If I want to tag the current commit. I know both of the following command lines work:
git tag <tagname>
and
git tag -a <tagname> -m '<message>'
What is the difference between these commands?
The difference between the commands is that one provides you with a tag message while the other doesn't. An annotated tag has a message that can be displayed with git-show(1), while a tag without annotations is just a named pointer to a commit.
According to the documentation: "To create a lightweight tag, don’t supply any of the -a, -s, or -m options, just provide a tag name". There are also some different options to write a message on annotated tags:
git tag <tagname>
, Git will create a tag at the current revision but will not prompt you for an annotation. It will be tagged without a message (this is a lightweight tag).git tag -a <tagname>
, Git will prompt you for an annotation unless you have also used the -m flag to provide a message.git tag -a -m <msg> <tagname>
, Git will tag the commit and annotate it with the provided message.git tag -m <msg> <tagname>
, Git will behave as if you passed the -a flag for annotation and use the provided message.Basically, it just amounts to whether you want the tag to have an annotation and some other information associated with it or not.