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] [<pattern>...] 17'git tag' -v <tagname>... 18 19DESCRIPTION 20----------- 21 22Add a tag reference in `refs/tags/`, unless `-d/-l/-v` is given 23to delete, list or verify tags. 24 25Unless `-f` is given, the named tag must not yet exist. 26 27If one of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <keyid>` is passed, the command 28creates a 'tag' object, and requires a tag message. Unless 29`-m <msg>` or `-F <file>` is given, an editor is started for the user to type 30in the tag message. 31 32If `-m <msg>` or `-F <file>` is given and `-a`, `-s`, and `-u <keyid>` 33are absent, `-a` is implied. 34 35Otherwise just a tag reference for the SHA-1 object name of the commit object is 36created (i.e. a lightweight tag). 37 38A GnuPG signed tag object will be created when `-s` or `-u 39<keyid>` is used. When `-u <keyid>` is not used, the 40committer identity for the current user is used to find the 41GnuPG key for signing. The configuration variable `gpg.program` 42is used to specify custom GnuPG binary. 43 44Tag objects (created with `-a`, `-s`, or `-u`) are called "annotated" 45tags; they contain a creation date, the tagger name and e-mail, a 46tagging message, and an optional GnuPG signature. Whereas a 47"lightweight" tag is simply a name for an object (usually a commit 48object). 49 50Annotated tags are meant for release while lightweight tags are meant 51for private or temporary object labels. For this reason, some git 52commands for naming objects (like `git describe`) will ignore 53lightweight tags by default. 54 55 56OPTIONS 57------- 58-a:: 59--annotate:: 60 Make an unsigned, annotated tag object 61 62-s:: 63--sign:: 64 Make a GPG-signed tag, using the default e-mail address's key. 65 66-u <keyid>:: 67--local-user=<keyid>:: 68 Make a GPG-signed tag, using the given key. 69 70-f:: 71--force:: 72 Replace an existing tag with the given name (instead of failing) 73 74-d:: 75--delete:: 76 Delete existing tags with the given names. 77 78-v:: 79--verify:: 80 Verify the gpg signature of the given tag names. 81 82-n<num>:: 83 <num> specifies how many lines from the annotation, if any, 84 are printed when using -l. 85 The default is not to print any annotation lines. 86 If no number is given to `-n`, only the first line is printed. 87 If the tag is not annotated, the commit message is displayed instead. 88 89-l <pattern>:: 90--list <pattern>:: 91 List tags with names that match the given pattern (or all if no 92 pattern is given). Running "git tag" without arguments also 93 lists all tags. The pattern is a shell wildcard (i.e., matched 94 using fnmatch(3)). Multiple patterns may be given; if any of 95 them matches, the tag is shown. 96 97--sort=<type>:: 98 Sort in a specific order. Supported type is "refname" 99 (lexicographic order), "version:refname" or "v:refname" (tag 100 names are treated as versions). The "version:refname" sort 101 order can also be affected by the 102 "versionsort.prereleaseSuffix" configuration variable. Prepend 103 "-" to reverse sort order. When this option is not given, the 104 sort order defaults to the value configured for the 'tag.sort' 105 variable if it exists, or lexicographic order otherwise. See 106 linkgit:git-config[1]. 107 108--column[=<options>]:: 109--no-column:: 110 Display tag listing in columns. See configuration variable 111 column.tag for option syntax.`--column` and `--no-column` 112 without options are equivalent to 'always' and 'never' respectively. 113+ 114This option is only applicable when listing tags without annotation lines. 115 116--contains [<commit>]:: 117 Only list tags which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not 118 specified). 119 120--points-at <object>:: 121 Only list tags of the given object. 122 123-m <msg>:: 124--message=<msg>:: 125 Use the given tag message (instead of prompting). 126 If multiple `-m` options are given, their values are 127 concatenated as separate paragraphs. 128 Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <keyid>` 129 is given. 130 131-F <file>:: 132--file=<file>:: 133 Take the tag message from the given file. Use '-' to 134 read the message from the standard input. 135 Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <keyid>` 136 is given. 137 138--cleanup=<mode>:: 139 This option sets how the tag message is cleaned up. 140 The '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace' and 'strip'. The 141 'strip' mode is default. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at 142 all, 'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines and 143 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary. 144 145--create-reflog:: 146 Create a reflog for the tag. 147 148<tagname>:: 149 The name of the tag to create, delete, or describe. 150 The new tag name must pass all checks defined by 151 linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 152 may restrict the characters allowed in a tag name. 153 154<commit>:: 155<object>:: 156 The object that the new tag will refer to, usually a commit. 157 Defaults to HEAD. 158 159 160CONFIGURATION 161------------- 162By default, 'git tag' in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your 163committer identity (of the form `Your Name <your@email.address>`) to 164find a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify 165it in the repository configuration as follows: 166 167------------------------------------- 168[user] 169 signingKey = <gpg-keyid> 170------------------------------------- 171 172 173DISCUSSION 174---------- 175 176On Re-tagging 177~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 178 179What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would 180want to re-tag? 181 182If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to 183replace the old one. And you're done. 184 185But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read 186your repository directly), then others will have already seen 187the old tag. In that case you can do one of two things: 188 189. The sane thing. 190Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name. Others have 191already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the same name, you 192may be in the situation that two people both have "version X", 193but they actually have 'different' "X"'s. So just call it "X.1" 194and be done with it. 195 196. The insane thing. 197You really want to call the new version "X" too, 'even though' 198others have already seen the old one. So just use 'git tag -f' 199again, as if you hadn't already published the old one. 200 201However, Git does *not* (and it should not) change tags behind 202users back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a 203'git pull' on your tree shouldn't just make them overwrite the old 204one. 205 206If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change 207the tag for them by updating your own one. This is a big 208security issue, in that people MUST be able to trust their 209tag-names. If you really want to do the insane thing, you need 210to just fess up to it, and tell people that you messed up. You 211can do that by making a very public announcement saying: 212 213------------ 214Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I 215then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again. 216 217If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete 218the old one and fetch the new one by doing: 219 220 git tag -d X 221 git fetch origin tag X 222 223to get my updated tag. 224 225You can test which tag you have by doing 226 227 git rev-parse X 228 229which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version. 230 231Sorry for the inconvenience. 232------------ 233 234Does this seem a bit complicated? It *should* be. There is no 235way that it would be correct to just "fix" it automatically. 236People need to know that their tags might have been changed. 237 238 239On Automatic following 240~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 241 242If you are following somebody else's tree, you are most likely 243using remote-tracking branches (`refs/heads/origin` in traditional 244layout, or `refs/remotes/origin/master` in the separate-remote 245layout). You usually want the tags from the other end. 246 247On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a 248one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to 249get tags from there. This happens more often for people near 250the toplevel but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling 251from each other do not necessarily want to automatically get 252private anchor point tags from the other person. 253 254Often, "please pull" messages on the mailing list just provide 255two pieces of information: a repo URL and a branch name; this 256is designed to be easily cut&pasted at the end of a 'git fetch' 257command line: 258 259------------ 260Linus, please pull from 261 262 git://git..../proj.git master 263 264to get the following updates... 265------------ 266 267becomes: 268 269------------ 270$ git pull git://git..../proj.git master 271------------ 272 273In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow the other 274person's tags. 275 276One important aspect of Git is its distributed nature, which 277largely means there is no inherent "upstream" or 278"downstream" in the system. On the face of it, the above 279example might seem to indicate that the tag namespace is owned 280by the upper echelon of people and that tags only flow downwards, but 281that is not the case. It only shows that the usage pattern 282determines who are interested in whose tags. 283 284A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing 285the boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are 286primarily interested in the networking part of the kernel") who may 287have their own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release 288candidate from the networking group to be proposed for general 289consumption with 2.6.21 release") to another circle of people 290(e.g. "people who integrate various subsystem improvements"). 291The latter are usually not interested in the detailed tags used 292internally in the former group (that is what "internal" means). 293That is why it is desirable not to follow tags automatically in 294this case. 295 296It may well be that among networking people, they may want to 297exchange the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow 298they are most likely tracking each other's progress by 299having remote-tracking branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically 300follow such tags is a good thing. 301 302 303On Backdating Tags 304~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 305 306If you have imported some changes from another VCS and would like 307to add tags for major releases of your work, it is useful to be able 308to specify the date to embed inside of the tag object; such data in 309the tag object affects, for example, the ordering of tags in the 310gitweb interface. 311 312To set the date used in future tag objects, set the environment 313variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE (see the later discussion of possible 314values; the most common form is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM"). 315 316For example: 317 318------------ 319$ GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2006-10-02 10:31" git tag -s v1.0.1 320------------ 321 322include::date-formats.txt[] 323 324SEE ALSO 325-------- 326linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. 327linkgit:git-config[1]. 328 329GIT 330--- 331Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite