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 "versionsort.suffix" 105 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-i:: 112--ignore-case:: 113 Sorting and filtering tags are case insensitive. 114 115--column[=<options>]:: 116--no-column:: 117 Display tag listing in columns. See configuration variable 118 column.tag for option syntax.`--column` and `--no-column` 119 without options are equivalent to 'always' and 'never' respectively. 120+ 121This option is only applicable when listing tags without annotation lines. 122 123--contains [<commit>]:: 124 Only list tags which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not 125 specified). 126 127--points-at <object>:: 128 Only list tags of the given object. 129 130-m <msg>:: 131--message=<msg>:: 132 Use the given tag message (instead of prompting). 133 If multiple `-m` options are given, their values are 134 concatenated as separate paragraphs. 135 Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <keyid>` 136 is given. 137 138-F <file>:: 139--file=<file>:: 140 Take the tag message from the given file. Use '-' to 141 read the message from the standard input. 142 Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <keyid>` 143 is given. 144 145--cleanup=<mode>:: 146 This option sets how the tag message is cleaned up. 147 The '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace' and 'strip'. The 148 'strip' mode is default. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at 149 all, 'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines and 150 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary. 151 152--create-reflog:: 153 Create a reflog for the tag. To globally enable reflogs for tags, see 154 `core.logAllRefUpdates` in linkgit:git-config[1]. 155 156<tagname>:: 157 The name of the tag to create, delete, or describe. 158 The new tag name must pass all checks defined by 159 linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 160 may restrict the characters allowed in a tag name. 161 162<commit>:: 163<object>:: 164 The object that the new tag will refer to, usually a commit. 165 Defaults to HEAD. 166 167<format>:: 168 A string that interpolates `%(fieldname)` from the object 169 pointed at by a ref being shown. The format is the same as 170 that of linkgit:git-for-each-ref[1]. When unspecified, 171 defaults to `%(refname:strip=2)`. 172 173--[no-]merged [<commit>]:: 174 Only list tags whose tips are reachable, or not reachable 175 if `--no-merged` is used, from the specified commit (`HEAD` 176 if not specified). 177 178CONFIGURATION 179------------- 180By default, 'git tag' in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your 181committer identity (of the form `Your Name <your@email.address>`) to 182find a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify 183it in the repository configuration as follows: 184 185------------------------------------- 186[user] 187 signingKey = <gpg-keyid> 188------------------------------------- 189 190 191DISCUSSION 192---------- 193 194On Re-tagging 195~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 196 197What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would 198want to re-tag? 199 200If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to 201replace the old one. And you're done. 202 203But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read 204your repository directly), then others will have already seen 205the old tag. In that case you can do one of two things: 206 207. The sane thing. 208Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name. Others have 209already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the same name, you 210may be in the situation that two people both have "version X", 211but they actually have 'different' "X"'s. So just call it "X.1" 212and be done with it. 213 214. The insane thing. 215You really want to call the new version "X" too, 'even though' 216others have already seen the old one. So just use 'git tag -f' 217again, as if you hadn't already published the old one. 218 219However, Git does *not* (and it should not) change tags behind 220users back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a 221'git pull' on your tree shouldn't just make them overwrite the old 222one. 223 224If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change 225the tag for them by updating your own one. This is a big 226security issue, in that people MUST be able to trust their 227tag-names. If you really want to do the insane thing, you need 228to just fess up to it, and tell people that you messed up. You 229can do that by making a very public announcement saying: 230 231------------ 232Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I 233then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again. 234 235If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete 236the old one and fetch the new one by doing: 237 238 git tag -d X 239 git fetch origin tag X 240 241to get my updated tag. 242 243You can test which tag you have by doing 244 245 git rev-parse X 246 247which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version. 248 249Sorry for the inconvenience. 250------------ 251 252Does this seem a bit complicated? It *should* be. There is no 253way that it would be correct to just "fix" it automatically. 254People need to know that their tags might have been changed. 255 256 257On Automatic following 258~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 259 260If you are following somebody else's tree, you are most likely 261using remote-tracking branches (eg. `refs/remotes/origin/master`). 262You usually want the tags from the other end. 263 264On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a 265one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to 266get tags from there. This happens more often for people near 267the toplevel but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling 268from each other do not necessarily want to automatically get 269private anchor point tags from the other person. 270 271Often, "please pull" messages on the mailing list just provide 272two pieces of information: a repo URL and a branch name; this 273is designed to be easily cut&pasted at the end of a 'git fetch' 274command line: 275 276------------ 277Linus, please pull from 278 279 git://git..../proj.git master 280 281to get the following updates... 282------------ 283 284becomes: 285 286------------ 287$ git pull git://git..../proj.git master 288------------ 289 290In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow the other 291person's tags. 292 293One important aspect of Git is its distributed nature, which 294largely means there is no inherent "upstream" or 295"downstream" in the system. On the face of it, the above 296example might seem to indicate that the tag namespace is owned 297by the upper echelon of people and that tags only flow downwards, but 298that is not the case. It only shows that the usage pattern 299determines who are interested in whose tags. 300 301A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing 302the boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are 303primarily interested in the networking part of the kernel") who may 304have their own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release 305candidate from the networking group to be proposed for general 306consumption with 2.6.21 release") to another circle of people 307(e.g. "people who integrate various subsystem improvements"). 308The latter are usually not interested in the detailed tags used 309internally in the former group (that is what "internal" means). 310That is why it is desirable not to follow tags automatically in 311this case. 312 313It may well be that among networking people, they may want to 314exchange the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow 315they are most likely tracking each other's progress by 316having remote-tracking branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically 317follow such tags is a good thing. 318 319 320On Backdating Tags 321~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 322 323If you have imported some changes from another VCS and would like 324to add tags for major releases of your work, it is useful to be able 325to specify the date to embed inside of the tag object; such data in 326the tag object affects, for example, the ordering of tags in the 327gitweb interface. 328 329To set the date used in future tag objects, set the environment 330variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE (see the later discussion of possible 331values; the most common form is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM"). 332 333For example: 334 335------------ 336$ GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2006-10-02 10:31" git tag -s v1.0.1 337------------ 338 339include::date-formats.txt[] 340 341SEE ALSO 342-------- 343linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. 344linkgit:git-config[1]. 345 346GIT 347--- 348Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite