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
7
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
19 Add a tag reference in refs/tags/, unless -d/-l/-v is given to delete,
20 list or verify tags.
21 Unless -f is given, the named tag must not yet exist.
23 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 If -m <msg> or -F <file> is given and -a, -s, and -u <key-id> are
29 absent, -a is implied.
30 Otherwise, a tag reference that points directly at the given object
32 (i.e., a lightweight tag) is created.
33 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 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 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
51 -a, --annotate
52 Make an unsigned, annotated tag object
53 -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 --no-sign
61 Override tag.gpgSign configuration variable that is set to force
62 each and every tag to be signed.
63 -u <key-id>, --local-user=<key-id>
65 Make a GPG-signed tag, using the given key.
66 -f, --force
68 Replace an existing tag with the given name (instead of failing)
69 -d, --delete
71 Delete existing tags with the given names.
72 -v, --verify
74 Verify the GPG signature of the given tag names.
75 -n<num>
77 <num> specifies how many lines from the annotation, if any, are
78 printed when using -l. Implies --list.
79 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 -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 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 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 --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 --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 -i, --ignore-case
114 Sorting and filtering tags are case insensitive.
115 --omit-empty
117 Do not print a newline after formatted refs where the format
118 expands to the empty string.
119 --column[=<options>], --no-column
121 Display tag listing in columns. See configuration variable
122 column.tag for option syntax. --column and --no-column without
123 options are equivalent to always and never respectively.
124 This option is only applicable when listing tags without annotation
126 lines.
127 --contains [<commit>]
129 Only list tags which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not
130 specified). Implies --list.
131 --no-contains [<commit>]
133 Only list tags which don’t contain the specified commit (HEAD if
134 not specified). Implies --list.
135 --merged [<commit>]
137 Only list tags whose commits are reachable from the specified
138 commit (HEAD if not specified).
139 --no-merged [<commit>]
141 Only list tags whose commits are not reachable from the specified
142 commit (HEAD if not specified).
143 --points-at <object>
145 Only list tags of the given object (HEAD if not specified). Implies
146 --list.
147 -m <msg>, --message=<msg>
149 Use the given tag message (instead of prompting). If multiple -m
150 options are given, their values are concatenated as separate
151 paragraphs. Implies -a if none of -a, -s, or -u <key-id> is given.
152 -F <file>, --file=<file>
154 Take the tag message from the given file. Use - to read the message
155 from the standard input. Implies -a if none of -a, -s, or -u
156 <key-id> is given.
157 -e, --edit
159 The message taken from file with -F and command line with -m are
160 usually used as the tag message unmodified. This option lets you
161 further edit the message taken from these sources.
162 --cleanup=<mode>
164 This option sets how the tag message is cleaned up. The <mode> can
165 be one of verbatim, whitespace and strip. The strip mode is
166 default. The verbatim mode does not change message at all,
167 whitespace removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines and strip
168 removes both whitespace and commentary.
169 --create-reflog
171 Create a reflog for the tag. To globally enable reflogs for tags,
172 see core.logAllRefUpdates in git-config(1). The negated form
173 --no-create-reflog only overrides an earlier --create-reflog, but
174 currently does not negate the setting of core.logAllRefUpdates.
175 --format=<format>
177 A string that interpolates %(fieldname) from a tag ref being shown
178 and the object it points at. The format is the same as that of git-
179 for-each-ref(1). When unspecified, defaults to %(refname:strip=2).
180 <tagname>
182 The name of the tag to create, delete, or describe. The new tag
183 name must pass all checks defined by git-check-ref-format(1). Some
184 of these checks may restrict the characters allowed in a tag name.
185 <commit>, <object>
187 The object that the new tag will refer to, usually a commit.
188 Defaults to HEAD.
189
191 By default, git tag in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your
192 committer identity (of the form Your Name <your@email.address>) to find
193 a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify it
194 in the repository configuration as follows:
195 [user]
197 signingKey = <gpg-key_id>
198 pager.tag is only respected when listing tags, i.e., when -l is used or
200 implied. The default is to use a pager. See git-config(1).
201
203 On Re-tagging
204 What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would want to
205 re-tag?
206 If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to replace
208 the old one. And you’re done.
209 But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read your
211 repository directly), then others will have already seen the old tag.
212 In that case you can do one of two things:
213 1. The sane thing. Just admit you screwed up, and use a different
215 name. Others have already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the
216 same name, you may be in the situation that two people both have
217 "version X", but they actually have different "X"'s. So just call
218 it "X.1" and be done with it.
219 2. The insane thing. You really want to call the new version "X" too,
221 even though others have already seen the old one. So just use git
222 tag -f again, as if you hadn’t already published the old one.
223 However, Git does not (and it should not) change tags behind users
225 back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a git pull on your
226 tree shouldn’t just make them overwrite the old one.
227 If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change the tag
229 for them by updating your own one. This is a big security issue, in
230 that people MUST be able to trust their tag-names. If you really want
231 to do the insane thing, you need to just fess up to it, and tell people
232 that you messed up. You can do that by making a very public
233 announcement saying:
234 Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I
236 then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again.
237 If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete
239 the old one and fetch the new one by doing:
240 git tag -d X
242 git fetch origin tag X
243 to get my updated tag.
245 You can test which tag you have by doing
247 git rev-parse X
249 which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version.
251 Sorry for the inconvenience.
253 Does this seem a bit complicated? It should be. There is no way that it
255 would be correct to just "fix" it automatically. People need to know
256 that their tags might have been changed.
257 On Automatic following
259 If you are following somebody else’s tree, you are most likely using
260 remote-tracking branches (eg. refs/remotes/origin/master). You usually
261 want the tags from the other end.
262 On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a
264 one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to get
265 tags from there. This happens more often for people near the toplevel
266 but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling from each other do
267 not necessarily want to automatically get private anchor point tags
268 from the other person.
269 Often, "please pull" messages on the mailing list just provide two
271 pieces of information: a repo URL and a branch name; this is designed
272 to be easily cut&pasted at the end of a git fetch command line:
273 Linus, please pull from
275 git://git..../proj.git master
277 to get the following updates...
279 becomes:
281 $ git pull git://git..../proj.git master
283 In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow the other
285 person’s tags.
286 One important aspect of Git is its distributed nature, which largely
288 means there is no inherent "upstream" or "downstream" in the system. On
289 the face of it, the above example might seem to indicate that the tag
290 namespace is owned by the upper echelon of people and that tags only
291 flow downwards, but that is not the case. It only shows that the usage
292 pattern determines who are interested in whose tags.
293 A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing the
295 boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are primarily
296 interested in the networking part of the kernel") who may have their
297 own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release candidate from the
298 networking group to be proposed for general consumption with 2.6.21
299 release") to another circle of people (e.g. "people who integrate
300 various subsystem improvements"). The latter are usually not interested
301 in the detailed tags used internally in the former group (that is what
302 "internal" means). That is why it is desirable not to follow tags
303 automatically in this case.
304 It may well be that among networking people, they may want to exchange
306 the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow they are most
307 likely tracking each other’s progress by having remote-tracking
308 branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically follow such tags is a
309 good thing.
310 On Backdating Tags
312 If you have imported some changes from another VCS and would like to
313 add tags for major releases of your work, it is useful to be able to
314 specify the date to embed inside of the tag object; such data in the
315 tag object affects, for example, the ordering of tags in the gitweb
316 interface.
317 To set the date used in future tag objects, set the environment
319 variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE (see the later discussion of possible
320 values; the most common form is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM").
321 For example:
323 $ GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2006-10-02 10:31" git tag -s v1.0.1
325
327 The GIT_AUTHOR_DATE and GIT_COMMITTER_DATE environment variables
328 support the following date formats:
329 Git internal format
331 It is <unix-timestamp> <time-zone-offset>, where <unix-timestamp>
332 is the number of seconds since the UNIX epoch. <time-zone-offset>
333 is a positive or negative offset from UTC. For example CET (which
334 is 1 hour ahead of UTC) is +0100.
335 RFC 2822
337 The standard email format as described by RFC 2822, for example
338 Thu, 07 Apr 2005 22:13:13 +0200.
339 ISO 8601
341 Time and date specified by the ISO 8601 standard, for example
342 2005-04-07T22:13:13. The parser accepts a space instead of the T
343 character as well. Fractional parts of a second will be ignored,
344 for example 2005-04-07T22:13:13.019 will be treated as
345 2005-04-07T22:13:13.
346 Note
348 In addition, the date part is accepted in the following
349 formats: YYYY.MM.DD, MM/DD/YYYY and DD.MM.YYYY.
350
352 $GIT_DIR/TAG_EDITMSG
353 This file contains the message of an in-progress annotated tag. If
354 git tag exits due to an error before creating an annotated tag then
355 the tag message that has been provided by the user in an editor
356 session will be available in this file, but may be overwritten by
357 the next invocation of git tag.
358
360 When combining multiple --contains and --no-contains filters, only
361 references that contain at least one of the --contains commits and
362 contain none of the --no-contains commits are shown.
363 When combining multiple --merged and --no-merged filters, only
365 references that are reachable from at least one of the --merged commits
366 and from none of the --no-merged commits are shown.
367
369 git-check-ref-format(1). git-config(1).
370
372 Part of the git(1) suite
373Git 2.43.0 11/20/2023 GIT-TAG(1)