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--column[=<options>]:: 99--no-column:: 100 Display tag listing in columns. See configuration variable 101 column.tag for option syntax.`--column` and `--no-column` 102 without options are equivalent to 'always' and 'never' respectively. 103+ 104This option is only applicable when listing tags without annotation lines. 105 106--contains <commit>:: 107 Only list tags which contain the specified commit. 108 109--points-at <object>:: 110 Only list tags of the given object. 111 112-m <msg>:: 113--message=<msg>:: 114 Use the given tag message (instead of prompting). 115 If multiple `-m` options are given, their values are 116 concatenated as separate paragraphs. 117 Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <key-id>` 118 is given. 119 120-F <file>:: 121--file=<file>:: 122 Take the tag message from the given file. Use '-' to 123 read the message from the standard input. 124 Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <key-id>` 125 is given. 126 127--cleanup=<mode>:: 128 This option sets how the tag message is cleaned up. 129 The '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace' and 'strip'. The 130 'strip' mode is default. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at 131 all, 'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines and 132 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary. 133 134<tagname>:: 135 The name of the tag to create, delete, or describe. 136 The new tag name must pass all checks defined by 137 linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 138 may restrict the characters allowed in a tag name. 139 140<commit>:: 141<object>:: 142 The object that the new tag will refer to, usually a commit. 143 Defaults to HEAD. 144 145 146CONFIGURATION 147------------- 148By default, 'git tag' in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your 149committer identity (of the form "Your Name <\your@email.address>") to 150find a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify 151it in the repository configuration as follows: 152 153------------------------------------- 154[user] 155 signingkey = <gpg-key-id> 156------------------------------------- 157 158 159DISCUSSION 160---------- 161 162On Re-tagging 163~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 164 165What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would 166want to re-tag? 167 168If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to 169replace the old one. And you're done. 170 171But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read 172your repository directly), then others will have already seen 173the old tag. In that case you can do one of two things: 174 175. The sane thing. 176Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name. Others have 177already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the same name, you 178may be in the situation that two people both have "version X", 179but they actually have 'different' "X"'s. So just call it "X.1" 180and be done with it. 181 182. The insane thing. 183You really want to call the new version "X" too, 'even though' 184others have already seen the old one. So just use 'git tag -f' 185again, as if you hadn't already published the old one. 186 187However, Git does *not* (and it should not) change tags behind 188users back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a 189'git pull' on your tree shouldn't just make them overwrite the old 190one. 191 192If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change 193the tag for them by updating your own one. This is a big 194security issue, in that people MUST be able to trust their 195tag-names. If you really want to do the insane thing, you need 196to just fess up to it, and tell people that you messed up. You 197can do that by making a very public announcement saying: 198 199------------ 200Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I 201then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again. 202 203If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete 204the old one and fetch the new one by doing: 205 206 git tag -d X 207 git fetch origin tag X 208 209to get my updated tag. 210 211You can test which tag you have by doing 212 213 git rev-parse X 214 215which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version. 216 217Sorry for the inconvenience. 218------------ 219 220Does this seem a bit complicated? It *should* be. There is no 221way that it would be correct to just "fix" it automatically. 222People need to know that their tags might have been changed. 223 224 225On Automatic following 226~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 227 228If you are following somebody else's tree, you are most likely 229using remote-tracking branches (`refs/heads/origin` in traditional 230layout, or `refs/remotes/origin/master` in the separate-remote 231layout). You usually want the tags from the other end. 232 233On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a 234one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to 235get tags from there. This happens more often for people near 236the toplevel but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling 237from each other do not necessarily want to automatically get 238private anchor point tags from the other person. 239 240Often, "please pull" messages on the mailing list just provide 241two pieces of information: a repo URL and a branch name; this 242is designed to be easily cut&pasted at the end of a 'git fetch' 243command line: 244 245------------ 246Linus, please pull from 247 248 git://git..../proj.git master 249 250to get the following updates... 251------------ 252 253becomes: 254 255------------ 256$ git pull git://git..../proj.git master 257------------ 258 259In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow the other 260person's tags. 261 262One important aspect of Git is its distributed nature, which 263largely means there is no inherent "upstream" or 264"downstream" in the system. On the face of it, the above 265example might seem to indicate that the tag namespace is owned 266by the upper echelon of people and that tags only flow downwards, but 267that is not the case. It only shows that the usage pattern 268determines who are interested in whose tags. 269 270A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing 271the boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are 272primarily interested in the networking part of the kernel") who may 273have their own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release 274candidate from the networking group to be proposed for general 275consumption with 2.6.21 release") to another circle of people 276(e.g. "people who integrate various subsystem improvements"). 277The latter are usually not interested in the detailed tags used 278internally in the former group (that is what "internal" means). 279That is why it is desirable not to follow tags automatically in 280this case. 281 282It may well be that among networking people, they may want to 283exchange the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow 284they are most likely tracking each other's progress by 285having remote-tracking branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically 286follow such tags is a good thing. 287 288 289On Backdating Tags 290~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 291 292If you have imported some changes from another VCS and would like 293to add tags for major releases of your work, it is useful to be able 294to specify the date to embed inside of the tag object; such data in 295the tag object affects, for example, the ordering of tags in the 296gitweb interface. 297 298To set the date used in future tag objects, set the environment 299variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE (see the later discussion of possible 300values; the most common form is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM"). 301 302For example: 303 304------------ 305$ GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2006-10-02 10:31" git tag -s v1.0.1 306------------ 307 308include::date-formats.txt[] 309 310SEE ALSO 311-------- 312linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. 313 314GIT 315--- 316Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite