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 <keyid>] [-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] [--sort=<key>] 17 [--format=<format>] [--[no-]merged [<commit>]] [<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 <keyid>` 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 <keyid>` 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<keyid>` is used. When `-u <keyid>` 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 <keyid>:: 68--local-user=<keyid>:: 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=<key>:: 99 Sort based on the key given. Prefix `-` to sort in 100 descending order of the value. You may use the --sort=<key> option 101 multiple times, in which case the last key becomes the primary 102 key. Also supports "version:refname" or "v:refname" (tag 103 names are treated as versions). The "version:refname" sort 104 order can also be affected by the 105 "versionsort.prereleaseSuffix" configuration variable. 106 The keys supported are the same as those in `git for-each-ref`. 107 Sort order defaults to the value configured for the 'tag.sort' 108 variable if it exists, or lexicographic order otherwise. See 109 linkgit:git-config[1]. 110 111--column[=<options>]:: 112--no-column:: 113 Display tag listing in columns. See configuration variable 114 column.tag for option syntax.`--column` and `--no-column` 115 without options are equivalent to 'always' and 'never' respectively. 116+ 117This option is only applicable when listing tags without annotation lines. 118 119--contains [<commit>]:: 120 Only list tags which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not 121 specified). 122 123--points-at <object>:: 124 Only list tags of the given object. 125 126-m <msg>:: 127--message=<msg>:: 128 Use the given tag message (instead of prompting). 129 If multiple `-m` options are given, their values are 130 concatenated as separate paragraphs. 131 Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <keyid>` 132 is given. 133 134-F <file>:: 135--file=<file>:: 136 Take the tag message from the given file. Use '-' to 137 read the message from the standard input. 138 Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <keyid>` 139 is given. 140 141--cleanup=<mode>:: 142 This option sets how the tag message is cleaned up. 143 The '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace' and 'strip'. The 144 'strip' mode is default. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at 145 all, 'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines and 146 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary. 147 148--create-reflog:: 149 Create a reflog for the tag. 150 151<tagname>:: 152 The name of the tag to create, delete, or describe. 153 The new tag name must pass all checks defined by 154 linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 155 may restrict the characters allowed in a tag name. 156 157<commit>:: 158<object>:: 159 The object that the new tag will refer to, usually a commit. 160 Defaults to HEAD. 161 162<format>:: 163 A string that interpolates `%(fieldname)` from the object 164 pointed at by a ref being shown. The format is the same as 165 that of linkgit:git-for-each-ref[1]. When unspecified, 166 defaults to `%(refname:strip=2)`. 167 168--[no-]merged [<commit>]:: 169 Only list tags whose tips are reachable, or not reachable 170 if '--no-merged' is used, from the specified commit ('HEAD' 171 if not specified). 172 173CONFIGURATION 174------------- 175By default, 'git tag' in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your 176committer identity (of the form `Your Name <your@email.address>`) to 177find a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify 178it in the repository configuration as follows: 179 180------------------------------------- 181[user] 182 signingKey = <gpg-keyid> 183------------------------------------- 184 185 186DISCUSSION 187---------- 188 189On Re-tagging 190~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 191 192What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would 193want to re-tag? 194 195If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to 196replace the old one. And you're done. 197 198But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read 199your repository directly), then others will have already seen 200the old tag. In that case you can do one of two things: 201 202. The sane thing. 203Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name. Others have 204already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the same name, you 205may be in the situation that two people both have "version X", 206but they actually have 'different' "X"'s. So just call it "X.1" 207and be done with it. 208 209. The insane thing. 210You really want to call the new version "X" too, 'even though' 211others have already seen the old one. So just use 'git tag -f' 212again, as if you hadn't already published the old one. 213 214However, Git does *not* (and it should not) change tags behind 215users back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a 216'git pull' on your tree shouldn't just make them overwrite the old 217one. 218 219If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change 220the tag for them by updating your own one. This is a big 221security issue, in that people MUST be able to trust their 222tag-names. If you really want to do the insane thing, you need 223to just fess up to it, and tell people that you messed up. You 224can do that by making a very public announcement saying: 225 226------------ 227Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I 228then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again. 229 230If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete 231the old one and fetch the new one by doing: 232 233 git tag -d X 234 git fetch origin tag X 235 236to get my updated tag. 237 238You can test which tag you have by doing 239 240 git rev-parse X 241 242which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version. 243 244Sorry for the inconvenience. 245------------ 246 247Does this seem a bit complicated? It *should* be. There is no 248way that it would be correct to just "fix" it automatically. 249People need to know that their tags might have been changed. 250 251 252On Automatic following 253~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 254 255If you are following somebody else's tree, you are most likely 256using remote-tracking branches (`refs/heads/origin` in traditional 257layout, or `refs/remotes/origin/master` in the separate-remote 258layout). You usually want the tags from the other end. 259 260On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a 261one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to 262get tags from there. This happens more often for people near 263the toplevel but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling 264from each other do not necessarily want to automatically get 265private anchor point tags from the other person. 266 267Often, "please pull" messages on the mailing list just provide 268two pieces of information: a repo URL and a branch name; this 269is designed to be easily cut&pasted at the end of a 'git fetch' 270command line: 271 272------------ 273Linus, please pull from 274 275 git://git..../proj.git master 276 277to get the following updates... 278------------ 279 280becomes: 281 282------------ 283$ git pull git://git..../proj.git master 284------------ 285 286In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow the other 287person's tags. 288 289One important aspect of Git is its distributed nature, which 290largely means there is no inherent "upstream" or 291"downstream" in the system. On the face of it, the above 292example might seem to indicate that the tag namespace is owned 293by the upper echelon of people and that tags only flow downwards, but 294that is not the case. It only shows that the usage pattern 295determines who are interested in whose tags. 296 297A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing 298the boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are 299primarily interested in the networking part of the kernel") who may 300have their own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release 301candidate from the networking group to be proposed for general 302consumption with 2.6.21 release") to another circle of people 303(e.g. "people who integrate various subsystem improvements"). 304The latter are usually not interested in the detailed tags used 305internally in the former group (that is what "internal" means). 306That is why it is desirable not to follow tags automatically in 307this case. 308 309It may well be that among networking people, they may want to 310exchange the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow 311they are most likely tracking each other's progress by 312having remote-tracking branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically 313follow such tags is a good thing. 314 315 316On Backdating Tags 317~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 318 319If you have imported some changes from another VCS and would like 320to add tags for major releases of your work, it is useful to be able 321to specify the date to embed inside of the tag object; such data in 322the tag object affects, for example, the ordering of tags in the 323gitweb interface. 324 325To set the date used in future tag objects, set the environment 326variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE (see the later discussion of possible 327values; the most common form is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM"). 328 329For example: 330 331------------ 332$ GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2006-10-02 10:31" git tag -s v1.0.1 333------------ 334 335include::date-formats.txt[] 336 337SEE ALSO 338-------- 339linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. 340linkgit:git-config[1]. 341 342GIT 343--- 344Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite