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>] 13 <tagname> [<commit> | <object>] 14'git tag' -d <tagname>... 15'git tag' [-n[<num>]] -l [--contains <commit>] [--points-at <object>] 16 [--column[=<options>] | --no-column] [--create-reflog] [<pattern>...] 17 [<pattern>...] 18'git tag' -v <tagname>... 19 20DESCRIPTION 21----------- 22 23Add a tag reference in `refs/tags/`, unless `-d/-l/-v` is given 24to delete, list or verify tags. 25 26Unless `-f` is given, the named tag must not yet exist. 27 28If one of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <key-id>` is passed, the command 29creates a 'tag' object, and requires a tag message. Unless 30`-m <msg>` or `-F <file>` is given, an editor is started for the user to type 31in the tag message. 32 33If `-m <msg>` or `-F <file>` is given and `-a`, `-s`, and `-u <key-id>` 34are absent, `-a` is implied. 35 36Otherwise just a tag reference for the SHA-1 object name of the commit object is 37created (i.e. a lightweight tag). 38 39A GnuPG signed tag object will be created when `-s` or `-u 40<key-id>` is used. When `-u <key-id>` is not used, the 41committer identity for the current user is used to find the 42GnuPG key for signing. The configuration variable `gpg.program` 43is used to specify custom GnuPG binary. 44 45Tag objects (created with `-a`, `-s`, or `-u`) are called "annotated" 46tags; they contain a creation date, the tagger name and e-mail, a 47tagging message, and an optional GnuPG signature. Whereas a 48"lightweight" tag is simply a name for an object (usually a commit 49object). 50 51Annotated tags are meant for release while lightweight tags are meant 52for private or temporary object labels. For this reason, some git 53commands for naming objects (like `git describe`) will ignore 54lightweight tags by default. 55 56 57OPTIONS 58------- 59-a:: 60--annotate:: 61 Make an unsigned, annotated tag object 62 63-s:: 64--sign:: 65 Make a GPG-signed tag, using the default e-mail address's key. 66 67-u <key-id>:: 68--local-user=<key-id>:: 69 Make a GPG-signed tag, using the given key. 70 71-f:: 72--force:: 73 Replace an existing tag with the given name (instead of failing) 74 75-d:: 76--delete:: 77 Delete existing tags with the given names. 78 79-v:: 80--verify:: 81 Verify the gpg signature of the given tag names. 82 83-n<num>:: 84 <num> specifies how many lines from the annotation, if any, 85 are printed when using -l. 86 The default is not to print any annotation lines. 87 If no number is given to `-n`, only the first line is printed. 88 If the tag is not annotated, the commit message is displayed instead. 89 90-l <pattern>:: 91--list <pattern>:: 92 List tags with names that match the given pattern (or all if no 93 pattern is given). Running "git tag" without arguments also 94 lists all tags. The pattern is a shell wildcard (i.e., matched 95 using fnmatch(3)). Multiple patterns may be given; if any of 96 them matches, the tag is shown. 97 98--sort=<type>:: 99 Sort in a specific order. Supported type is "refname" 100 (lexicographic order), "version:refname" or "v:refname" (tag 101 names are treated as versions). The "version:refname" sort 102 order can also be affected by the 103 "versionsort.prereleaseSuffix" configuration variable. Prepend 104 "-" to reverse sort order. When this option is not given, the 105 sort order defaults to the value configured for the 'tag.sort' 106 variable if it exists, or lexicographic order otherwise. See 107 linkgit:git-config[1]. 108 109--column[=<options>]:: 110--no-column:: 111 Display tag listing in columns. See configuration variable 112 column.tag for option syntax.`--column` and `--no-column` 113 without options are equivalent to 'always' and 'never' respectively. 114+ 115This option is only applicable when listing tags without annotation lines. 116 117--contains [<commit>]:: 118 Only list tags which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not 119 specified). 120 121--points-at <object>:: 122 Only list tags of the given object. 123 124-m <msg>:: 125--message=<msg>:: 126 Use the given tag message (instead of prompting). 127 If multiple `-m` options are given, their values are 128 concatenated as separate paragraphs. 129 Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <key-id>` 130 is given. 131 132-F <file>:: 133--file=<file>:: 134 Take the tag message from the given file. Use '-' to 135 read the message from the standard input. 136 Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <key-id>` 137 is given. 138 139--cleanup=<mode>:: 140 This option sets how the tag message is cleaned up. 141 The '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace' and 'strip'. The 142 'strip' mode is default. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at 143 all, 'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines and 144 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary. 145 146--create-reflog:: 147 Create a reflog for the tag. 148 149<tagname>:: 150 The name of the tag to create, delete, or describe. 151 The new tag name must pass all checks defined by 152 linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 153 may restrict the characters allowed in a tag name. 154 155<commit>:: 156<object>:: 157 The object that the new tag will refer to, usually a commit. 158 Defaults to HEAD. 159 160 161CONFIGURATION 162------------- 163By default, 'git tag' in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your 164committer identity (of the form `Your Name <your@email.address>`) to 165find a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify 166it in the repository configuration as follows: 167 168------------------------------------- 169[user] 170 signingKey = <gpg-key-id> 171------------------------------------- 172 173 174DISCUSSION 175---------- 176 177On Re-tagging 178~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 179 180What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would 181want to re-tag? 182 183If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to 184replace the old one. And you're done. 185 186But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read 187your repository directly), then others will have already seen 188the old tag. In that case you can do one of two things: 189 190. The sane thing. 191Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name. Others have 192already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the same name, you 193may be in the situation that two people both have "version X", 194but they actually have 'different' "X"'s. So just call it "X.1" 195and be done with it. 196 197. The insane thing. 198You really want to call the new version "X" too, 'even though' 199others have already seen the old one. So just use 'git tag -f' 200again, as if you hadn't already published the old one. 201 202However, Git does *not* (and it should not) change tags behind 203users back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a 204'git pull' on your tree shouldn't just make them overwrite the old 205one. 206 207If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change 208the tag for them by updating your own one. This is a big 209security issue, in that people MUST be able to trust their 210tag-names. If you really want to do the insane thing, you need 211to just fess up to it, and tell people that you messed up. You 212can do that by making a very public announcement saying: 213 214------------ 215Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I 216then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again. 217 218If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete 219the old one and fetch the new one by doing: 220 221 git tag -d X 222 git fetch origin tag X 223 224to get my updated tag. 225 226You can test which tag you have by doing 227 228 git rev-parse X 229 230which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version. 231 232Sorry for the inconvenience. 233------------ 234 235Does this seem a bit complicated? It *should* be. There is no 236way that it would be correct to just "fix" it automatically. 237People need to know that their tags might have been changed. 238 239 240On Automatic following 241~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 242 243If you are following somebody else's tree, you are most likely 244using remote-tracking branches (`refs/heads/origin` in traditional 245layout, or `refs/remotes/origin/master` in the separate-remote 246layout). You usually want the tags from the other end. 247 248On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a 249one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to 250get tags from there. This happens more often for people near 251the toplevel but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling 252from each other do not necessarily want to automatically get 253private anchor point tags from the other person. 254 255Often, "please pull" messages on the mailing list just provide 256two pieces of information: a repo URL and a branch name; this 257is designed to be easily cut&pasted at the end of a 'git fetch' 258command line: 259 260------------ 261Linus, please pull from 262 263 git://git..../proj.git master 264 265to get the following updates... 266------------ 267 268becomes: 269 270------------ 271$ git pull git://git..../proj.git master 272------------ 273 274In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow the other 275person's tags. 276 277One important aspect of Git is its distributed nature, which 278largely means there is no inherent "upstream" or 279"downstream" in the system. On the face of it, the above 280example might seem to indicate that the tag namespace is owned 281by the upper echelon of people and that tags only flow downwards, but 282that is not the case. It only shows that the usage pattern 283determines who are interested in whose tags. 284 285A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing 286the boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are 287primarily interested in the networking part of the kernel") who may 288have their own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release 289candidate from the networking group to be proposed for general 290consumption with 2.6.21 release") to another circle of people 291(e.g. "people who integrate various subsystem improvements"). 292The latter are usually not interested in the detailed tags used 293internally in the former group (that is what "internal" means). 294That is why it is desirable not to follow tags automatically in 295this case. 296 297It may well be that among networking people, they may want to 298exchange the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow 299they are most likely tracking each other's progress by 300having remote-tracking branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically 301follow such tags is a good thing. 302 303 304On Backdating Tags 305~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 306 307If you have imported some changes from another VCS and would like 308to add tags for major releases of your work, it is useful to be able 309to specify the date to embed inside of the tag object; such data in 310the tag object affects, for example, the ordering of tags in the 311gitweb interface. 312 313To set the date used in future tag objects, set the environment 314variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE (see the later discussion of possible 315values; the most common form is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM"). 316 317For example: 318 319------------ 320$ GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2006-10-02 10:31" git tag -s v1.0.1 321------------ 322 323include::date-formats.txt[] 324 325SEE ALSO 326-------- 327linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. 328linkgit:git-config[1]. 329 330GIT 331--- 332Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite