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] [<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<tagname>:: 147 The name of the tag to create, delete, or describe. 148 The new tag name must pass all checks defined by 149 linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 150 may restrict the characters allowed in a tag name. 151 152<commit>:: 153<object>:: 154 The object that the new tag will refer to, usually a commit. 155 Defaults to HEAD. 156 157 158CONFIGURATION 159------------- 160By default, 'git tag' in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your 161committer identity (of the form `Your Name <your@email.address>`) to 162find a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify 163it in the repository configuration as follows: 164 165------------------------------------- 166[user] 167 signingKey = <gpg-key-id> 168------------------------------------- 169 170 171DISCUSSION 172---------- 173 174On Re-tagging 175~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 176 177What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would 178want to re-tag? 179 180If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to 181replace the old one. And you're done. 182 183But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read 184your repository directly), then others will have already seen 185the old tag. In that case you can do one of two things: 186 187. The sane thing. 188Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name. Others have 189already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the same name, you 190may be in the situation that two people both have "version X", 191but they actually have 'different' "X"'s. So just call it "X.1" 192and be done with it. 193 194. The insane thing. 195You really want to call the new version "X" too, 'even though' 196others have already seen the old one. So just use 'git tag -f' 197again, as if you hadn't already published the old one. 198 199However, Git does *not* (and it should not) change tags behind 200users back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a 201'git pull' on your tree shouldn't just make them overwrite the old 202one. 203 204If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change 205the tag for them by updating your own one. This is a big 206security issue, in that people MUST be able to trust their 207tag-names. If you really want to do the insane thing, you need 208to just fess up to it, and tell people that you messed up. You 209can do that by making a very public announcement saying: 210 211------------ 212Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I 213then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again. 214 215If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete 216the old one and fetch the new one by doing: 217 218 git tag -d X 219 git fetch origin tag X 220 221to get my updated tag. 222 223You can test which tag you have by doing 224 225 git rev-parse X 226 227which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version. 228 229Sorry for the inconvenience. 230------------ 231 232Does this seem a bit complicated? It *should* be. There is no 233way that it would be correct to just "fix" it automatically. 234People need to know that their tags might have been changed. 235 236 237On Automatic following 238~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 239 240If you are following somebody else's tree, you are most likely 241using remote-tracking branches (`refs/heads/origin` in traditional 242layout, or `refs/remotes/origin/master` in the separate-remote 243layout). You usually want the tags from the other end. 244 245On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a 246one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to 247get tags from there. This happens more often for people near 248the toplevel but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling 249from each other do not necessarily want to automatically get 250private anchor point tags from the other person. 251 252Often, "please pull" messages on the mailing list just provide 253two pieces of information: a repo URL and a branch name; this 254is designed to be easily cut&pasted at the end of a 'git fetch' 255command line: 256 257------------ 258Linus, please pull from 259 260 git://git..../proj.git master 261 262to get the following updates... 263------------ 264 265becomes: 266 267------------ 268$ git pull git://git..../proj.git master 269------------ 270 271In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow the other 272person's tags. 273 274One important aspect of Git is its distributed nature, which 275largely means there is no inherent "upstream" or 276"downstream" in the system. On the face of it, the above 277example might seem to indicate that the tag namespace is owned 278by the upper echelon of people and that tags only flow downwards, but 279that is not the case. It only shows that the usage pattern 280determines who are interested in whose tags. 281 282A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing 283the boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are 284primarily interested in the networking part of the kernel") who may 285have their own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release 286candidate from the networking group to be proposed for general 287consumption with 2.6.21 release") to another circle of people 288(e.g. "people who integrate various subsystem improvements"). 289The latter are usually not interested in the detailed tags used 290internally in the former group (that is what "internal" means). 291That is why it is desirable not to follow tags automatically in 292this case. 293 294It may well be that among networking people, they may want to 295exchange the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow 296they are most likely tracking each other's progress by 297having remote-tracking branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically 298follow such tags is a good thing. 299 300 301On Backdating Tags 302~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 303 304If you have imported some changes from another VCS and would like 305to add tags for major releases of your work, it is useful to be able 306to specify the date to embed inside of the tag object; such data in 307the tag object affects, for example, the ordering of tags in the 308gitweb interface. 309 310To set the date used in future tag objects, set the environment 311variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE (see the later discussion of possible 312values; the most common form is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM"). 313 314For example: 315 316------------ 317$ GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2006-10-02 10:31" git tag -s v1.0.1 318------------ 319 320include::date-formats.txt[] 321 322SEE ALSO 323-------- 324linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. 325linkgit:git-config[1]. 326 327GIT 328--- 329Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite