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 [--format=<format>] <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. Implies `--list`. 86+ 87The default is not to print any annotation lines. 88If no number is given to `-n`, only the first line is printed. 89If the tag is not annotated, the commit message is displayed instead. 90 91-l:: 92--list:: 93 List tags. With optional `<pattern>...`, e.g. `git tag --list 94 'v-*'`, list only the tags that match the pattern(s). 95+ 96Running "git tag" without arguments also lists all tags. The pattern 97is a shell wildcard (i.e., matched using fnmatch(3)). Multiple 98patterns may be given; if any of them matches, the tag is shown. 99+ 100This option is implicitly supplied if any other list-like option such 101as `--contains` is provided. See the documentation for each of those 102options for details. 103 104--sort=<key>:: 105 Sort based on the key given. Prefix `-` to sort in 106 descending order of the value. You may use the --sort=<key> option 107 multiple times, in which case the last key becomes the primary 108 key. Also supports "version:refname" or "v:refname" (tag 109 names are treated as versions). The "version:refname" sort 110 order can also be affected by the "versionsort.suffix" 111 configuration variable. 112 The keys supported are the same as those in `git for-each-ref`. 113 Sort order defaults to the value configured for the `tag.sort` 114 variable if it exists, or lexicographic order otherwise. See 115 linkgit:git-config[1]. 116 117-i:: 118--ignore-case:: 119 Sorting and filtering tags are case insensitive. 120 121--column[=<options>]:: 122--no-column:: 123 Display tag listing in columns. See configuration variable 124 column.tag for option syntax.`--column` and `--no-column` 125 without options are equivalent to 'always' and 'never' respectively. 126+ 127This option is only applicable when listing tags without annotation lines. 128 129--contains [<commit>]:: 130 Only list tags which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not 131 specified). Implies `--list`. 132 133--merged [<commit>]:: 134 Only list tags whose commits are reachable from the specified 135 commit (`HEAD` if not specified), incompatible with `--no-merged`. 136 137--no-merged [<commit>]:: 138 Only list tags whose commits are not reachable from the specified 139 commit (`HEAD` if not specified), incompatible with `--merged`. 140 141--points-at <object>:: 142 Only list tags of the given object (HEAD if not 143 specified). Implies `--list`. 144 145-m <msg>:: 146--message=<msg>:: 147 Use the given tag message (instead of prompting). 148 If multiple `-m` options are given, their values are 149 concatenated as separate paragraphs. 150 Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <keyid>` 151 is given. 152 153-F <file>:: 154--file=<file>:: 155 Take the tag message from the given file. Use '-' to 156 read the message from the standard input. 157 Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <keyid>` 158 is given. 159 160--cleanup=<mode>:: 161 This option sets how the tag message is cleaned up. 162 The '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace' and 'strip'. The 163 'strip' mode is default. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at 164 all, 'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines and 165 'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary. 166 167--create-reflog:: 168 Create a reflog for the tag. To globally enable reflogs for tags, see 169 `core.logAllRefUpdates` in linkgit:git-config[1]. 170 The negated form `--no-create-reflog` only overrides an earlier 171 `--create-reflog`, but currently does not negate the setting of 172 `core.logallrefupdates`. 173 174<tagname>:: 175 The name of the tag to create, delete, or describe. 176 The new tag name must pass all checks defined by 177 linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 178 may restrict the characters allowed in a tag name. 179 180<commit>:: 181<object>:: 182 The object that the new tag will refer to, usually a commit. 183 Defaults to HEAD. 184 185<format>:: 186 A string that interpolates `%(fieldname)` from the object 187 pointed at by a ref being shown. The format is the same as 188 that of linkgit:git-for-each-ref[1]. When unspecified, 189 defaults to `%(refname:strip=2)`. 190 191CONFIGURATION 192------------- 193By default, 'git tag' in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your 194committer identity (of the form `Your Name <your@email.address>`) to 195find a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify 196it in the repository configuration as follows: 197 198------------------------------------- 199[user] 200 signingKey = <gpg-keyid> 201------------------------------------- 202 203 204DISCUSSION 205---------- 206 207On Re-tagging 208~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 209 210What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would 211want to re-tag? 212 213If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to 214replace the old one. And you're done. 215 216But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read 217your repository directly), then others will have already seen 218the old tag. In that case you can do one of two things: 219 220. The sane thing. 221Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name. Others have 222already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the same name, you 223may be in the situation that two people both have "version X", 224but they actually have 'different' "X"'s. So just call it "X.1" 225and be done with it. 226 227. The insane thing. 228You really want to call the new version "X" too, 'even though' 229others have already seen the old one. So just use 'git tag -f' 230again, as if you hadn't already published the old one. 231 232However, Git does *not* (and it should not) change tags behind 233users back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a 234'git pull' on your tree shouldn't just make them overwrite the old 235one. 236 237If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change 238the tag for them by updating your own one. This is a big 239security issue, in that people MUST be able to trust their 240tag-names. If you really want to do the insane thing, you need 241to just fess up to it, and tell people that you messed up. You 242can do that by making a very public announcement saying: 243 244------------ 245Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I 246then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again. 247 248If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete 249the old one and fetch the new one by doing: 250 251 git tag -d X 252 git fetch origin tag X 253 254to get my updated tag. 255 256You can test which tag you have by doing 257 258 git rev-parse X 259 260which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version. 261 262Sorry for the inconvenience. 263------------ 264 265Does this seem a bit complicated? It *should* be. There is no 266way that it would be correct to just "fix" it automatically. 267People need to know that their tags might have been changed. 268 269 270On Automatic following 271~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 272 273If you are following somebody else's tree, you are most likely 274using remote-tracking branches (eg. `refs/remotes/origin/master`). 275You usually want the tags from the other end. 276 277On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a 278one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to 279get tags from there. This happens more often for people near 280the toplevel but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling 281from each other do not necessarily want to automatically get 282private anchor point tags from the other person. 283 284Often, "please pull" messages on the mailing list just provide 285two pieces of information: a repo URL and a branch name; this 286is designed to be easily cut&pasted at the end of a 'git fetch' 287command line: 288 289------------ 290Linus, please pull from 291 292 git://git..../proj.git master 293 294to get the following updates... 295------------ 296 297becomes: 298 299------------ 300$ git pull git://git..../proj.git master 301------------ 302 303In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow the other 304person's tags. 305 306One important aspect of Git is its distributed nature, which 307largely means there is no inherent "upstream" or 308"downstream" in the system. On the face of it, the above 309example might seem to indicate that the tag namespace is owned 310by the upper echelon of people and that tags only flow downwards, but 311that is not the case. It only shows that the usage pattern 312determines who are interested in whose tags. 313 314A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing 315the boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are 316primarily interested in the networking part of the kernel") who may 317have their own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release 318candidate from the networking group to be proposed for general 319consumption with 2.6.21 release") to another circle of people 320(e.g. "people who integrate various subsystem improvements"). 321The latter are usually not interested in the detailed tags used 322internally in the former group (that is what "internal" means). 323That is why it is desirable not to follow tags automatically in 324this case. 325 326It may well be that among networking people, they may want to 327exchange the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow 328they are most likely tracking each other's progress by 329having remote-tracking branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically 330follow such tags is a good thing. 331 332 333On Backdating Tags 334~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 335 336If you have imported some changes from another VCS and would like 337to add tags for major releases of your work, it is useful to be able 338to specify the date to embed inside of the tag object; such data in 339the tag object affects, for example, the ordering of tags in the 340gitweb interface. 341 342To set the date used in future tag objects, set the environment 343variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE (see the later discussion of possible 344values; the most common form is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM"). 345 346For example: 347 348------------ 349$ GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2006-10-02 10:31" git tag -s v1.0.1 350------------ 351 352include::date-formats.txt[] 353 354SEE ALSO 355-------- 356linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. 357linkgit:git-config[1]. 358 359GIT 360--- 361Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite