GIT-TAG(1)                                                          GIT-TAG(1)



NAME
       git-tag - Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG

SYNOPSIS
       git tag [-a | -s | -u <key-id>] [-f] [-m <msg> | -F <file>]
               <tagname> [<commit> | <object>]
       git tag -d <tagname>...
       git tag [-n[<num>]] -l [--contains <commit>] [<pattern>]
       git tag -v <tagname>...





DESCRIPTION
       Add a tag reference in .git/refs/tags/, unless -d/-l/-v is given to
       delete, list or verify tags.


       Unless -f is given, the tag to be created must not yet exist in the
       .git/refs/tags/ directory.


       If one of -a, -s, or -u <key-id> is passed, the command creates a tag
       object, and requires a tag message. Unless -m <msg> or -F <file> is
       given, an editor is started for the user to type in the tag message.


       If -m <msg> or -F <file> is given and -a, -s, and -u <key-id> are
       absent, -a is implied.


       Otherwise just a tag reference for the SHA1 object name of the commit
       object is created (i.e. a lightweight tag).


       A GnuPG signed tag object will be created when -s or -u <key-id> is
       used. When -u <key-id> is not used, the committer identity for the
       current user is used to find the GnuPG key for signing.


OPTIONS
       -a     Make an unsigned, annotated tag object


       -s     Make a GPG-signed tag, using the default e-mail address&#8217;s
              key


       -u <key-id>
              Make a GPG-signed tag, using the given key


       -f, --force
              Replace an existing tag with the given name (instead of failing)


       -d     Delete existing tags with the given names.


       -v     Verify the gpg signature of the given tag names.


       -n<num>
              <num> specifies how many lines from the annotation, if any, are
              printed when using -l. The default is not to print any
              annotation lines. If no number is given to -n, only the first
              line is printed. If the tag is not annotated, the commit message
              is displayed instead.


       -l <pattern>
              List tags with names that match the given pattern (or all if no
              pattern is given). Typing "git tag" without arguments, also
              lists all tags.


       --contains <commit>
              Only list tags which contain the specified commit.


       -m <msg>
              Use the given tag message (instead of prompting). If multiple -m
              options are given, their values are concatenated as separate
              paragraphs. Implies -a if none of -a, -s, or -u <key-id> is
              given.


       -F <file>
              Take the tag message from the given file. Use - to read the
              message from the standard input. Implies -a if none of -a, -s,
              or -u <key-id> is given.


       <tagname>
              The name of the tag to create, delete, or describe. The new tag
              name must pass all checks defined by git-check-ref-format(1).
              Some of these checks may restrict the characters allowed in a
              tag name.


CONFIGURATION
       By default, git tag in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your
       committer identity (of the form "Your Name <your@email.address:
       mailto:your@email.address>") to find a key. If you want to use a
       different default key, you can specify it in the repository
       configuration as follows:

       [user]
           signingkey = <gpg-key-id>





DISCUSSION
   On Re-tagging
       What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would want to
       re-tag?


       If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to replace
       the old one. And you&#8217;re done.


       But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read your
       repository directly), then others will have already seen the old tag.
       In that case you can do one of two things:


       1. The sane thing. Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name.
          Others have already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the same
          name, you may be in the situation that two people both have "version
          X", but they actually have different "X"'s. So just call it "X.1"
          and be done with it.

       2. The insane thing. You really want to call the new version "X" too,
          even though others have already seen the old one. So just use git
          tag -f again, as if you hadn&#8217;t already published the old one.

       However, Git does not (and it should not) change tags behind users
       back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a git pull on your
       tree shouldn&#8217;t just make them overwrite the old one.


       If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change the tag
       for them by updating your own one. This is a big security issue, in
       that people MUST be able to trust their tag-names. If you really want
       to do the insane thing, you need to just fess up to it, and tell people
       that you messed up. You can do that by making a very public
       announcement saying:

       Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I
       then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again.

       If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete
       the old one and fetch the new one by doing:

               git tag -d X
               git fetch origin tag X

       to get my updated tag.

       You can test which tag you have by doing

               git rev-parse X

       which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version.

       Sorry for the inconvenience.





       Does this seem a bit complicated? It should be. There is no way that it
       would be correct to just "fix" it automatically. People need to know
       that their tags might have been changed.


   On Automatic following
       If you are following somebody else&#8217;s tree, you are most likely
       using remote-tracking branches (refs/heads/origin in traditional
       layout, or refs/remotes/origin/master in the separate-remote layout).
       You usually want the tags from the other end.


       On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a
       one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to get
       tags from there. This happens more often for people near the toplevel
       but not limited to them. Mere mortals when pulling from each other do
       not necessarily want to automatically get private anchor point tags
       from the other person.


       Often, "please pull" messages on the mailing list just provide two
       pieces of information: a repo URL and a branch name; this is designed
       to be easily cut&pasted at the end of a git fetch command line:

       Linus, please pull from

               git://git..../proj.git master

       to get the following updates...





       becomes:

       $ git pull git://git..../proj.git master





       In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow the other
       person&#8217;s tags.


       One important aspect of git is its distributed nature, which largely
       means there is no inherent "upstream" or "downstream" in the system. On
       the face of it, the above example might seem to indicate that the tag
       namespace is owned by the upper echelon of people and that tags only
       flow downwards, but that is not the case. It only shows that the usage
       pattern determines who are interested in whose tags.


       A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing the
       boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are primarily
       interested in the networking part of the kernel") who may have their
       own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release candidate from the
       networking group to be proposed for general consumption with 2.6.21
       release") to another circle of people (e.g. "people who integrate
       various subsystem improvements"). The latter are usually not interested
       in the detailed tags used internally in the former group (that is what
       "internal" means). That is why it is desirable not to follow tags
       automatically in this case.


       It may well be that among networking people, they may want to exchange
       the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow they are most
       likely tracking each other&#8217;s progress by having remote-tracking
       branches. Again, the heuristic to automatically follow such tags is a
       good thing.


   On Backdating Tags
       If you have imported some changes from another VCS and would like to
       add tags for major releases of your work, it is useful to be able to
       specify the date to embed inside of the tag object; such data in the
       tag object affects, for example, the ordering of tags in the gitweb
       interface.


       To set the date used in future tag objects, set the environment
       variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE (see the later discussion of possible
       values; the most common form is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM").


       For example:

       $ GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2006-10-02 10:31" git tag -s v1.0.1





DATE FORMATS
       The GIT_AUTHOR_DATE, GIT_COMMITTER_DATE environment variables support
       the following date formats:


       Git internal format
              It is <unix timestamp> <timezone offset>, where <unix timestamp>
              is the number of seconds since the UNIX epoch. <timezone offset>
              is a positive or negative offset from UTC. For example CET
              (which is 2 hours ahead UTC) is +0200.


       RFC 2822
              The standard email format as described by RFC 2822, for example
              Thu, 07 Apr 2005 22:13:13 +0200.


       ISO 8601
              Time and date specified by the ISO 8601 standard, for example
              2005-04-07T22:13:13. The parser accepts a space instead of the T
              character as well.


              Note

              In addition, the date part is accepted in the following formats:
              YYYY.MM.DD, MM/DD/YYYY and DD.MM.YYYY.



SEE ALSO
       git-check-ref-format(1).


GIT
       Part of the git(1) suite




                                                                    GIT-TAG(1)
