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>] [<pattern>] 16'git tag' -v <tagname>... 17 18DESCRIPTION 19----------- 20 21Add a tag reference in `.git/refs/tags/`, unless `-d/-l/-v` is given 22to delete, list or verify tags. 23 24Unless `-f` is given, the tag to be created must not yet exist in the 25`.git/refs/tags/` directory. 26 27If one of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <key-id>` 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 <key-id>` 33are absent, `-a` is implied. 34 35Otherwise just a tag reference for the SHA1 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<key-id>` is used. When `-u <key-id>` is not used, the 40committer identity for the current user is used to find the 41GnuPG key for signing. 42 43OPTIONS 44------- 45-a:: 46 Make an unsigned, annotated tag object 47 48-s:: 49 Make a GPG-signed tag, using the default e-mail address's key 50 51-u <key-id>:: 52 Make a GPG-signed tag, using the given key 53 54-f:: 55--force:: 56 Replace an existing tag with the given name (instead of failing) 57 58-d:: 59 Delete existing tags with the given names. 60 61-v:: 62 Verify the gpg signature of the given tag names. 63 64-n<num>:: 65 <num> specifies how many lines from the annotation, if any, 66 are printed when using -l. 67 The default is not to print any annotation lines. 68 If no number is given to `-n`, only the first line is printed. 69 If the tag is not annotated, the commit message is displayed instead. 70 71-l <pattern>:: 72 List tags with names that match the given pattern (or all if no pattern is given). 73 Typing "git tag" without arguments, also lists all tags. 74 75--contains <commit>:: 76 Only list tags which contain the specified commit. 77 78-m <msg>:: 79 Use the given tag message (instead of prompting). 80 If multiple `-m` options are given, their values are 81 concatenated as separate paragraphs. 82 Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <key-id>` 83 is given. 84 85-F <file>:: 86 Take the tag message from the given file. Use '-' to 87 read the message from the standard input. 88 Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <key-id>` 89 is given. 90 91<tagname>:: 92 The name of the tag to create, delete, or describe. 93 The new tag name must pass all checks defined by 94 linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. Some of these checks 95 may restrict the characters allowed in a tag name. 96 97CONFIGURATION 98------------- 99By default, 'git tag' in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your 100committer identity (of the form "Your Name <your@email.address>") to 101find a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify 102it in the repository configuration as follows: 103 104------------------------------------- 105[user] 106 signingkey = <gpg-key-id> 107------------------------------------- 108 109 110DISCUSSION 111---------- 112 113On Re-tagging 114~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 115 116What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would 117want to re-tag? 118 119If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to 120replace the old one. And you're done. 121 122But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read 123your repository directly), then others will have already seen 124the old tag. In that case you can do one of two things: 125 126. The sane thing. 127Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name. Others have 128already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the same name, you 129may be in the situation that two people both have "version X", 130but they actually have 'different' "X"'s. So just call it "X.1" 131and be done with it. 132 133. The insane thing. 134You really want to call the new version "X" too, 'even though' 135others have already seen the old one. So just use 'git tag -f' 136again, as if you hadn't already published the old one. 137 138However, Git does *not* (and it should not) change tags behind 139users back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a 140'git pull' on your tree shouldn't just make them overwrite the old 141one. 142 143If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change 144the tag for them by updating your own one. This is a big 145security issue, in that people MUST be able to trust their 146tag-names. If you really want to do the insane thing, you need 147to just fess up to it, and tell people that you messed up. You 148can do that by making a very public announcement saying: 149 150------------ 151Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I 152then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again. 153 154If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete 155the old one and fetch the new one by doing: 156 157 git tag -d X 158 git fetch origin tag X 159 160to get my updated tag. 161 162You can test which tag you have by doing 163 164 git rev-parse X 165 166which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version. 167 168Sorry for the inconvenience. 169------------ 170 171Does this seem a bit complicated? It *should* be. There is no 172way that it would be correct to just "fix" it automatically. 173People need to know that their tags might have been changed. 174 175 176On Automatic following 177~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 178 179If you are following somebody else's tree, you are most likely 180using remote-tracking branches (`refs/heads/origin` in traditional 181layout, or `refs/remotes/origin/master` in the separate-remote 182layout). You usually want the tags from the other end. 183 184On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a 185one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to 186get tags from there. This happens more often for people near 187the toplevel but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling 188from each other do not necessarily want to automatically get 189private anchor point tags from the other person. 190 191Often, "please pull" messages on the mailing list just provide 192two pieces of information: a repo URL and a branch name; this 193is designed to be easily cut&pasted at the end of a 'git fetch' 194command line: 195 196------------ 197Linus, please pull from 198 199 git://git..../proj.git master 200 201to get the following updates... 202------------ 203 204becomes: 205 206------------ 207$ git pull git://git..../proj.git master 208------------ 209 210In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow the other 211person's tags. 212 213One important aspect of git is its distributed nature, which 214largely means there is no inherent "upstream" or 215"downstream" in the system. On the face of it, the above 216example might seem to indicate that the tag namespace is owned 217by the upper echelon of people and that tags only flow downwards, but 218that is not the case. It only shows that the usage pattern 219determines who are interested in whose tags. 220 221A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing 222the boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are 223primarily interested in the networking part of the kernel") who may 224have their own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release 225candidate from the networking group to be proposed for general 226consumption with 2.6.21 release") to another circle of people 227(e.g. "people who integrate various subsystem improvements"). 228The latter are usually not interested in the detailed tags used 229internally in the former group (that is what "internal" means). 230That is why it is desirable not to follow tags automatically in 231this case. 232 233It may well be that among networking people, they may want to 234exchange the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow 235they are most likely tracking each other's progress by 236having remote-tracking branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically 237follow such tags is a good thing. 238 239 240On Backdating Tags 241~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 242 243If you have imported some changes from another VCS and would like 244to add tags for major releases of your work, it is useful to be able 245to specify the date to embed inside of the tag object; such data in 246the tag object affects, for example, the ordering of tags in the 247gitweb interface. 248 249To set the date used in future tag objects, set the environment 250variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE (see the later discussion of possible 251values; the most common form is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM"). 252 253For example: 254 255------------ 256$ GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2006-10-02 10:31" git tag -s v1.0.1 257------------ 258 259include::date-formats.txt[] 260 261SEE ALSO 262-------- 263linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1]. 264 265GIT 266--- 267Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite