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HTML rendering created 2026-01-16 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | CONFIGURATION | DISCUSSION | DATE FORMATS | FILES | CONFIGURATION | NOTES | SEE ALSO | GIT | COLOPHON |
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GIT-TAG(1) Git Manual GIT-TAG(1)
git-tag - Create, list, delete or verify tags
git tag [-a | -s | -u <key-id>] [-f] [-m <msg> | -F <file>] [-e]
[(--trailer <token>[(=|:)<value>])...]
<tagname> [<commit> | <object>]
git tag -d <tagname>...
git tag [-n[<num>]] -l [--contains <commit>] [--no-contains <commit>]
[--points-at <object>] [--column[=<options>] | --no-column]
[--create-reflog] [--sort=<key>] [--format=<format>]
[--merged <commit>] [--no-merged <commit>] [<pattern>...]
git tag -v [--format=<format>] <tagname>...
Add a tag reference in refs/tags/, unless -d/-l/-v is given to
delete, list or verify tags.
Unless -f is given, the named tag must not yet exist.
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> or --trailer <token>[=<value>] is given
and -a, -s, and -u <key-id> are absent, -a is implied.
Otherwise, a tag reference that points directly at the given
object (i.e., a lightweight tag) is created.
A cryptographically signed tag object will be created when -s or
-u <key-id> is used. The signing backend (GPG, X.509, SSH, etc.)
is controlled by the gpg.format configuration variable, defaulting
to OpenPGP. When -u <key-id> is not used, the committer identity
for the current user is used to find the key for signing. The
configuration variable gpg.program is used to specify a custom
signing binary.
Tag objects (created with -a, -s, or -u) are called "annotated"
tags; they contain a creation date, the tagger name and e-mail, a
tagging message, and an optional cryptographic signature. Whereas
a "lightweight" tag is simply a name for an object (usually a
commit object).
Annotated tags are meant for release while lightweight tags are
meant for private or temporary object labels. For this reason,
some git commands for naming objects (like git describe) will
ignore lightweight tags by default.
-a, --annotate
Make an unsigned, annotated tag object
-s, --sign
Make a cryptographically signed tag, using the default signing
key. The signing backend used depends on the gpg.format
configuration variable. The default key is determined by the
backend. For GPG, it’s based on the committer’s email address,
while for SSH it may be a specific key file or agent identity.
See git-config(1).
--no-sign
Override tag.gpgSign configuration variable that is set to
force each and every tag to be signed.
-u <key-id>, --local-user=<key-id>
Make a cryptographically signed tag using the given key. The
format of the <key-id> and the backend used depend on the
gpg.format configuration variable. See git-config(1).
-f, --force
Replace an existing tag with the given name (instead of
failing)
-d, --delete
Delete existing tags with the given names.
-v, --verify
Verify the cryptographic signature of the given tags.
-n<num>
<num> specifies how many lines from the annotation, if any,
are printed when using -l. Implies --list.
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, --list
List tags. With optional <pattern>..., e.g. git tag --list
'v-*', list only the tags that match the pattern(s).
Running git tag without arguments also lists all tags. The
pattern is a shell wildcard (i.e., matched using fnmatch(3)).
Multiple patterns may be given; if any of them matches, the
tag is shown.
This option is implicitly supplied if any other list-like
option such as --contains is provided. See the documentation
for each of those options for details.
--sort=<key>
Sort based on the key given. Prefix - to sort in descending
order of the value. You may use the --sort=<key> option
multiple times, in which case the last <key> becomes the
primary key. Also supports "version:refname" or "v:refname"
(tag names are treated as versions). The "version:refname"
sort order can also be affected by the "versionsort.suffix"
configuration variable. The keys supported are the same as
those in git for-each-ref. Sort order defaults to the value
configured for the tag.sort variable if it exists, or
lexicographic order otherwise. See git-config(1).
--color[=<when>]
Respect any colors specified in the --format option. The
<when> field must be one of always, never, or auto (if <when>
is absent, behave as if always was given).
-i, --ignore-case
Sorting and filtering tags are case insensitive.
--omit-empty
Do not print a newline after formatted refs where the format
expands to the empty string.
--column[=<options>], --no-column
Display tag listing in columns. See configuration variable
column.tag for option syntax. --column and --no-column
without options are equivalent to always and never
respectively.
This option is only applicable when listing tags without
annotation lines.
--contains [<commit>]
Only list tags which contain <commit> (HEAD if not specified).
Implies --list.
--no-contains [<commit>]
Only list tags which don’t contain <commit> (HEAD if not
specified). Implies --list.
--merged [<commit>]
Only list tags whose commits are reachable from <commit> (HEAD
if not specified).
--no-merged [<commit>]
Only list tags whose commits are not reachable from <commit>
(HEAD if not specified).
--points-at [<object>]
Only list tags of <object> (HEAD if not specified). Implies
--list.
-m <msg>, --message=<msg>
Use <msg> (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>, --file=<file>
Take the tag message from <file>. Use - to read the message
from the standard input. Implies -a if none of -a, -s, or -u
<key-id> is given.
--trailer <token>[(=|:)<value>]
Specify a (<token>, <value>) pair that should be applied as a
trailer. (e.g. git tag --trailer "Custom-Key: value" will add
a "Custom-Key" trailer to the tag message.) The trailer.*
configuration variables (git-interpret-trailers(1)) can be
used to define if a duplicated trailer is omitted, where in
the run of trailers each trailer would appear, and other
details. The trailers can be extracted in git tag --list,
using --format="%(trailers)" placeholder.
-e, --edit
Let further edit the message taken from file with -F and
command line with -m.
--cleanup=<mode>
Set how the tag message is cleaned up. The <mode> can be one
of verbatim, whitespace and strip. The strip mode is default.
The verbatim mode does not change message at all, whitespace
removes just leading/trailing whitespace lines and strip
removes both whitespace and commentary.
--create-reflog
Create a reflog for the tag. To globally enable reflogs for
tags, see core.logAllRefUpdates in git-config(1). The negated
form --no-create-reflog only overrides an earlier
--create-reflog, but currently does not negate the setting of
core.logAllRefUpdates.
--format=<format>
A string that interpolates %(fieldname) from a tag ref being
shown and the object it points at. The format is the same as
that of git-for-each-ref(1). When unspecified, defaults to
%(refname:strip=2).
<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.
<commit>, <object>
The object that the new tag will refer to, usually a commit.
Defaults to HEAD.
By default, git tag in sign-with-default mode (-s) will use your
committer identity (of the form Your Name <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 = <key-id>
The signing backend can be chosen via the gpg.format configuration
variable, which defaults to openpgp. See git-config(1) for a list
of other supported formats.
The path to the program used for each signing backend can be
specified with the gpg.<format>.program configuration variable.
For the openpgp backend, gpg.program can be used as a synonym for
gpg.openpgp.program. See git-config(1) for details.
pager.tag is only respected when listing tags, i.e., when -l is
used or implied. The default is to use a pager.
See git-config(1) for more details and other configuration
variables.
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’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’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’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’s tree, you are most likely
using remote-tracking branches (eg. refs/remotes/origin/master).
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’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’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
The GIT_AUTHOR_DATE and GIT_COMMITTER_DATE environment variables
support the following date formats:
Git internal format
It is <unix-timestamp> <time-zone-offset>, where
<unix-timestamp> is the number of seconds since the UNIX
epoch. <time-zone-offset> is a positive or negative offset
from UTC. For example CET (which is 1 hour ahead of UTC) is
+0100.
RFC 2822
The standard date 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. Fractional parts of a second will be
ignored, for example 2005-04-07T22:13:13.019 will be treated
as 2005-04-07T22:13:13.
Note
In addition, the date part is accepted in the following
formats: YYYY.MM.DD, MM/DD/YYYY and DD.MM.YYYY.
$GIT_DIR/TAG_EDITMSG
This file contains the message of an in-progress annotated
tag. If git tag exits due to an error before creating an
annotated tag then the tag message that has been provided by
the user in an editor session will be available in this file,
but may be overwritten by the next invocation of git tag.
Everything below this line in this section is selectively included
from the git-config(1) documentation. The content is the same as
what’s found there:
tag.forceSignAnnotated
A boolean to specify whether annotated tags created should be
GPG signed. If --annotate is specified on the command line, it
takes precedence over this option.
tag.sort
This variable controls the sort ordering of tags when
displayed by git-tag. Without the --sort=<value> option
provided, the value of this variable will be used as the
default.
tag.gpgSign
A boolean to specify whether all tags should be GPG signed.
Use of this option when running in an automated script can
result in a large number of tags being signed. It is therefore
convenient to use an agent to avoid typing your GPG passphrase
several times. Note that this option doesn’t affect tag
signing behavior enabled by -u <keyid> or --local-user=<keyid>
options.
When combining multiple --contains and --no-contains filters, only
references that contain at least one of the --contains commits and
contain none of the --no-contains commits are shown.
When combining multiple --merged and --no-merged filters, only
references that are reachable from at least one of the --merged
commits and from none of the --no-merged commits are shown.
git-check-ref-format(1). git-config(1).
Part of the git(1) suite
This page is part of the git (Git distributed version control
system) project. Information about the project can be found at
⟨http://git-scm.com/⟩. If you have a bug report for this manual
page, see ⟨http://git-scm.com/community⟩. This page was obtained
from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/git/git.git⟩ on 2026-01-16. (At that time,
the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2026-01-15.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
Git 2.53.0.rc0 2026-01-15 GIT-TAG(1)
Pages that refer to this page: git(1), git-config(1), git-describe(1), git-merge(1), git-replace(1), git-var(1), giteveryday(7), gittutorial-2(7), gittutorial(7)
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HTML rendering created 2026-01-16 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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