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