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