1git-tag(1) 2========== 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-tag - Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git-tag' [-a | -s | -u <key-id>] [-f] [-m <msg> | -F <file>] <name> [<head>] 13'git-tag' -d <name>... 14'git-tag' [-n [<num>]] -l [<pattern>] 15'git-tag' -v <name> 16 17DESCRIPTION 18----------- 19Adds a 'tag' reference in `.git/refs/tags/` 20 21Unless `-f` is given, the tag must not yet exist in 22`.git/refs/tags/` directory. 23 24If one of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <key-id>` is passed, the command 25creates a 'tag' object, and requires the tag message. Unless 26`-m <msg>` is given, an editor is started for the user to type 27in the tag message. 28 29Otherwise just the SHA1 object name of the commit object is 30written (i.e. a lightweight tag). 31 32A GnuPG signed tag object will be created when `-s` or `-u 33<key-id>` is used. When `-u <key-id>` is not used, the 34committer identity for the current user is used to find the 35GnuPG key for signing. 36 37`-d <tag>` deletes the tag. 38 39`-v <tag>` verifies the gpg signature of the tag. 40 41`-l <pattern>` lists tags with names that match the given pattern 42(or all if no pattern is given). 43 44OPTIONS 45------- 46-a:: 47 Make an unsigned, annotated tag object 48 49-s:: 50 Make a GPG-signed tag, using the default e-mail address's key 51 52-u <key-id>:: 53 Make a GPG-signed tag, using the given key 54 55-f:: 56 Replace an existing tag with the given name (instead of failing) 57 58-d:: 59 Delete existing tags with the given names. 60 61-v:: 62 Verify the gpg signature of given the tag 63 64-n <num>:: 65 <num> specifies how many lines from the annotation, if any, 66 are printed when using -l. 67 The default is not to print any annotation lines. 68 69-l <pattern>:: 70 List tags with names that match the given pattern (or all if no pattern is given). 71 72-m <msg>:: 73 Use the given tag message (instead of prompting) 74 75-F <file>:: 76 Take the tag message from the given file. Use '-' to 77 read the message from the standard input. 78 79CONFIGURATION 80------------- 81By default, git-tag in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your 82committer identity (of the form "Your Name <your@email.address>") to 83find a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify 84it in the repository configuration as follows: 85 86------------------------------------- 87[user] 88 signingkey = <gpg-key-id> 89------------------------------------- 90 91 92DISCUSSION 93---------- 94 95On Re-tagging 96~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 97 98What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would 99want to re-tag? 100 101If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to 102replace the old one. And you're done. 103 104But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read 105your repository directly), then others will have already seen 106the old tag. In that case you can do one of two things: 107 108. The sane thing. 109Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name. Others have 110already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the same name, you 111may be in the situation that two people both have "version X", 112but they actually have 'different' "X"'s. So just call it "X.1" 113and be done with it. 114 115. The insane thing. 116You really want to call the new version "X" too, 'even though' 117others have already seen the old one. So just use "git tag -f" 118again, as if you hadn't already published the old one. 119 120However, Git does *not* (and it should not)change tags behind 121users back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a "git 122pull" on your tree shouldn't just make them overwrite the old 123one. 124 125If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change 126the tag for them by updating your own one. This is a big 127security issue, in that people MUST be able to trust their 128tag-names. If you really want to do the insane thing, you need 129to just fess up to it, and tell people that you messed up. You 130can do that by making a very public announcement saying: 131 132------------ 133Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I 134then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again. 135 136If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete 137the old one and fetch the new one by doing: 138 139 git tag -d X 140 git fetch origin tag X 141 142to get my updated tag. 143 144You can test which tag you have by doing 145 146 git rev-parse X 147 148which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version. 149 150Sorry for inconvenience. 151------------ 152 153Does this seem a bit complicated? It *should* be. There is no 154way that it would be correct to just "fix" it behind peoples 155backs. People need to know that their tags might have been 156changed. 157 158 159On Automatic following 160~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 161 162If you are following somebody else's tree, you are most likely 163using tracking branches (`refs/heads/origin` in traditional 164layout, or `refs/remotes/origin/master` in the separate-remote 165layout). You usually want the tags from the other end. 166 167On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a 168one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to 169get tags from there. This happens more often for people near 170the toplevel but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling 171from each other do not necessarily want to automatically get 172private anchor point tags from the other person. 173 174You would notice "please pull" messages on the mailing list says 175repo URL and branch name alone. This is designed to be easily 176cut&pasted to "git fetch" command line: 177 178------------ 179Linus, please pull from 180 181 git://git..../proj.git master 182 183to get the following updates... 184------------ 185 186becomes: 187 188------------ 189$ git pull git://git..../proj.git master 190------------ 191 192In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow other's 193tags. 194 195One important aspect of git is it is distributed, and being 196distributed largely means there is no inherent "upstream" or 197"downstream" in the system. On the face of it, the above 198example might seem to indicate that the tag namespace is owned 199by upper echelon of people and tags only flow downwards, but 200that is not the case. It only shows that the usage pattern 201determines who are interested in whose tags. 202 203A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing 204the boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are 205primarily interested in networking part of the kernel") who may 206have their own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release 207candidate from the networking group to be proposed for general 208consumption with 2.6.21 release") to another circle of people 209(e.g. "people who integrate various subsystem improvements"). 210The latter are usually not interested in the detailed tags used 211internally in the former group (that is what "internal" means). 212That is why it is desirable not to follow tags automatically in 213this case. 214 215It may well be that among networking people, they may want to 216exchange the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow 217they are most likely tracking with each other's progress by 218having tracking branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically 219follow such tags is a good thing. 220 221 222Author 223------ 224Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>, 225Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> and Chris Wright <chrisw@osdl.org>. 226 227Documentation 228-------------- 229Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 230 231GIT 232--- 233Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite