1GIT-TAG(1) Git Manual GIT-TAG(1)
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6 git-tag - Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG
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9 git tag [-a | -s | -u <keyid>] [-f] [-m <msg> | -F <file>] [-e]
10 <tagname> [<commit> | <object>]
11 git tag -d <tagname>...
12 git tag [-n[<num>]] -l [--contains <commit>] [--no-contains <commit>]
13 [--points-at <object>] [--column[=<options>] | --no-column]
14 [--create-reflog] [--sort=<key>] [--format=<format>]
15 [--[no-]merged [<commit>]] [<pattern>...]
16 git tag -v [--format=<format>] <tagname>...
17
20 Add a tag reference in refs/tags/, unless -d/-l/-v is given to delete,
21 list or verify tags.
22 Unless -f is given, the named tag must not yet exist.
24 If one of -a, -s, or -u <keyid> is passed, the command creates a tag
26 object, and requires a tag message. Unless -m <msg> or -F <file> is
27 given, an editor is started for the user to type in the tag message.
28 If -m <msg> or -F <file> is given and -a, -s, and -u <keyid> are
30 absent, -a is implied.
31 Otherwise, a tag reference that points directly at the given object
33 (i.e., a lightweight tag) is created.
34 A GnuPG signed tag object will be created when -s or -u <keyid> is
36 used. When -u <keyid> is not used, the committer identity for the
37 current user is used to find the GnuPG key for signing. The
38 configuration variable gpg.program is used to specify custom GnuPG
39 binary.
40 Tag objects (created with -a, -s, or -u) are called "annotated" tags;
42 they contain a creation date, the tagger name and e-mail, a tagging
43 message, and an optional GnuPG signature. Whereas a "lightweight" tag
44 is simply a name for an object (usually a commit object).
45 Annotated tags are meant for release while lightweight tags are meant
47 for private or temporary object labels. For this reason, some git
48 commands for naming objects (like git describe) will ignore lightweight
49 tags by default.
50
52 -a, --annotate
53 Make an unsigned, annotated tag object
54 -s, --sign
56 Make a GPG-signed tag, using the default e-mail address’s key.
57 -u <keyid>, --local-user=<keyid>
59 Make a GPG-signed tag, using the given key.
60 -f, --force
62 Replace an existing tag with the given name (instead of failing)
63 -d, --delete
65 Delete existing tags with the given names.
66 -v, --verify
68 Verify the GPG signature of the given tag names.
69 -n<num>
71 <num> specifies how many lines from the annotation, if any, are
72 printed when using -l. Implies --list.
73 The default is not to print any annotation lines. If no number is
75 given to -n, only the first line is printed. If the tag is not
76 annotated, the commit message is displayed instead.
77 -l, --list
79 List tags. With optional <pattern>..., e.g. git tag --list 'v-*',
80 list only the tags that match the pattern(s).
81 Running "git tag" without arguments also lists all tags. The
83 pattern is a shell wildcard (i.e., matched using fnmatch(3)).
84 Multiple patterns may be given; if any of them matches, the tag is
85 shown.
86 This option is implicitly supplied if any other list-like option
88 such as --contains is provided. See the documentation for each of
89 those options for details.
90 --sort=<key>
92 Sort based on the key given. Prefix - to sort in descending order
93 of the value. You may use the --sort=<key> option multiple times,
94 in which case the last key becomes the primary key. Also supports
95 "version:refname" or "v:refname" (tag names are treated as
96 versions). The "version:refname" sort order can also be affected by
97 the "versionsort.suffix" configuration variable. The keys supported
98 are the same as those in git for-each-ref. Sort order defaults to
99 the value configured for the tag.sort variable if it exists, or
100 lexicographic order otherwise. See git-config(1).
101 --color[=<when>]
103 Respect any colors specified in the --format option. The <when>
104 field must be one of always, never, or auto (if <when> is absent,
105 behave as if always was given).
106 -i, --ignore-case
108 Sorting and filtering tags are case insensitive.
109 --column[=<options>], --no-column
111 Display tag listing in columns. See configuration variable
112 column.tag for option syntax.--column and --no-column without
113 options are equivalent to always and never respectively.
114 This option is only applicable when listing tags without annotation
116 lines.
117 --contains [<commit>]
119 Only list tags which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not
120 specified). Implies --list.
121 --no-contains [<commit>]
123 Only list tags which don’t contain the specified commit (HEAD if
124 not specified). Implies --list.
125 --merged [<commit>]
127 Only list tags whose commits are reachable from the specified
128 commit (HEAD if not specified), incompatible with --no-merged.
129 --no-merged [<commit>]
131 Only list tags whose commits are not reachable from the specified
132 commit (HEAD if not specified), incompatible with --merged.
133 --points-at <object>
135 Only list tags of the given object (HEAD if not specified). Implies
136 --list.
137 -m <msg>, --message=<msg>
139 Use the given tag message (instead of prompting). If multiple -m
140 options are given, their values are concatenated as separate
141 paragraphs. Implies -a if none of -a, -s, or -u <keyid> is given.
142 -F <file>, --file=<file>
144 Take the tag message from the given file. Use - to read the message
145 from the standard input. Implies -a if none of -a, -s, or -u
146 <keyid> is given.
147 -e, --edit
149 The message taken from file with -F and command line with -m are
150 usually used as the tag message unmodified. This option lets you
151 further edit the message taken from these sources.
152 --cleanup=<mode>
154 This option sets how the tag message is cleaned up. The <mode> can
155 be one of verbatim, whitespace and strip. The strip mode is
156 default. The verbatim mode does not change message at all,
157 whitespace removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines and strip
158 removes both whitespace and commentary.
159 --create-reflog
161 Create a reflog for the tag. To globally enable reflogs for tags,
162 see core.logAllRefUpdates in git-config(1). The negated form
163 --no-create-reflog only overrides an earlier --create-reflog, but
164 currently does not negate the setting of core.logAllRefUpdates.
165 --format=<format>
167 A string that interpolates %(fieldname) from a tag ref being shown
168 and the object it points at. The format is the same as that of git-
169 for-each-ref(1). When unspecified, defaults to %(refname:strip=2).
170 <tagname>
172 The name of the tag to create, delete, or describe. The new tag
173 name must pass all checks defined by git-check-ref-format(1). Some
174 of these checks may restrict the characters allowed in a tag name.
175 <commit>, <object>
177 The object that the new tag will refer to, usually a commit.
178 Defaults to HEAD.
179
181 By default, git tag in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your
182 committer identity (of the form Your Name <your@email.address>) to find
183 a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify it
184 in the repository configuration as follows:
185 [user]
187 signingKey = <gpg-keyid>
188 pager.tag is only respected when listing tags, i.e., when -l is used or
191 implied. The default is to use a pager. See git-config(1).
192
194 On Re-tagging
195 What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would want to
196 re-tag?
197 If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to replace
199 the old one. And you’re done.
200 But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read your
202 repository directly), then others will have already seen the old tag.
203 In that case you can do one of two things:
204 1. The sane thing. Just admit you screwed up, and use a different
206 name. Others have already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the
207 same name, you may be in the situation that two people both have
208 "version X", but they actually have different "X"'s. So just call
209 it "X.1" and be done with it.
210 2. The insane thing. You really want to call the new version "X" too,
212 even though others have already seen the old one. So just use git
213 tag -f again, as if you hadn’t already published the old one.
214 However, Git does not (and it should not) change tags behind users
216 back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a git pull on your
217 tree shouldn’t just make them overwrite the old one.
218 If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change the tag
220 for them by updating your own one. This is a big security issue, in
221 that people MUST be able to trust their tag-names. If you really want
222 to do the insane thing, you need to just fess up to it, and tell people
223 that you messed up. You can do that by making a very public
224 announcement saying:
225 Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I
227 then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again.
228 If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete
230 the old one and fetch the new one by doing:
231 git tag -d X
233 git fetch origin tag X
234 to get my updated tag.
236 You can test which tag you have by doing
238 git rev-parse X
240 which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version.
242 Sorry for the inconvenience.
244 Does this seem a bit complicated? It should be. There is no way that it
247 would be correct to just "fix" it automatically. People need to know
248 that their tags might have been changed.
249 On Automatic following
251 If you are following somebody else’s tree, you are most likely using
252 remote-tracking branches (eg. refs/remotes/origin/master). You usually
253 want the tags from the other end.
254 On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a
256 one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to get
257 tags from there. This happens more often for people near the toplevel
258 but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling from each other do
259 not necessarily want to automatically get private anchor point tags
260 from the other person.
261 Often, "please pull" messages on the mailing list just provide two
263 pieces of information: a repo URL and a branch name; this is designed
264 to be easily cut&pasted at the end of a git fetch command line:
265 Linus, please pull from
267 git://git..../proj.git master
269 to get the following updates...
271 becomes:
274 $ git pull git://git..../proj.git master
276 In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow the other
279 person’s tags.
280 One important aspect of Git is its distributed nature, which largely
282 means there is no inherent "upstream" or "downstream" in the system. On
283 the face of it, the above example might seem to indicate that the tag
284 namespace is owned by the upper echelon of people and that tags only
285 flow downwards, but that is not the case. It only shows that the usage
286 pattern determines who are interested in whose tags.
287 A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing the
289 boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are primarily
290 interested in the networking part of the kernel") who may have their
291 own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release candidate from the
292 networking group to be proposed for general consumption with 2.6.21
293 release") to another circle of people (e.g. "people who integrate
294 various subsystem improvements"). The latter are usually not interested
295 in the detailed tags used internally in the former group (that is what
296 "internal" means). That is why it is desirable not to follow tags
297 automatically in this case.
298 It may well be that among networking people, they may want to exchange
300 the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow they are most
301 likely tracking each other’s progress by having remote-tracking
302 branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically follow such tags is a
303 good thing.
304 On Backdating Tags
306 If you have imported some changes from another VCS and would like to
307 add tags for major releases of your work, it is useful to be able to
308 specify the date to embed inside of the tag object; such data in the
309 tag object affects, for example, the ordering of tags in the gitweb
310 interface.
311 To set the date used in future tag objects, set the environment
313 variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE (see the later discussion of possible
314 values; the most common form is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM").
315 For example:
317 $ GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2006-10-02 10:31" git tag -s v1.0.1
319
322 The GIT_AUTHOR_DATE, GIT_COMMITTER_DATE environment variables support
323 the following date formats:
324 Git internal format
326 It is <unix timestamp> <time zone offset>, where <unix timestamp>
327 is the number of seconds since the UNIX epoch. <time zone offset>
328 is a positive or negative offset from UTC. For example CET (which
329 is 1 hour ahead of UTC) is +0100.
330 RFC 2822
332 The standard email format as described by RFC 2822, for example
333 Thu, 07 Apr 2005 22:13:13 +0200.
334 ISO 8601
336 Time and date specified by the ISO 8601 standard, for example
337 2005-04-07T22:13:13. The parser accepts a space instead of the T
338 character as well.
339 Note
341 In addition, the date part is accepted in the following
342 formats: YYYY.MM.DD, MM/DD/YYYY and DD.MM.YYYY.
343
345 git-check-ref-format(1). git-config(1).
346
348 Part of the git(1) suite
349Git 2.20.1 12/15/2018 GIT-TAG(1)