among networking people, they may want to exchange the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow they are most likely tracking each other’s progress by having remote-tracking branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically follow such tags is a good thing.

On Backdating Tags¶

If you have imported some changes from another VCS and would like to add tags for major releases of your work, it is useful to be able to specify the date to embed inside of the tag object; such data in the tag object affects, for example, the ordering of tags in the gitweb interface. To set the date used in future tag objects, set the environment variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE (see the later discussion of possible values; the most common form is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM"). For example:

DATE FORMATS¶

The GIT_AUTHOR_DATE, GIT_COMMITTER_DATE environment variables support the following date formats: Git internal format RFC 2822 ISO 8601

SEE ALSO¶

git-check-ref-format(1). git-config(1).

GIT¶

Part of the git(1) suite