Git: rename tag keeping original date

Question

In this question How do you rename a Git tag? instructions are given to rename an old tag.

I'd like to know it these steps will keep the original date in the edited tag in place.

For example, in my git repo the git tag command shows:

v0.1
v1.0.0-beta

and Github shows:

enter image description here

I want to update the old v0.1 tag to a more descriptive v1.0.0-alpha (which also follows the Semantic Versioning guidelines) but I'd also like to keep the original date (4 Dec 2013) in place.

Is this possible using the commands given in the answer to the question mentioned above? These would be the commands in my case as I understand:

git tag v1.0.0-alpha v0.1
git tag -d v0.1
git push origin :refs/tags/v0.1
git push --tags

possible duplicate of [How do you rename a Git tag?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1028649/how-do-you-rename-a-git-tag) — Oleg Estekhin, Apr 10 '15 at 08:31

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 24 '14 at 23:35

3

Just went ahead and tried, it does keep the date in place.

answered Aug 24 '14 at 23:35

Gabriel

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3

The date is derived from the commit to which the tag refers -- hence it's not changed. – krlmlr Apr 10 '15 at 17:07
1

@krlmlr This is not true for annotated tags. If the tag has a description, the date will likely be changed. – Stevoisiak Mar 15 '18 at 15:24
@StevenVascellaro it will "likely" be changed, depending on what? – Gabriel Mar 15 '18 at 16:00
@Stevoisiak - Just verified with Github that the tag date is not changed. This worked liked a charm! – Code Doggo Jan 04 '22 at 05:41

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 07 '22 at 21:42

In our repository I noticed that one of our older releases had an incorrect version tag. The name was v.1.28.0 instead of v1.28.0. I wanted to correct the issue without somehow messing up the GitHub release.

These are the steps I did to correct it:

check out the incorrect tag, e.g. git checkout v.1.28.0
create a temporary branch, e.g. git checkout -b release/v1.28.0
push the temporary branch, e.g. git push -u origin release/v1.28.0
edit the release in GitHub, change the tag name and point it to the temporary branch
save the changes on GitHub
check out a different branch, e.g. git checkout develop
remove the temporary branch, e.g. git branch -d release/v1.28.0
remove the old incorrect tag, e.g. git tag -d v.1.28.0

Git: rename tag keeping original date

2 Answers2