GIT-MKTAG(1) Git Manual GIT-MKTAG(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

git-mktag - Creates a tag object with extra validation

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

```
git mktag
```

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

Reads a tag’s contents on standard input and creates a tag object. The output is the new tag’s <object> identifier.

This command is mostly equivalent to [**git-hash-object**(1)](/man/os/git/git-hash-object.1) invoked with **-t** **tag** **-w** **--stdin**. I.e. both of these will create and write a tag found in **my-tag**:

```
git mktag <my-tag
git hash-object -t tag -w --stdin <my-tag
```

The difference is that mktag will die before writing the tag if the tag doesn’t pass a [**git-fsck**(1)](/man/os/git/git-fsck.1) check.

The "fsck" check done by mktag is stricter than what [**git-fsck**(1)](/man/os/git/git-fsck.1) would run by default in that all **fsck.&lt;msg-id&gt;** messages are promoted from warnings to errors (so e.g. a missing "tagger" line is an error).

Extra headers in the object are also an error under mktag, but ignored by [**git-fsck**(1)](/man/os/git/git-fsck.1). This extra check can be turned off by setting the appropriate **fsck.&lt;msg-id&gt;** variable:

```
git -c fsck.extraHeaderEntry=ignore mktag <my-tag-with-headers
```

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

--strict

By default mktag turns on the equivalent of [**git-fsck**(1)](/man/os/git/git-fsck.1) **--strict** mode. Use **--no-strict** to disable it.

# [TAG FORMAT](#TAG_FORMAT)

A tag signature file, to be fed to this command’s standard input, has a very simple fixed format: four lines of

```
object <hash>
type <typename>
tag <tagname>
tagger <tagger>
```

followed by some *optional* free-form message (some tags created by older Git may not have a **tagger** line). The message, when it exists, is separated by a blank line from the header. The message part may contain a signature that Git itself doesn’t care about, but that can be verified with gpg.

# [GIT](#GIT)

Part of the [**git**(1)](/man/os/git/git.1) suite

2026-09-28 Git 2.56.0.1.gaef21129

---

Document: git-mktag(1) from git 2.56.0-r2 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://kernel.googlesource.com/pub/scm/git/git.git