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-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. 154 155<tagname>:: 156 The name of the tag to create, delete, or describe. 157 The new tag name must pass all checks defined by 158 linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 159 may restrict the characters allowed in a tag name. 160 161<commit>:: 162<object>:: 163 The object that the new tag will refer to, usually a commit. 164 Defaults to HEAD. 165 166<format>:: 167 A string that interpolates `%(fieldname)` from the object 168 pointed at by a ref being shown. The format is the same as 169 that of linkgit:git-for-each-ref[1]. When unspecified, 170 defaults to `%(refname:strip=2)`. 171 172--[no-]merged [<commit>]:: 173 Only list tags whose tips are reachable, or not reachable 174 if `--no-merged` is used, from the specified commit (`HEAD` 175 if not specified). 176 177CONFIGURATION 178------------- 179By default, 'git tag' in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your 180committer identity (of the form `Your Name <your@email.address>`) to 181find a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify 182it in the repository configuration as follows: 183 184------------------------------------- 185[user] 186 signingKey = <gpg-keyid> 187------------------------------------- 188 189 190DISCUSSION 191---------- 192 193On Re-tagging 194~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 195 196What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would 197want to re-tag? 198 199If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to 200replace the old one. And you're done. 201 202But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read 203your repository directly), then others will have already seen 204the old tag. In that case you can do one of two things: 205 206. The sane thing. 207Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name. Others have 208already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the same name, you 209may be in the situation that two people both have "version X", 210but they actually have 'different' "X"'s. So just call it "X.1" 211and be done with it. 212 213. The insane thing. 214You really want to call the new version "X" too, 'even though' 215others have already seen the old one. So just use 'git tag -f' 216again, as if you hadn't already published the old one. 217 218However, Git does *not* (and it should not) change tags behind 219users back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a 220'git pull' on your tree shouldn't just make them overwrite the old 221one. 222 223If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change 224the tag for them by updating your own one. This is a big 225security issue, in that people MUST be able to trust their 226tag-names. If you really want to do the insane thing, you need 227to just fess up to it, and tell people that you messed up. You 228can do that by making a very public announcement saying: 229 230------------ 231Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I 232then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again. 233 234If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete 235the old one and fetch the new one by doing: 236 237 git tag -d X 238 git fetch origin tag X 239 240to get my updated tag. 241 242You can test which tag you have by doing 243 244 git rev-parse X 245 246which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version. 247 248Sorry for the inconvenience. 249------------ 250 251Does this seem a bit complicated? It *should* be. There is no 252way that it would be correct to just "fix" it automatically. 253People need to know that their tags might have been changed. 254 255 256On Automatic following 257~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 258 259If you are following somebody else's tree, you are most likely 260using remote-tracking branches (eg. `refs/remotes/origin/master`). 261You usually want the tags from the other end. 262 263On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a 264one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to 265get tags from there. This happens more often for people near 266the toplevel but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling 267from each other do not necessarily want to automatically get 268private anchor point tags from the other person. 269 270Often, "please pull" messages on the mailing list just provide 271two pieces of information: a repo URL and a branch name; this 272is designed to be easily cut&pasted at the end of a 'git fetch' 273command line: 274 275------------ 276Linus, please pull from 277 278 git://git..../proj.git master 279 280to get the following updates... 281------------ 282 283becomes: 284 285------------ 286$ git pull git://git..../proj.git master 287------------ 288 289In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow the other 290person's tags. 291 292One important aspect of Git is its distributed nature, which 293largely means there is no inherent "upstream" or 294"downstream" in the system. On the face of it, the above 295example might seem to indicate that the tag namespace is owned 296by the upper echelon of people and that tags only flow downwards, but 297that is not the case. It only shows that the usage pattern 298determines who are interested in whose tags. 299 300A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing 301the boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are 302primarily interested in the networking part of the kernel") who may 303have their own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release 304candidate from the networking group to be proposed for general 305consumption with 2.6.21 release") to another circle of people 306(e.g. "people who integrate various subsystem improvements"). 307The latter are usually not interested in the detailed tags used 308internally in the former group (that is what "internal" means). 309That is why it is desirable not to follow tags automatically in 310this case. 311 312It may well be that among networking people, they may want to 313exchange the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow 314they are most likely tracking each other's progress by 315having remote-tracking branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically 316follow such tags is a good thing. 317 318 319On Backdating Tags 320~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 321 322If you have imported some changes from another VCS and would like 323to add tags for major releases of your work, it is useful to be able 324to specify the date to embed inside of the tag object; such data in 325the tag object affects, for example, the ordering of tags in the 326gitweb interface. 327 328To set the date used in future tag objects, set the environment 329variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE (see the later discussion of possible 330values; the most common form is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM"). 331 332For example: 333 334------------ 335$ GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2006-10-02 10:31" git tag -s v1.0.1 336------------ 337 338include::date-formats.txt[] 339 340SEE ALSO 341-------- 342linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. 343linkgit:git-config[1]. 344 345GIT 346--- 347Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite