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>] <name> [<head>] 13'git-tag' -d <name>... 14'git-tag' [-n [<num>]] -l [<pattern>] 15'git-tag' -v <name>... 16 17DESCRIPTION 18----------- 19Adds a 'tag' reference in `.git/refs/tags/` 20 21Unless `-f` is given, the tag must not yet exist in 22`.git/refs/tags/` directory. 23 24If one of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <key-id>` is passed, the command 25creates a 'tag' object, and requires the tag message. Unless 26`-m <msg>` or `-F <file>` is given, an editor is started for the user to type 27in the tag message. 28 29Otherwise just the SHA1 object name of the commit object is 30written (i.e. a lightweight tag). 31 32A GnuPG signed tag object will be created when `-s` or `-u 33<key-id>` is used. When `-u <key-id>` is not used, the 34committer identity for the current user is used to find the 35GnuPG key for signing. 36 37OPTIONS 38------- 39-a:: 40 Make an unsigned, annotated tag object 41 42-s:: 43 Make a GPG-signed tag, using the default e-mail address's key 44 45-u <key-id>:: 46 Make a GPG-signed tag, using the given key 47 48-f:: 49 Replace an existing tag with the given name (instead of failing) 50 51-d:: 52 Delete existing tags with the given names. 53 54-v:: 55 Verify the gpg signature of the given tag names. 56 57-n <num>:: 58 <num> specifies how many lines from the annotation, if any, 59 are printed when using -l. 60 The default is not to print any annotation lines. 61 If no number is given to `-n`, only the first line is printed. 62 63-l <pattern>:: 64 List tags with names that match the given pattern (or all if no pattern is given). 65 Typing "git tag" without arguments, also lists all tags. 66 67-m <msg>:: 68 Use the given tag message (instead of prompting) 69 70-F <file>:: 71 Take the tag message from the given file. Use '-' to 72 read the message from the standard input. 73 74CONFIGURATION 75------------- 76By default, git-tag in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your 77committer identity (of the form "Your Name <your@email.address>") to 78find a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify 79it in the repository configuration as follows: 80 81------------------------------------- 82[user] 83 signingkey = <gpg-key-id> 84------------------------------------- 85 86 87DISCUSSION 88---------- 89 90On Re-tagging 91~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 92 93What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would 94want to re-tag? 95 96If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to 97replace the old one. And you're done. 98 99But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read 100your repository directly), then others will have already seen 101the old tag. In that case you can do one of two things: 102 103. The sane thing. 104Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name. Others have 105already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the same name, you 106may be in the situation that two people both have "version X", 107but they actually have 'different' "X"'s. So just call it "X.1" 108and be done with it. 109 110. The insane thing. 111You really want to call the new version "X" too, 'even though' 112others have already seen the old one. So just use "git tag -f" 113again, as if you hadn't already published the old one. 114 115However, Git does *not* (and it should not)change tags behind 116users back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a "git 117pull" on your tree shouldn't just make them overwrite the old 118one. 119 120If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change 121the tag for them by updating your own one. This is a big 122security issue, in that people MUST be able to trust their 123tag-names. If you really want to do the insane thing, you need 124to just fess up to it, and tell people that you messed up. You 125can do that by making a very public announcement saying: 126 127------------ 128Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I 129then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again. 130 131If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete 132the old one and fetch the new one by doing: 133 134 git tag -d X 135 git fetch origin tag X 136 137to get my updated tag. 138 139You can test which tag you have by doing 140 141 git rev-parse X 142 143which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version. 144 145Sorry for inconvenience. 146------------ 147 148Does this seem a bit complicated? It *should* be. There is no 149way that it would be correct to just "fix" it behind peoples 150backs. People need to know that their tags might have been 151changed. 152 153 154On Automatic following 155~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 156 157If you are following somebody else's tree, you are most likely 158using tracking branches (`refs/heads/origin` in traditional 159layout, or `refs/remotes/origin/master` in the separate-remote 160layout). You usually want the tags from the other end. 161 162On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a 163one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to 164get tags from there. This happens more often for people near 165the toplevel but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling 166from each other do not necessarily want to automatically get 167private anchor point tags from the other person. 168 169You would notice "please pull" messages on the mailing list says 170repo URL and branch name alone. This is designed to be easily 171cut&pasted to "git fetch" command line: 172 173------------ 174Linus, please pull from 175 176 git://git..../proj.git master 177 178to get the following updates... 179------------ 180 181becomes: 182 183------------ 184$ git pull git://git..../proj.git master 185------------ 186 187In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow other's 188tags. 189 190One important aspect of git is it is distributed, and being 191distributed largely means there is no inherent "upstream" or 192"downstream" in the system. On the face of it, the above 193example might seem to indicate that the tag namespace is owned 194by upper echelon of people and tags only flow downwards, but 195that is not the case. It only shows that the usage pattern 196determines who are interested in whose tags. 197 198A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing 199the boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are 200primarily interested in networking part of the kernel") who may 201have their own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release 202candidate from the networking group to be proposed for general 203consumption with 2.6.21 release") to another circle of people 204(e.g. "people who integrate various subsystem improvements"). 205The latter are usually not interested in the detailed tags used 206internally in the former group (that is what "internal" means). 207That is why it is desirable not to follow tags automatically in 208this case. 209 210It may well be that among networking people, they may want to 211exchange the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow 212they are most likely tracking with each other's progress by 213having tracking branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically 214follow such tags is a good thing. 215 216 217Author 218------ 219Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>, 220Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> and Chris Wright <chrisw@osdl.org>. 221 222Documentation 223-------------- 224Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 225 226GIT 227--- 228Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite