Tags: Marking What Matters

A real lightweight tag. A real, fully annotated release. Genuinely different objects.

A tag marks one specific real commit as meaningful, permanently — a beta milestone, a release, a point worth coming back to by name instead of by hash. git supports two genuinely different kinds: a real lightweight tag, which is nothing more than a named pointer exactly like a branch (just one that never moves), and a real annotated tag, which is its own actual object in the database — with a tagger, a date, and a real message, the same way a commit has an author and a message.\n\nv0.9-beta marks a real earlier milestone as a plain, lightweight pointer. v1.0.0, the real first stable release, gets the fully annotated treatment — because a release genuinely deserves a recorded reason, not just a name.

A Real Lightweight Tag

git tag v0.9-beta HEAD~3

Nothing but a real, named pointer at a specific commit — structurally identical to a branch, except it is never meant to move.

A Real, Fully Annotated Tag

git tag -a v1.0.0 -m "Version 1.0.0 - first stable release"

This creates a genuine, separate tag object in the database — with its own real tagger, date, and message — which then points at the commit. git show v1.0.0 displays both layers: the tag's own real message, then the commit it points to.

The Real Difference, Confirmed Directly

cat .git/refs/tags/v0.9-beta   # a plain commit hash
cat .git/refs/tags/v1.0.0      # a DIFFERENT hash — the real tag object, not the commit

A lightweight tag's ref file contains the commit's own hash directly. An annotated tag's ref file contains the hash of the real tag object instead — genuinely one more layer of indirection.

Sharing Real Tags

git push origin v0.9-beta v1.0.0

Tags are not included in a plain git push by default — they need to be pushed explicitly (or with --tags for all of them at once).

Lightweight tag

A real, named pointer directly at a commit — structurally the same as a branch, just one that is never meant to move. Confirmed directly in this lab: its ref file contains the commit's own hash.

Annotated tag

A genuine, separate object in git's database, with its own real tagger, date, and message, which then points at a commit. Confirmed directly in this lab: its ref file contains a different hash than the commit itself — the tag object's own hash.

🏷️ A Real Lightweight Tag

Mark an earlier real milestone with a plain, named pointer.

cd ~/team-recipes && git tag v0.9-beta HEAD~3

cd ~/team-recipes && git show v0.9-beta

cd ~/team-recipes && cat .git/refs/tags/v0.9-beta

student@lab:~$ cd ~/team-recipes && git tag v0.9-beta HEAD~3 student@lab:~$ cd ~/team-recipes && git show v0.9-beta commit 179d7d8b7f4307fa91f4c65614f459d48544da92 (tag: v0.9-beta) Author: Ada Lovelace <ada@example.com> Date: Fri Jan 2 21:50:00 2026 +0000 Add slow cooker chili recipe diff --git a/slow-cooker-chili.md b/slow-cooker-chili.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ebbcf0c --- /dev/null +++ b/slow-cooker-chili.md @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +Slow Cooker Chili + +Brown beef, add beans and tomatoes, simmer 6 hours. student@lab:~$ cd ~/team-recipes && cat .git/refs/tags/v0.9-beta 179d7d8b7f4307fa91f4c65614f459d48544da92

🎖️ A Real Annotated Release

The genuine first stable release deserves a recorded reason.

cd ~/team-recipes && git tag -a v1.0.0 -m 'Version 1.0.0 - first stable release of the team recipe collection'

cd ~/team-recipes && git show v1.0.0

student@lab:~$ cd ~/team-recipes && git tag -a v1.0.0 -m 'Version 1.0.0 - first stable release of the team recipe collection' student@lab:~$ cd ~/team-recipes && git show v1.0.0 tag v1.0.0 Tagger: Ada Lovelace <ada@example.com> Date: Mon Aug 24 19:38:36 2026 +0000 Version 1.0.0 - first stable release of the team recipe collection commit 85b4a6eeccd4d5babcb20db3c458b39c1850bf09 (HEAD -> master, tag: v1.0.0) Author: Ada Lovelace <ada@example.com> Date: Fri Jan 2 23:00:00 2026 +0000 Add freezer audit tip diff --git a/kitchen-tips.md b/kitchen-tips.md index 38071bb..63bb331 100644 --- a/kitchen-tips.md +++ b/kitchen-tips.md @@ -5,3 +5,5 @@ Preheat the oven before starting any bake recipe. Always preheat for at least 12 minutes before baking (see PR #142 for the oven latency testing behind this number). Let meat rest 5 minutes after cooking before slicing. + +Audit the freezer quarterly for freezer burn.

🔬 The Real Difference, Confirmed

One ref file holds a commit hash. The other holds something else entirely.

cd ~/team-recipes && cat .git/refs/tags/v1.0.0

cd ~/team-recipes && git cat-file -p v1.0.0

student@lab:~$ cd ~/team-recipes && cat .git/refs/tags/v1.0.0 4317c73bd869433a413219324e0c3017216fcb76 student@lab:~$ cd ~/team-recipes && git cat-file -p v1.0.0 object 85b4a6eeccd4d5babcb20db3c458b39c1850bf09 type commit tag v1.0.0 tagger Ada Lovelace <ada@example.com> 1787600316 +0000 Version 1.0.0 - first stable release of the team recipe collection

📤 Push the Real Tags

Tags need to be shared explicitly.

cd ~/team-recipes && git push origin v0.9-beta v1.0.0

student@lab:~$ cd ~/team-recipes && git push origin v0.9-beta v1.0.0 Enumerating objects: 345, done. Counting objects: 100% (345/345), done. Compressing objects: 100% (140/140), done. Writing objects: 100% (344/344), 31.40 KiB | 297.00 KiB/s, done. Total 344 (delta 120), reused 331 (delta 112), pack-reused 0 remote: Resolving deltas: 100% (120/120), done. To ../recipes-origin.git * [new tag] v0.9-beta -> v0.9-beta * [new tag] v1.0.0 -> v1.0.0

Lab 3.5.1 complete. A real lightweight tag and a real annotated release, genuinely different, both shared:\n\n\n v0.9-beta (lightweight): ✅ plain pointer\n v1.0.0 (annotated) : ✅ real, separate tag object\n Both pushed : ✅ on the remote\n

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