2.1 KiB
Mark A Release With An Annotated Tag
There are two kinds of tags in Git -- lightweight tags and annotated tags.
The git-tag docs explain the distinction:
Annotated tags are meant for release while lightweight tags are meant for private or temporary object labels.
When an annotated tag is created, a tag object is created which has a creation timestamp, a "tagger" (who created it), a message, and potentially a signature if GPG commit signing is configured.
I can create an annotated tag for the HEAD commit like so:
❯ git tag -a v0.1.0 -m "Release v0.1.0"
I can then inspect what was created in a number of ways using git tag --list,
git show, git cat-file, and git log --show-signature.
❯ git tag --list
v0.1.0
❯ git show --no-patch v0.1.0
tag v0.1.0
Tagger: jbranchaud <jbranchaud@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2026 13:57:37 -0500
Release v0.1.0
commit 8a533ecfda526ebd1a4695639830f5620dd8572d (HEAD -> main, tag: v0.1.0, origin/main, origin/HEAD)
Author: jbranchaud <jbranchaud@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2026 12:51:41 -0500
Add changelog with v0.1.0 release changes documented
❯ git cat-file -t v0.1.0
tag
❯ git cat-file -p v0.1.0
object 8a533ecfda526ebd1a4695639830f5620dd8572d
type commit
tag v0.1.0
tagger jbranchaud <jbranchaud@gmail.com> 1785697057 -0500
Release v0.1.0
❯ git log --show-signature
commit 8a533ecfda526ebd1a4695639830f5620dd8572d (HEAD -> main, tag: v0.1.0, origin/main, origin/HEAD)
gpg: Signature made Sun Aug 2 13:57:09 2026 CDT
gpg: using RSA key B2570A9DA3E2A537781501B11A8656918A8D016B
gpg: Good signature from "jbranchaud <jbranchaud@gmail.com>" [ultimate]
Author: jbranchaud <jbranchaud@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2026 12:51:41 -0500
Add changelog with v0.1.0 release changes documented
...
This tag will be included in a push when I run either of the following:
❯ git push origin main
❯ git push origin v0.1.0
This tag, which is now tied to a release, can be seen at Releases / v0.1.0 on GitHub.
See man git-tag for more details.