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 37`-d <tag>` deletes the tag. 38 39`-v <tag>` verifies the gpg signature of the tag. 40 41`-l <pattern>` lists tags with names that match the given pattern 42(or all if no pattern is given). 43 44OPTIONS 45------- 46-a:: 47 Make an unsigned, annotated tag object 48 49-s:: 50 Make a GPG-signed tag, using the default e-mail address's key 51 52-u <key-id>:: 53 Make a GPG-signed tag, using the given key 54 55-f:: 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 70-l <pattern>:: 71 List tags with names that match the given pattern (or all if no pattern is given). 72 Typing "git tag" without arguments, also lists all tags. 73 74-m <msg>:: 75 Use the given tag message (instead of prompting) 76 77-F <file>:: 78 Take the tag message from the given file. Use '-' to 79 read the message from the standard input. 80 81CONFIGURATION 82------------- 83By default, git-tag in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your 84committer identity (of the form "Your Name <your@email.address>") to 85find a key. If you want to use a different default key, you can specify 86it in the repository configuration as follows: 87 88------------------------------------- 89[user] 90 signingkey = <gpg-key-id> 91------------------------------------- 92 93 94DISCUSSION 95---------- 96 97On Re-tagging 98~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 99 100What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would 101want to re-tag? 102 103If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to 104replace the old one. And you're done. 105 106But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read 107your repository directly), then others will have already seen 108the old tag. In that case you can do one of two things: 109 110. The sane thing. 111Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name. Others have 112already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the same name, you 113may be in the situation that two people both have "version X", 114but they actually have 'different' "X"'s. So just call it "X.1" 115and be done with it. 116 117. The insane thing. 118You really want to call the new version "X" too, 'even though' 119others have already seen the old one. So just use "git tag -f" 120again, as if you hadn't already published the old one. 121 122However, Git does *not* (and it should not)change tags behind 123users back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a "git 124pull" on your tree shouldn't just make them overwrite the old 125one. 126 127If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change 128the tag for them by updating your own one. This is a big 129security issue, in that people MUST be able to trust their 130tag-names. If you really want to do the insane thing, you need 131to just fess up to it, and tell people that you messed up. You 132can do that by making a very public announcement saying: 133 134------------ 135Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I 136then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again. 137 138If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete 139the old one and fetch the new one by doing: 140 141 git tag -d X 142 git fetch origin tag X 143 144to get my updated tag. 145 146You can test which tag you have by doing 147 148 git rev-parse X 149 150which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version. 151 152Sorry for inconvenience. 153------------ 154 155Does this seem a bit complicated? It *should* be. There is no 156way that it would be correct to just "fix" it behind peoples 157backs. People need to know that their tags might have been 158changed. 159 160 161On Automatic following 162~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 163 164If you are following somebody else's tree, you are most likely 165using tracking branches (`refs/heads/origin` in traditional 166layout, or `refs/remotes/origin/master` in the separate-remote 167layout). You usually want the tags from the other end. 168 169On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a 170one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to 171get tags from there. This happens more often for people near 172the toplevel but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling 173from each other do not necessarily want to automatically get 174private anchor point tags from the other person. 175 176You would notice "please pull" messages on the mailing list says 177repo URL and branch name alone. This is designed to be easily 178cut&pasted to "git fetch" command line: 179 180------------ 181Linus, please pull from 182 183 git://git..../proj.git master 184 185to get the following updates... 186------------ 187 188becomes: 189 190------------ 191$ git pull git://git..../proj.git master 192------------ 193 194In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow other's 195tags. 196 197One important aspect of git is it is distributed, and being 198distributed largely means there is no inherent "upstream" or 199"downstream" in the system. On the face of it, the above 200example might seem to indicate that the tag namespace is owned 201by upper echelon of people and tags only flow downwards, but 202that is not the case. It only shows that the usage pattern 203determines who are interested in whose tags. 204 205A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing 206the boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are 207primarily interested in networking part of the kernel") who may 208have their own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release 209candidate from the networking group to be proposed for general 210consumption with 2.6.21 release") to another circle of people 211(e.g. "people who integrate various subsystem improvements"). 212The latter are usually not interested in the detailed tags used 213internally in the former group (that is what "internal" means). 214That is why it is desirable not to follow tags automatically in 215this case. 216 217It may well be that among networking people, they may want to 218exchange the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow 219they are most likely tracking with each other's progress by 220having tracking branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically 221follow such tags is a good thing. 222 223 224Author 225------ 226Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>, 227Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> and Chris Wright <chrisw@osdl.org>. 228 229Documentation 230-------------- 231Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 232 233GIT 234--- 235Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite