Git Tags: What Are They and How To Use Them

What are they used for, creating a local tag, how they are seen and how to delete them

Photo by Louie Martinez on Unsplash

In Git, a tag is a way to mark a specific point in the history of a repository. It is typically used to label important milestones or releases, such as a version, release or a major project update. They usually serve three key purposes:

1. Release versions: Tags are commonly used to mark specific versions of software releases. An example is a `v1.0` tag which can be used to represent the first official release of your software.
2. Stable points: Tags can mark stable points in the development process. This is useful when you want to highlight commits that are known to be stable and reliable, such as after completing a major feature to be released, or fixing critical bugs.
3. Documentation: Tags can serve as documentation markers. By tagging significant points in the project’s history you create references that can be used to understand and analyse the evolution of the codebase.

Local tags

When it comes to applying tags locally, Git provides two types of tags: lightweight tags and annotated tags.

Lightweight tags: These are simple pointers to specific commits. They are created…