Documentation/git-tag.txt

   1 git-tag(1)
   2 ==========
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-tag - Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG
   7
   8
   9 SYNOPSIS
  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 <tagname>...
  19
  20 DESCRIPTION
  21 -----------
  22
  23 Add a tag reference in `refs/tags/`, unless `-d/-l/-v` is given
  24 to delete, list or verify tags.
  25
  26 Unless `-f` is given, the named tag must not yet exist.
  27
  28 If one of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <keyid>` is passed, the command
  29 creates 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
  31 in the tag message.
  32
  33 If `-m <msg>` or `-F <file>` is given and `-a`, `-s`, and `-u <keyid>`
  34 are absent, `-a` is implied.
  35
  36 Otherwise just a tag reference for the SHA-1 object name of the commit object is
  37 created (i.e. a lightweight tag).
  38
  39 A GnuPG signed tag object will be created when `-s` or `-u
  40 <keyid>` is used.  When `-u <keyid>` is not used, the
  41 committer identity for the current user is used to find the
  42 GnuPG key for signing.  The configuration variable `gpg.program`
  43 is used to specify custom GnuPG binary.
  44
  45 Tag objects (created with `-a`, `-s`, or `-u`) are called "annotated"
  46 tags; they contain a creation date, the tagger name and e-mail, a
  47 tagging message, and an optional GnuPG signature. Whereas a
  48 "lightweight" tag is simply a name for an object (usually a commit
  49 object).
  50
  51 Annotated tags are meant for release while lightweight tags are meant
  52 for private or temporary object labels. For this reason, some git
  53 commands for naming objects (like `git describe`) will ignore
  54 lightweight tags by default.
  55
  56
  57 OPTIONS
  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.
  86         The default is not to print any annotation lines.
  87         If no number is given to `-n`, only the first line is printed.
  88         If the tag is not annotated, the commit message is displayed instead.
  89
  90 -l <pattern>::
  91 --list <pattern>::
  92         List tags with names that match the given pattern (or all if no
  93         pattern is given).  Running "git tag" without arguments also
  94         lists all tags. The pattern is a shell wildcard (i.e., matched
  95         using fnmatch(3)).  Multiple patterns may be given; if any of
  96         them matches, the tag is shown.
  97
  98 --sort=<key>::
  99         Sort based on the key given.  Prefix `-` to sort in
 100         descending order of the value. You may use the --sort=<key> option
 101         multiple times, in which case the last key becomes the primary
 102         key. Also supports "version:refname" or "v:refname" (tag
 103         names are treated as versions). The "version:refname" sort
 104         order can also be affected by the "versionsort.suffix"
 105         configuration variable.
 106         The keys supported are the same as those in `git for-each-ref`.
 107         Sort order defaults to the value configured for the `tag.sort`
 108         variable if it exists, or lexicographic order otherwise. See
 109         linkgit:git-config[1].
 110
 111 -i::
 112 --ignore-case::
 113         Sorting and filtering tags are case insensitive.
 114
 115 --column[=<options>]::
 116 --no-column::
 117         Display tag listing in columns. See configuration variable
 118         column.tag for option syntax.`--column` and `--no-column`
 119         without options are equivalent to 'always' and 'never' respectively.
 120 +
 121 This option is only applicable when listing tags without annotation lines.
 122
 123 --contains [<commit>]::
 124         Only list tags which contain the specified commit (HEAD if not
 125         specified).
 126
 127 --points-at <object>::
 128         Only list tags of the given object.
 129
 130 -m <msg>::
 131 --message=<msg>::
 132         Use the given tag message (instead of prompting).
 133         If multiple `-m` options are given, their values are
 134         concatenated as separate paragraphs.
 135         Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <keyid>`
 136         is given.
 137
 138 -F <file>::
 139 --file=<file>::
 140         Take the tag message from the given file.  Use '-' to
 141         read the message from the standard input.
 142         Implies `-a` if none of `-a`, `-s`, or `-u <keyid>`
 143         is given.
 144
 145 --cleanup=<mode>::
 146         This option sets how the tag message is cleaned up.
 147         The  '<mode>' can be one of 'verbatim', 'whitespace' and 'strip'.  The
 148         'strip' mode is default. The 'verbatim' mode does not change message at
 149         all, 'whitespace' removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines and
 150         'strip' removes both whitespace and commentary.
 151
 152 --create-reflog::
 153         Create a reflog for the tag. To globally enable reflogs for tags, see
 154         `core.logAllRefUpdates` in linkgit:git-config[1].
 155
 156 <tagname>::
 157         The name of the tag to create, delete, or describe.
 158         The new tag name must pass all checks defined by
 159         linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1].  Some of these checks
 160         may restrict the characters allowed in a tag name.
 161
 162 <commit>::
 163 <object>::
 164         The object that the new tag will refer to, usually a commit.
 165         Defaults to HEAD.
 166
 167 <format>::
 168         A string that interpolates `%(fieldname)` from the object
 169         pointed at by a ref being shown.  The format is the same as
 170         that of linkgit:git-for-each-ref[1].  When unspecified,
 171         defaults to `%(refname:strip=2)`.
 172
 173 --[no-]merged [<commit>]::
 174         Only list tags whose tips are reachable, or not reachable
 175         if `--no-merged` is used, from the specified commit (`HEAD`
 176         if not specified).
 177
 178 CONFIGURATION
 179 -------------
 180 By default, 'git tag' in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your
 181 committer identity (of the form `Your Name <your@email.address>`) to
 182 find a key.  If you want to use a different default key, you can specify
 183 it in the repository configuration as follows:
 184
 185 -------------------------------------
 186 [user]
 187     signingKey = <gpg-keyid>
 188 -------------------------------------
 189
 190
 191 DISCUSSION
 192 ----------
 193
 194 On Re-tagging
 195 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 196
 197 What should you do when you tag a wrong commit and you would
 198 want to re-tag?
 199
 200 If you never pushed anything out, just re-tag it. Use "-f" to
 201 replace the old one. And you're done.
 202
 203 But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read
 204 your repository directly), then others will have already seen
 205 the old tag. In that case you can do one of two things:
 206
 207 . The sane thing.
 208 Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name. Others have
 209 already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the same name, you
 210 may be in the situation that two people both have "version X",
 211 but they actually have 'different' "X"'s.  So just call it "X.1"
 212 and be done with it.
 213
 214 . The insane thing.
 215 You really want to call the new version "X" too, 'even though'
 216 others have already seen the old one. So just use 'git tag -f'
 217 again, as if you hadn't already published the old one.
 218
 219 However, Git does *not* (and it should not) change tags behind
 220 users back. So if somebody already got the old tag, doing a
 221 'git pull' on your tree shouldn't just make them overwrite the old
 222 one.
 223
 224 If somebody got a release tag from you, you cannot just change
 225 the tag for them by updating your own one. This is a big
 226 security issue, in that people MUST be able to trust their
 227 tag-names.  If you really want to do the insane thing, you need
 228 to just fess up to it, and tell people that you messed up. You
 229 can do that by making a very public announcement saying:
 230
 231 ------------
 232 Ok, I messed up, and I pushed out an earlier version tagged as X. I
 233 then fixed something, and retagged the *fixed* tree as X again.
 234
 235 If you got the wrong tag, and want the new one, please delete
 236 the old one and fetch the new one by doing:
 237
 238         git tag -d X
 239         git fetch origin tag X
 240
 241 to get my updated tag.
 242
 243 You can test which tag you have by doing
 244
 245         git rev-parse X
 246
 247 which should return 0123456789abcdef.. if you have the new version.
 248
 249 Sorry for the inconvenience.
 250 ------------
 251
 252 Does this seem a bit complicated?  It *should* be. There is no
 253 way that it would be correct to just "fix" it automatically.
 254 People need to know that their tags might have been changed.
 255
 256
 257 On Automatic following
 258 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 259
 260 If you are following somebody else's tree, you are most likely
 261 using remote-tracking branches (eg. `refs/remotes/origin/master`).
 262 You usually want the tags from the other end.
 263
 264 On the other hand, if you are fetching because you would want a
 265 one-shot merge from somebody else, you typically do not want to
 266 get tags from there.  This happens more often for people near
 267 the toplevel but not limited to them.  Mere mortals when pulling
 268 from each other do not necessarily want to automatically get
 269 private anchor point tags from the other person.
 270
 271 Often, "please pull" messages on the mailing list just provide
 272 two pieces of information: a repo URL and a branch name; this
 273 is designed to be easily cut&pasted at the end of a 'git fetch'
 274 command line:
 275
 276 ------------
 277 Linus, please pull from
 278
 279         git://git..../proj.git master
 280
 281 to get the following updates...
 282 ------------
 283
 284 becomes:
 285
 286 ------------
 287 $ git pull git://git..../proj.git master
 288 ------------
 289
 290 In such a case, you do not want to automatically follow the other
 291 person's tags.
 292
 293 One important aspect of Git is its distributed nature, which
 294 largely means there is no inherent "upstream" or
 295 "downstream" in the system.  On the face of it, the above
 296 example might seem to indicate that the tag namespace is owned
 297 by the upper echelon of people and that tags only flow downwards, but
 298 that is not the case.  It only shows that the usage pattern
 299 determines who are interested in whose tags.
 300
 301 A one-shot pull is a sign that a commit history is now crossing
 302 the boundary between one circle of people (e.g. "people who are
 303 primarily interested in the networking part of the kernel") who may
 304 have their own set of tags (e.g. "this is the third release
 305 candidate from the networking group to be proposed for general
 306 consumption with 2.6.21 release") to another circle of people
 307 (e.g. "people who integrate various subsystem improvements").
 308 The latter are usually not interested in the detailed tags used
 309 internally in the former group (that is what "internal" means).
 310 That is why it is desirable not to follow tags automatically in
 311 this case.
 312
 313 It may well be that among networking people, they may want to
 314 exchange the tags internal to their group, but in that workflow
 315 they are most likely tracking each other's progress by
 316 having remote-tracking branches.  Again, the heuristic to automatically
 317 follow such tags is a good thing.
 318
 319
 320 On Backdating Tags
 321 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 322
 323 If you have imported some changes from another VCS and would like
 324 to add tags for major releases of your work, it is useful to be able
 325 to specify the date to embed inside of the tag object; such data in
 326 the tag object affects, for example, the ordering of tags in the
 327 gitweb interface.
 328
 329 To set the date used in future tag objects, set the environment
 330 variable GIT_COMMITTER_DATE (see the later discussion of possible
 331 values; the most common form is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM").
 332
 333 For example:
 334
 335 ------------
 336 $ GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2006-10-02 10:31" git tag -s v1.0.1
 337 ------------
 338
 339 include::date-formats.txt[]
 340
 341 SEE ALSO
 342 --------
 343 linkgit:git-check-ref-format[1].
 344 linkgit:git-config[1].
 345
 346 GIT
 347 ---
 348 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite