GIT-TAG(1) Git Manual GIT-TAG(1)
NAME
git-tag - Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG
SYNOPSIS
git tag [-a | -s | -u <key-id>] [-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] [<pattern>...]
[<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 <key-id> 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 <key-id> 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 <key-id> is used. When -u <key-id> 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.
OPTIONS
-a, --annotate
Make an unsigned, annotated tag object
-s, --sign
Make a GPG-signed tag, using the default e-mail address’s key.
-u <key-id>, --local-user=<key-id>
Make a GPG-signed tag, using the given key.
-f, --force
Replace an existing tag with the given name (instead of failing)
-d, --delete
Delete existing tags with the given names.
-v, --verify
Verify the gpg signature of the given tag names.
-n<num>
<num> specifies how many lines from the annotation, if any, are printed when using -l. The default is not
to print any annotation lines. If no number is given to -n, only the first line is printed. If the tag is
not annotated, the commit message is displayed instead.
-l <pattern>, --list <pattern>
List tags with names that match the given pattern (or all if no pattern is given). Running "git tag"
--points-at <object>
Only list tags of the given object.
-m <msg>, --message=<msg>
Use the given tag message (instead of prompting). If multiple -m options are given, their values are
concatenated as separate paragraphs. Implies -a if none of -a, -s, or -u <key-id> is given.
-F <file>, --file=<file>
Take the tag message from the given file. Use - to read the message from the standard input. Implies -a if
none of -a, -s, or -u <key-id> is given.
--cleanup=<mode>
This option sets how the tag message is cleaned up. The <mode> can be one of verbatim, whitespace and
strip. The strip mode is default. The verbatim mode does not change message at all, whitespace removes
just leading/trailing whitespace lines and strip removes both whitespace and commentary.
<tagname>
The name of the tag to create, delete, or describe. The new tag name must pass all checks defined by git-
check-ref-format(1). Some of these checks may restrict the characters allowed in a tag name.
<commit>, <object>
The object that the new tag will refer to, usually a commit. Defaults to HEAD.
CONFIGURATION
By default, git tag in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your committer identity (of the form "Your Name
<[email protected]>") to find a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify it in the
repository configuration as follows:
[user]
signingkey = <gpg-key-id>
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:
1. The sane thing. Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name. Others have already seen one
tag-name, and if you keep the same name, you may be in the situation that two people both have "version
X", but they actually have different "X"'s. So just call it "X.1" and be done with it.
2. The insane thing. You really want to call the new version "X" too, even though others have already seen
the old one. So just use git tag -f again, as if you hadn’t already published the old one.
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
You can test which tag you have by doing
git rev-parse X
which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
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
(refs/heads/origin in traditional layout, or refs/remotes/origin/master in the separate-remote layout). 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:
Linus, please pull from
git://git..../proj.git master
to get the following updates...
becomes:
$ git pull git://git..../proj.git master
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.
$ GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2006-10-02 10:31" git tag -s v1.0.1
DATE FORMATS
The GIT_AUTHOR_DATE, GIT_COMMITTER_DATE environment variables support the following date formats:
Git internal format
It is <unix timestamp> <timezone offset>, where <unix timestamp> is the number of seconds since the UNIX
epoch. <timezone offset> is a positive or negative offset from UTC. For example CET (which is 2 hours
ahead UTC) is +0200.
RFC 2822
The standard email format as described by RFC 2822, for example Thu, 07 Apr 2005 22:13:13 +0200.
ISO 8601
Time and date specified by the ISO 8601 standard, for example 2005-04-07T22:13:13. The parser accepts a
space instead of the T character as well.
Note
In addition, the date part is accepted in the following formats: YYYY.MM.DD, MM/DD/YYYY and
DD.MM.YYYY.
SEE ALSO
git-check-ref-format(1).
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
Git 1.8.3.1 03/23/2016 GIT-TAG(1)
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