This command creates an annotated tag that records a version identifier and metadata for marking significant points in your project's history.
The -a
flag instructs Git to build an annotated tag object, capturing author information, date, and a message; <version_number>
names the tag; Git then opens your default editor so you can enter a descriptive tag message before attaching it to the current HEAD
commit.
Closely related variations include using -m
to supply the message inline (e.g. git tag -a <version_number> -m "Release notes"
), or -s
to create a PGP-signed annotated tag; you can create a lightweight tag without metadata by omitting -a
(i.e. git tag <version_number>
). Other complementary commands are git push origin --tags
to send tags to a remote, git tag -d <version_number>
to delete a tag, and git show <version_number>
to display tag details.
Example:
git tag -a 2.0.1