How to rename a tag already pushed to a remote git repo

Here’s a quick git tip that i end up searching each time i need to do it. So i’m posting this here. There’s plenty of times i’ve added a tag, pushed to remote and realised that i’d named it wrong. Eg. 1.59 instead of 1.49 . To change it back you would need to add a new tag and push it,

$> git tag new_tag old_tag
$> git push --tags

Total 0 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
To git@github.com:some.git
     * [new tag]         new_tag -> new_tag

Then delete the old tag from remote and local

$> git push origin :refs/tags/old_tag
$> git tag -d old_tag

But remember this can screw around with other people local repositories if they’ve already pulled before you make the change. So be careful!

28 responses

This has worked like a charm. Thank you! I have seen some other people dealing with this on the Net with variable success, but your post is short and explains exactly what to do without unnecessary patronizing.

— giorno

I recommend having other developers run thhis to delete their local tags refetch all tags from the remote: git tag -l | xargs git tag -d git fetch Stolen from: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1841341/remo...

— kdeenanauth

Thanks, worked like a charm!

— Denomon

Thanks! It worked.

— Randhir Yadav

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How to rename a tag already pushed to a remote git repo