tag already exists in the remote error after recreating the git tag

Question

I get the following error after I run the steps below   To git provider com username repo-name git     rejected         dev - gt  dev  already exists  error  failed to push some refs to  git provider com username repo-name git  hint  Updates were rejected because the tag already exists in the remote     Created the repository Cloned the repo on the local machine  Modified the README file  commited the changes and pushed the commit  Created tag dev  git tag dev Pushed tags  git push --tags Modified the README file  commited the changes and pushed the commit  Deleted tag dev   created it again and pushed tags   git tag -d dev git tag dev git push --tags    Why is this happening   I am on Mac  My friends that use Linux  Ubuntu  don t have this problem  I know that I can use git push --tags -f to force the tag update  but this is dangerous  e g  rewriting a commit made by mistake only in the tag  not in the branch

User · Answer

It seems that I m late on this issue and or it has already been answered  but  what could be done is   in my case  I had only one tag locally so   I deleted the old tag and retagged it with   git tag -d v1 0 git tag -a v1 0 -m  My commit message    Then   git push --tags -f   That will update all tags on remote    Could be dangerous  Use at own risk

User · Answer

Edit  24 Nov 2016  this answer is apparently popular  so I am adding a note here   If you replace a tag on a central server  anyone who has the old tag   any clone of that central-server repository that already has the tag   could retain its old tag   So while this tells you how to do it  be really sure you want to do it   You ll need to get everyone who already has the  wrong  tag to delete their  wrong tag  and replace it with the new  right tag    Testing in Git 2 10 2 11 shows that retaining the old tag is the default behavior for clients running git fetch  and updating is the default behavior for clients running git fetch --tags    Original answer follows      When you ask to push tags  git push --tags sends  along with any commits and other objects needed and any other ref updates from the push settings  to the remote an update request of the form new-sha1 refs tags name    Well  it sends however many  one of those for each tag    The update request is modified by the remote to add an old-sha1  or again  one for each tag   then delivered to the pre-receive and or update hooks  whichever hooks exist on the remote    Those hooks can decide whether to allow or reject the tag create delete update   The old-sha1 value is the all-zeros  null  SHA-1 if the tag is being created   The new-sha1 is the null SHA-1 if the tag is being deleted   Otherwise both SHA-1 values are real  valid values   Even with no hooks  there s a sort of  built-in hook  that is also run  the remote will refuse to move a tag unless you use the  force  flag  though the  built-in hook  is always OK with both  add  and  delete     The rejection message you re seeing is coming from this built-in hook    Incidentally  this same built-in hook also rejects branch updates that are not fast-forwards  1  But   here s one of the keys to understanding what s going on   the git push step has no idea whether the remote has that tag now  and if so  what SHA-1 value it has   It only says  here s my complete list of tags  along with their SHA-1 values    The remote compares the values and if there are additions and or changes  runs the hooks on those    For tags that are the same  it does nothing at all   For tags you don t have that they do  it also does nothing    If you delete the tag locally  then push  your push simply does not transfer the tag   The remote assumes no change should be made   If you delete the tag locally  then create it pointing to a new place  then push  your push transfers the tag  and the remote sees this as a tag-change and rejects the change  unless it s a force-push   Thus  you have two options    do a force-push  or delete the tag on the remote    The latter is possible via git push2 even though deleting the tag locally and pushing has no effect   Assuming the name of the remote is origin  and the tag you want it to delete is dev   git push origin  refs tags dev   This asks the remote to delete the tag   The presence or absence of the tag dev in your local repository is irrelevant  this kind of push  with  remoteref as a refspec  is a pure-delete push   The remote may or may not allow tag deletion  depending on any extra hooks added    If it allows the deletion  then the tag will be gone  and a second git push --tags  when you have a local dev tag pointing to some commit or annotated tag repo object  send your new dev tag   On the remote  dev will now be a newly created tag  so the remote will probably allow the push  again this depends on any extra hooks added    The force-push is simpler   If you want to be sure not to update anything other than the tag  just tell git push to push only that one refspec   git push --force origin refs tags dev refs tags dev    note  you don t need --tags if you re explicitly pushing just one tag ref-spec      1Of course  the reason for this built-in hook is to help enforce the behavior that other users of that same remote-repo expect  that branches are not rewound  and tags do not move   If you force-push  you should let the other users know you are doing this  so that they can correct for it   Note that  tags don t move at all  is newly enforced by Git 1 8 2  previous versions would allow the tag to  move forward  in the commit graph  much like branch names   See the git 1 8 2 release notes   2It s trivial if you can log in on the remote   Just go to the Git repository there and run git tag -d dev   Note that either way   deleting the tag on the remote  or using git push to delete it   there s a period of time when anyone who accesses the remote will find that the dev tag is missing    They will continue to have their own old tag  if they already have it  and they might even push their old tag back up before you can push the new one

User · Answer

It s quite simple if you re using SourceTree    Basically you just need to remove and re-add the conflicting tag    Go to tab Repository -  Tag -  Remove Tag Select the conflicting tag name Check Remove tag from all remotes Press Remove Create new tag with the same name to the proper commit Make sure to check Push all tags when pushing your changes to remote

User · Answer

The reason you are getting rejected is that your tag lost sync with the remote version  This is the same behaviour with branches   sync with the tag from the remote via git pull --rebase  lt repo url gt   refs tags  lt TAG gt  and after you sync  you need to manage conflicts  If you have a diftool installed  ex  meld  git mergetool meld use it to sync remote and keep your changes   The reason you re pulling with --rebase flag is that you want to put your work on top of the remote one so you could avoid other conflicts   Also  what I don t understand is why would you delete the dev tag and re-create it    Tags are used for specifying software versions or milestones  Example of git tags v0 1dev  v0 0 1alpha  v2 3-cr cr - candidate release  and so on      Another way you can solve this is issue a git reflog and go to the moment you pushed the dev tag on remote  Copy the commit id and git reset --mixed  lt commmit id from reflog gt  this way you know your tag was in sync with the remote at the moment you pushed it and no conflicts will arise

User · Answer

In Mac SourceTree only deselect the Push all tags checkbox

User · Answer

Some good answers here  Especially the one by  torek  I thought I d add this work-around with a little explanation for those in a rush    To summarize  what happens is that when you move a tag locally  it changes the tag from a non-Null commit value to a different value  However  because git  as a default behavior  doesn t allow changing non-Null remote tags  you can t push the change    The work-around is to delete the tag  and tick remove all remotes   Then create the same tag and push

User · Answer

In Windows SourceTree  untick Push all tags to remotes

User · Answer

If you want to UPDATE a tag  let s say it 1 0 0   git checkout 1 0 0 make your changes git ci -am  modify some content  git tag -f 1 0 0 delete remote tag on github  git push origin --delete 1 0 0 git push origin 1 0 0   DONE

[git] “tag already exists in the remote" error after recreating the git tag

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