1GIT-TAG(1)                        Git Manual                        GIT-TAG(1)
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NAME

6       git-tag - Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG
7

SYNOPSIS

9       git tag [-a | -s | -u <key-id>] [-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               [--merged <commit>] [--no-merged <commit>] [<pattern>...]
16       git tag -v [--format=<format>] <tagname>...
17

DESCRIPTION

19       Add a tag reference in refs/tags/, unless -d/-l/-v is given to delete,
20       list or verify tags.
21
22       Unless -f is given, the named tag must not yet exist.
23
24       If one of -a, -s, or -u <key-id> is passed, the command creates a tag
25       object, and requires a tag message. Unless -m <msg> or -F <file> is
26       given, an editor is started for the user to type in the tag message.
27
28       If -m <msg> or -F <file> is given and -a, -s, and -u <key-id> are
29       absent, -a is implied.
30
31       Otherwise, a tag reference that points directly at the given object
32       (i.e., a lightweight tag) is created.
33
34       A GnuPG signed tag object will be created when -s or -u <key-id> is
35       used. When -u <key-id> is not used, the committer identity for the
36       current user is used to find the GnuPG key for signing. The
37       configuration variable gpg.program is used to specify custom GnuPG
38       binary.
39
40       Tag objects (created with -a, -s, or -u) are called "annotated" tags;
41       they contain a creation date, the tagger name and e-mail, a tagging
42       message, and an optional GnuPG signature. Whereas a "lightweight" tag
43       is simply a name for an object (usually a commit object).
44
45       Annotated tags are meant for release while lightweight tags are meant
46       for private or temporary object labels. For this reason, some git
47       commands for naming objects (like git describe) will ignore lightweight
48       tags by default.
49

OPTIONS

51       -a, --annotate
52           Make an unsigned, annotated tag object
53
54       -s, --sign
55           Make a GPG-signed tag, using the default e-mail address’s key. The
56           default behavior of tag GPG-signing is controlled by tag.gpgSign
57           configuration variable if it exists, or disabled otherwise. See
58           git-config(1).
59
60       --no-sign
61           Override tag.gpgSign configuration variable that is set to force
62           each and every tag to be signed.
63
64       -u <key-id>, --local-user=<key-id>
65           Make a GPG-signed tag, using the given key.
66
67       -f, --force
68           Replace an existing tag with the given name (instead of failing)
69
70       -d, --delete
71           Delete existing tags with the given names.
72
73       -v, --verify
74           Verify the GPG signature of the given tag names.
75
76       -n<num>
77           <num> specifies how many lines from the annotation, if any, are
78           printed when using -l. Implies --list.
79
80           The default is not to print any annotation lines. If no number is
81           given to -n, only the first line is printed. If the tag is not
82           annotated, the commit message is displayed instead.
83
84       -l, --list
85           List tags. With optional <pattern>..., e.g.  git tag --list 'v-*',
86           list only the tags that match the pattern(s).
87
88           Running "git tag" without arguments also lists all tags. The
89           pattern is a shell wildcard (i.e., matched using fnmatch(3)).
90           Multiple patterns may be given; if any of them matches, the tag is
91           shown.
92
93           This option is implicitly supplied if any other list-like option
94           such as --contains is provided. See the documentation for each of
95           those options for details.
96
97       --sort=<key>
98           Sort based on the key given. Prefix - to sort in descending order
99           of the value. You may use the --sort=<key> option multiple times,
100           in which case the last key becomes the primary key. Also supports
101           "version:refname" or "v:refname" (tag names are treated as
102           versions). The "version:refname" sort order can also be affected by
103           the "versionsort.suffix" configuration variable. The keys supported
104           are the same as those in git for-each-ref. Sort order defaults to
105           the value configured for the tag.sort variable if it exists, or
106           lexicographic order otherwise. See git-config(1).
107
108       --color[=<when>]
109           Respect any colors specified in the --format option. The <when>
110           field must be one of always, never, or auto (if <when> is absent,
111           behave as if always was given).
112
113       -i, --ignore-case
114           Sorting and filtering tags are case insensitive.
115
116       --column[=<options>], --no-column
117           Display tag listing in columns. See configuration variable
118           column.tag for option syntax.  --column and --no-column without
119           options are equivalent to always and never respectively.
120
121           This option is only applicable when listing tags without annotation
122           lines.
123
124       --contains [<commit>]
125           Only list tags which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not
126           specified). Implies --list.
127
128       --no-contains [<commit>]
129           Only list tags which don’t contain the specified commit (HEAD if
130           not specified). Implies --list.
131
132       --merged [<commit>]
133           Only list tags whose commits are reachable from the specified
134           commit (HEAD if not specified).
135
136       --no-merged [<commit>]
137           Only list tags whose commits are not reachable from the specified
138           commit (HEAD if not specified).
139
140       --points-at <object>
141           Only list tags of the given object (HEAD if not specified). Implies
142           --list.
143
144       -m <msg>, --message=<msg>
145           Use the given tag message (instead of prompting). If multiple -m
146           options are given, their values are concatenated as separate
147           paragraphs. Implies -a if none of -a, -s, or -u <key-id> is given.
148
149       -F <file>, --file=<file>
150           Take the tag message from the given file. Use - to read the message
151           from the standard input. Implies -a if none of -a, -s, or -u
152           <key-id> is given.
153
154       -e, --edit
155           The message taken from file with -F and command line with -m are
156           usually used as the tag message unmodified. This option lets you
157           further edit the message taken from these sources.
158
159       --cleanup=<mode>
160           This option sets how the tag message is cleaned up. The <mode> can
161           be one of verbatim, whitespace and strip. The strip mode is
162           default. The verbatim mode does not change message at all,
163           whitespace removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines and strip
164           removes both whitespace and commentary.
165
166       --create-reflog
167           Create a reflog for the tag. To globally enable reflogs for tags,
168           see core.logAllRefUpdates in git-config(1). The negated form
169           --no-create-reflog only overrides an earlier --create-reflog, but
170           currently does not negate the setting of core.logAllRefUpdates.
171
172       --format=<format>
173           A string that interpolates %(fieldname) from a tag ref being shown
174           and the object it points at. The format is the same as that of git-
175           for-each-ref(1). When unspecified, defaults to %(refname:strip=2).
176
177       <tagname>
178           The name of the tag to create, delete, or describe. The new tag
179           name must pass all checks defined by git-check-ref-format(1). Some
180           of these checks may restrict the characters allowed in a tag name.
181
182       <commit>, <object>
183           The object that the new tag will refer to, usually a commit.
184           Defaults to HEAD.
185

CONFIGURATION

187       By default, git tag in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your
188       committer identity (of the form Your Name <your@email.address>) to find
189       a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify it
190       in the repository configuration as follows:
191
192           [user]
193               signingKey = <gpg-key_id>
194
195       pager.tag is only respected when listing tags, i.e., when -l is used or
196       implied. The default is to use a pager. See git-config(1).
197

DISCUSSION

199   On Re-tagging
200       What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would want to
201       re-tag?
202
203       If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to replace
204       the old one. And you’re done.
205
206       But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read your
207       repository directly), then others will have already seen the old tag.
208       In that case you can do one of two things:
209
210        1. The sane thing. Just admit you screwed up, and use a different
211           name. Others have already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the
212           same name, you may be in the situation that two people both have
213           "version X", but they actually have different "X"'s. So just call
214           it "X.1" and be done with it.
215
216        2. The insane thing. You really want to call the new version "X" too,
217           even though others have already seen the old one. So just use git
218           tag -f again, as if you hadn’t already published the old one.
219
220       However, Git does not (and it should not) change tags behind users
221       back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a git pull on your
222       tree shouldn’t just make them overwrite the old one.
223
224       If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change the tag
225       for them by updating your own one. This is a big security issue, in
226       that people MUST be able to trust their tag-names. If you really want
227       to do the insane thing, you need to just fess up to it, and tell people
228       that you messed up. You can do that by making a very public
229       announcement saying:
230
231           Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I
232           then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again.
233
234           If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete
235           the old one and fetch the new one by doing:
236
237                   git tag -d X
238                   git fetch origin tag X
239
240           to get my updated tag.
241
242           You can test which tag you have by doing
243
244                   git rev-parse X
245
246           which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version.
247
248           Sorry for the inconvenience.
249
250       Does this seem a bit complicated? It should be. There is no way that it
251       would be correct to just "fix" it automatically. People need to know
252       that their tags might have been changed.
253
254   On Automatic following
255       If you are following somebody else’s tree, you are most likely using
256       remote-tracking branches (eg. refs/remotes/origin/master). You usually
257       want the tags from the other end.
258
259       On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a
260       one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to get
261       tags from there. This happens more often for people near the toplevel
262       but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling from each other do
263       not necessarily want to automatically get private anchor point tags
264       from the other person.
265
266       Often, "please pull" messages on the mailing list just provide two
267       pieces of information: a repo URL and a branch name; this is designed
268       to be easily cut&pasted at the end of a git fetch command line:
269
270           Linus, please pull from
271
272                   git://git..../proj.git master
273
274           to get the following updates...
275
276       becomes:
277
278           $ git pull git://git..../proj.git master
279
280       In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow the other
281       person’s tags.
282
283       One important aspect of Git is its distributed nature, which largely
284       means there is no inherent "upstream" or "downstream" in the system. On
285       the face of it, the above example might seem to indicate that the tag
286       namespace is owned by the upper echelon of people and that tags only
287       flow downwards, but that is not the case. It only shows that the usage
288       pattern determines who are interested in whose tags.
289
290       A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing the
291       boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are primarily
292       interested in the networking part of the kernel") who may have their
293       own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release candidate from the
294       networking group to be proposed for general consumption with 2.6.21
295       release") to another circle of people (e.g. "people who integrate
296       various subsystem improvements"). The latter are usually not interested
297       in the detailed tags used internally in the former group (that is what
298       "internal" means). That is why it is desirable not to follow tags
299       automatically in this case.
300
301       It may well be that among networking people, they may want to exchange
302       the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow they are most
303       likely tracking each other’s progress by having remote-tracking
304       branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically follow such tags is a
305       good thing.
306
307   On Backdating Tags
308       If you have imported some changes from another VCS and would like to
309       add tags for major releases of your work, it is useful to be able to
310       specify the date to embed inside of the tag object; such data in the
311       tag object affects, for example, the ordering of tags in the gitweb
312       interface.
313
314       To set the date used in future tag objects, set the environment
315       variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE (see the later discussion of possible
316       values; the most common form is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM").
317
318       For example:
319
320           $ GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2006-10-02 10:31" git tag -s v1.0.1
321

DATE FORMATS

323       The GIT_AUTHOR_DATE and GIT_COMMITTER_DATE environment variables
324       support the following date formats:
325
326       Git internal format
327           It is <unix-timestamp> <time-zone-offset>, where <unix-timestamp>
328           is the number of seconds since the UNIX epoch.  <time-zone-offset>
329           is a positive or negative offset from UTC. For example CET (which
330           is 1 hour ahead of UTC) is +0100.
331
332       RFC 2822
333           The standard email format as described by RFC 2822, for example
334           Thu, 07 Apr 2005 22:13:13 +0200.
335
336       ISO 8601
337           Time and date specified by the ISO 8601 standard, for example
338           2005-04-07T22:13:13. The parser accepts a space instead of the T
339           character as well. Fractional parts of a second will be ignored,
340           for example 2005-04-07T22:13:13.019 will be treated as
341           2005-04-07T22:13:13.
342
343               Note
344               In addition, the date part is accepted in the following
345               formats: YYYY.MM.DD, MM/DD/YYYY and DD.MM.YYYY.
346

NOTES

348       When combining multiple --contains and --no-contains filters, only
349       references that contain at least one of the --contains commits and
350       contain none of the --no-contains commits are shown.
351
352       When combining multiple --merged and --no-merged filters, only
353       references that are reachable from at least one of the --merged commits
354       and from none of the --no-merged commits are shown.
355

SEE ALSO

357       git-check-ref-format(1). git-config(1).
358

GIT

360       Part of the git(1) suite
361
362
363
364Git 2.39.1                        2023-01-13                        GIT-TAG(1)
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