What are GIT Tags? Types, Benefits, Commands, and More!

Clarity in codebases can help you maintain your projects efficiently. If you're facing issues in finding and identifying various pieces of code, then it might become a lengthy procedure to complete projects. That's where GIT tags are helpful.

GIT tags are like bookmarks you use to point out specific codes, or code histories in a repository's history. It is often called code labeling in databases and is always fixed to a particular commit. Meanwhile, you can point out the codes in the repository history and check them for updates whenever you want to without investing time in finding them.

See more about what are GIT tags, their types, benefits, and much more below.

Types of GIT Tags: Lightweight and Annotated

GIT version control tags are divided considering their efficiency and information richness behavior. These tags are of two types that differ in structure and storage: Lightweight tags and Annotated tags.

Let's explore them in detail one by one.

Lightweight GIT Tags

Meet the simplest form of GIT tags which serve as bookmarks and consume less storage space. That's because you don't need to add any additional information using these tags. Only identify the specific points and label them.

These types of tags are used when you don't want to add quiet information and use minimal storage spaces to promote great efficiency and speed of your project development.

How to Create Lightweight GIT Tags?

Creating a lightweight GIT tag is very simple only you need to perform a few steps.

And here these are:

1.   Open the GIT repository you want to tag by using the "git tag" command and navigating the directory

2.   Identify the commit to be tagged by using the "git log" tag. For each commit, the identifier is unique which is often called "hash" in technical language

3.   Now, make a lightweight GIT tag here using the "git tag" command followed by the particular commit hash and tag name

For example, if you are creating a v2.0.0 lightweight tag for a particular commit with the hash 547268193betcfgh, here's how you will create it.

git tag v1.0.0 123456789abcdefg

Annotated GIT Tags

Annotated tags are more in-depth or elaborated ones compared to lightweight tags. They consume high storage spaces because they store additional information alongside the commit reference. The information might be about the author, specific messages, embedded data, verification signatures, and more.

These tags are mostly used in larger projects to manage complex databases. In fact, these tags are highly useful in such projects where multiple developers are working at the same moment. Upon every change, you can add a detailed record about the tagged commit to avoid confusion later.

Read also: How GIT Version Control System Can Help You Ensure Higher Success in Project Development?

How to Create Annotated GIT Tags?

The procedure for creating annotated git tags is slightly different from lightweight tags. The beginning steps are the same, but you need to use different commands after opening the repository.

Here's how you do it.

1.   Open the GIT repository where you are going to tag a particular commit by using the prompt command

2.   Identify the specific commit using the "git log" command and don't forget to check the "hash" unique identifier.

3.   Create the annotated tag using the "git tag" command with –a flag, the commit name, and the hash as we have done it lightweight git tag. Only you need to add one more thing which is the –m flag. It will allow you to add a message alongside.

For example, this is how you do it.

git tag -a v2.0.0 987612543edfgyha -m "Release version 2.0.0 with more features and bug fixes."

Pay attention – To check whether your tags are created or not, verify them using the "git tag" command which displays the whole list of newly made tags.

Lightweight Tags vs Annotated Tags: Which One is the Best?

Both Lightweight and Annotated git tags are essential to use in databases. They help you in several ways in streamlining your whole project. But it depends upon the situation and needs that which tag is right for you.

Let's see how both tag types perform for different features.

Storage Consuming

Lightweight tags consume minimal storage space because you don't add any additional information alongside the references. In contrast, annotated tags consume large storage because you add messages and additional author information, and embed other important notes for detailed referencing.

Use Cases

Lightweight tags are useful when your purpose is only to label or bookmark any code in your codebase for better referencing and to avoid finding it again and again. Annotated tags on the other hand used for detailed version tracking, adding proper referencing notes, fixing bugs, security audits, code verification, and deployments.

Repository Availability

Both Lightweight and Annotated git tags are available for public and private repositories.

Additional Information

You cannot add additional information such as detailed referencing using lightweight tags. But you can do this when adding annotated tags to your codebase using -a and -m flags.

The bottom line is that both Lightweight Git tags and Annotated Git tags are used for different purposes. It depends on your needs and which tag is right for you. If your purpose is to only label the codes, use lightweight tags. While, if you want to promote detailed referencing, go for the annotated git tags.

Benefits of Using GIT Tags in Repositories

There are a lot of benefits to using git tags in public and private repositories during your project's development. But we have mentioned only the core benefits that you'll actually find essential for your project.

Have a deep look at them.

Easy Bookmarking

GIT tags allow you to label and bookmark specific codes in your project's database. You can go to your repository and find out the codes which are frequently used for various purposes. Label them with lightweight or annotated tags, so you don't need to find them again and again.

Code Tracking

As GIT tags help label codes in your database, tracking becomes easier. Just go to your repository's history and add a prompt command to find out the desired code. You can make quick changes and improve codes without getting into any complexity.

Code Verifications

GIT has introduced a great feature that you can use lightweight or annotated tags in code security audits for code verification. And yes, it's good by the way because the auditor ensures that the code that is being audited is the same code you're using in the production. This is how your auditor ensures that you are editing the latest database version, not an older one.

Compatibility Check

You will have different versions of your project's codebase, and it's difficult to verify that each existing code is showing great compatibility with the latest version. GIT tags are helpful at this point. They can help you check whether your codes are showing compatibility with new features without disturbing your codebase.

Bugs Fixing

As GIT tags can help you track codes, changes, and histories in your database, so you can easily label disturbing codes and reach them directly using prompt commands in your repositories. You can leave them after bookmarking if you are not going to resolve them now.

Otherwise, you can fix them just after finding them by following a few simple steps. That's all.

Code Deployment

If multiple developers are working on the same project's database, the chances of confusion are there. GIT tag can be a beneficial feature at this moment because with its help you can ensure the right code version is deployed to the database.

Read also: What is GitLab? Its Features and Everything Else to Know

GIT Tags vs Branches: Differences and When to Use Them

Git tags and git branches both are essential tools or features you can use to make code deployment better in your database and speed up the overall project development procedure.

Git tags are used to mark specific codes in your databases, while git branches represent parallel development lines in your repository. You can work on new features, fix bugs, and do other experiments without disturbing your actual database in branches. If your changes are essential, you can merge them with the original database.

It depends on your purpose and specific context that which feature is your priority choice. If you want to go with marking desired codes in the database, go with the git tags. Otherwise, promote branching and merging if you want to apply various changes, and do experiments.

That's how is a tag different from a branch in Git.

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Conclusion

The above article was all about what are git tags and how they work. We discussed the benefits of git tags, lightweight and annotated types, different commands, methods of implementation, ways to best practice them, and much more. Moreover, we also discussed how RemotePlatz can help you hire the best GIT developers.

FAQs

Where to find Git tags?

Use the "git tag" command in your GIT repository to find the list of tags you have implemented in your codebase.

Are Git tags per branch?

No, git tags are not per branch. In fact, they are associated with specific commits in your codebase.

Can Git tags be deleted?

Yes, you can delete git tags anytime using this command "git tag -d"

Why use tags in Git?

Git tags are used to bookmark or label important points in your databases such as versions, checkpoints, releases, and more.

Do Git tags merge?

No, git tags do not merge like branches. While they remain fixed to the commit they are assigned or referenced.