Replace remote tag with Git

Question

I have some tags on my "origin" repository. Then I realized I needed to add some changes on one of the tags, and push them back on my repository. Is there a way I can push an existing tag to the repository in one time, or should I delete the tag before ?

Solution 1

So if you need to move a tag (eg: "v0.5") on a git branch (eg: "master") to a different commit, probably a newer one, then you can use the -f option to git tag:

-f
--force

Replace an existing tag with the given name (instead of failing)

You probably want to use -f in conjunction with -a to force-create an annotated tag instead of a non-annotated one.

Example

1. Delete the tag on any remote before you push

   git push origin :refs/tags/<tagname>
   

   or for our example:

   $ git push origin master :refs/tags/v0.5
   To [email protected]:org_name/repo_name.git
   - [deleted]         v0.5
   

2. Replace the tag to reference the most recent commit (using -f will save as the git tag -d <tagname> local tag deletion step).

   git tag -fa <tagname>
   

   or for our example:

   $ git tag -fa "v0.5" -m "version 0.5"
   Updated tag 'v0.5' (was f55c93f)
   

3. Push the tag to the remote origin

   git push origin --tags
   

   or for our example:

   $ git push origin master --tags
   Counting objects: 1, done.
   Writing objects: 100% (1/1), 196 bytes | 0 bytes/s, done.
   Total 1 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
   To [email protected]:org_name/repo_name.git
   * [new tag]         v0.5 -> v0.5
   

Solution 2

This should not be the practice, though you can delete the tag and push the change to the remote repo.

git tag -d tag1
git push origin :refs/tags/tag1

Solution 3

Assuming newtag is the new tag and oldtag is the old tag. Simply do:

# Create new tag that points to the same of old tag
git tag newtag oldtag

# Remove oldtag
git tag -d oldtag

# Remove oldtag in remote machine
git push --delete origin oldtag

# Propapate newtag to remote machine
git push --tags

Solution 4

I'm not sure I understand your question, but it sounds like it would be simplest to delete the tag, push your change, then re-add the tag...

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Comments

[cyqsimon]

Also git push --delete origin tag1. See here