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. When this option is not given, the sort order defaults to the 103 value configured for the 'tag.sort' variable if it exists, or 104 lexicographic order otherwise. See linkgit:git-config[1]. 105 106--column[=<options>]:: 107--no-column:: 108 Display tag listing in columns. See configuration variable 109 column.tag for option syntax.`--column` and `--no-column` 110 without options are equivalent to 'always' and 'never' respectively. 111+ 112This option is only applicable when listing tags without annotation lines. 113 114--contains [<commit>]:: 115 Only list tags which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not 116 specified). 117 118--points-at <object>:: 119 Only list tags of the given object. 120 121-m <msg>:: 122--message=<msg>:: 123 Use the given tag message (instead of prompting). 124 If multiple `-m` options are given, their values are 125 concatenated as separate paragraphs. 126 Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <key-id>` 127 is given. 128 129-F <file>:: 130--file=<file>:: 131 Take the tag message from the given file. Use '-' to 132 read the message from the standard input. 133 Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <key-id>` 134 is given. 135 136--cleanup=<mode>:: 137 This option sets how the tag message is cleaned up. 138 The '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace' and 'strip'. The 139 'strip' mode is default. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at 140 all, 'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines and 141 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary. 142 143<tagname>:: 144 The name of the tag to create, delete, or describe. 145 The new tag name must pass all checks defined by 146 linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 147 may restrict the characters allowed in a tag name. 148 149<commit>:: 150<object>:: 151 The object that the new tag will refer to, usually a commit. 152 Defaults to HEAD. 153 154 155CONFIGURATION 156------------- 157By default, 'git tag' in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your 158committer identity (of the form "Your Name <\your@email.address>") to 159find a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify 160it in the repository configuration as follows: 161 162------------------------------------- 163[user] 164 signingkey = <gpg-key-id> 165------------------------------------- 166 167 168DISCUSSION 169---------- 170 171On Re-tagging 172~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 173 174What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would 175want to re-tag? 176 177If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to 178replace the old one. And you're done. 179 180But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read 181your repository directly), then others will have already seen 182the old tag. In that case you can do one of two things: 183 184. The sane thing. 185Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name. Others have 186already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the same name, you 187may be in the situation that two people both have "version X", 188but they actually have 'different' "X"'s. So just call it "X.1" 189and be done with it. 190 191. The insane thing. 192You really want to call the new version "X" too, 'even though' 193others have already seen the old one. So just use 'git tag -f' 194again, as if you hadn't already published the old one. 195 196However, Git does *not* (and it should not) change tags behind 197users back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a 198'git pull' on your tree shouldn't just make them overwrite the old 199one. 200 201If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change 202the tag for them by updating your own one. This is a big 203security issue, in that people MUST be able to trust their 204tag-names. If you really want to do the insane thing, you need 205to just fess up to it, and tell people that you messed up. You 206can do that by making a very public announcement saying: 207 208------------ 209Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I 210then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again. 211 212If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete 213the old one and fetch the new one by doing: 214 215 git tag -d X 216 git fetch origin tag X 217 218to get my updated tag. 219 220You can test which tag you have by doing 221 222 git rev-parse X 223 224which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version. 225 226Sorry for the inconvenience. 227------------ 228 229Does this seem a bit complicated? It *should* be. There is no 230way that it would be correct to just "fix" it automatically. 231People need to know that their tags might have been changed. 232 233 234On Automatic following 235~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 236 237If you are following somebody else's tree, you are most likely 238using remote-tracking branches (`refs/heads/origin` in traditional 239layout, or `refs/remotes/origin/master` in the separate-remote 240layout). You usually want the tags from the other end. 241 242On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a 243one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to 244get tags from there. This happens more often for people near 245the toplevel but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling 246from each other do not necessarily want to automatically get 247private anchor point tags from the other person. 248 249Often, "please pull" messages on the mailing list just provide 250two pieces of information: a repo URL and a branch name; this 251is designed to be easily cut&pasted at the end of a 'git fetch' 252command line: 253 254------------ 255Linus, please pull from 256 257 git://git..../proj.git master 258 259to get the following updates... 260------------ 261 262becomes: 263 264------------ 265$ git pull git://git..../proj.git master 266------------ 267 268In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow the other 269person's tags. 270 271One important aspect of Git is its distributed nature, which 272largely means there is no inherent "upstream" or 273"downstream" in the system. On the face of it, the above 274example might seem to indicate that the tag namespace is owned 275by the upper echelon of people and that tags only flow downwards, but 276that is not the case. It only shows that the usage pattern 277determines who are interested in whose tags. 278 279A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing 280the boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are 281primarily interested in the networking part of the kernel") who may 282have their own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release 283candidate from the networking group to be proposed for general 284consumption with 2.6.21 release") to another circle of people 285(e.g. "people who integrate various subsystem improvements"). 286The latter are usually not interested in the detailed tags used 287internally in the former group (that is what "internal" means). 288That is why it is desirable not to follow tags automatically in 289this case. 290 291It may well be that among networking people, they may want to 292exchange the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow 293they are most likely tracking each other's progress by 294having remote-tracking branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically 295follow such tags is a good thing. 296 297 298On Backdating Tags 299~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 300 301If you have imported some changes from another VCS and would like 302to add tags for major releases of your work, it is useful to be able 303to specify the date to embed inside of the tag object; such data in 304the tag object affects, for example, the ordering of tags in the 305gitweb interface. 306 307To set the date used in future tag objects, set the environment 308variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE (see the later discussion of possible 309values; the most common form is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM"). 310 311For example: 312 313------------ 314$ GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2006-10-02 10:31" git tag -s v1.0.1 315------------ 316 317include::date-formats.txt[] 318 319SEE ALSO 320-------- 321linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. 322linkgit:git-config[1]. 323 324GIT 325--- 326Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite