How To: Tag versions - Navigate
related commands:
checkout tag
Tags
Tagging is usefull to identify versions, branch start or all others ideas you will have.
Put a tag to the current HEAD is realy simple:
$ git tag <tagname>
that’s it!
You can also add a message with the tag:
$ git tag <tagname> -m "message"
If you want to delete a tag, it’s as easy as create it:
$ git tag -d <tagname>
And list all tags in a branch is simpler:
$ git tag
Navigation
Now you can easly navigate between tags, start branches or try changes with the next command (branches will be explain in next posts.).
$ git checkout <tagname>
If you configured the hist alias as described in the first post, you will be able to see all tags in the output. Usefull, isn’t it?
What happend when you use git checkout? Let’s see a short example. The repository can be described with this “schematic”:
HEAD (refers to 'master')
|
v
a --- b --- c 'master' (refers to c)
^
|
tag 'v1' (refers to b)
Work in progress, a new commit is added:
$ edit; git add; git commit;
HEAD (refers to 'master')
|
v
a --- b --- c --- d 'master' (refers to d)
^
|
tag 'v1' (refers to b)
But something is wrong, or a new idea should be try on ‘v1’. Then:
$ git checkout v1 # or
$ git checkout b
HEAD (refers to b)
|
v
a --- b --- c --- d 'master' (refers to d)
^
|
tag 'v1' (refers to b)
You can work exacly as if you where at HEAD
$ edit; git add; git commit;
HEAD (refers to e)
|
v
e
/
a --- b --- c --- d 'master' (refers to d)
^
|
tag 'v1' (refers to b)
$ edit; git add; git commit;
HEAD (refers to f)
|
v
e --- f
/
a --- b --- c --- d 'master' (refers to d)
^
|
tag 'v1' (refers to b)
but remember, all your commits (here e and f) would be lost if you move with git checkout to anywhere else. In fact, Git create a “temporary” branch for your new commits.
To keep the new commits, you can use when you still are at f:
$ git tag <tagname>
or explicitly create a new branch, as you will learn it soon.
Reminder
checkout
Go to a previous commit
$ git checkout <hash>
Go to a tag
$ git checkout <tag>
Go back to last commit
$ git checkout # or $ git checkout master
Go back to
HEADfor a file$ git checkout <file>
tag
Add a tag to
HEAD$ git tag <tagname>
Add a tag to a specific commit
$ git tag <tagname> <hash>
Delete a tag
$ git tag -d <tagname>
List all branch tags
$ git tag