Difference between an annotated and unannotated tag in GIT

In Git, there are two types of tags: annotated and lightweight (unannotated) tags. The main difference between these two types of tags is that annotated tags store additional metadata such as the tagger’s name, email, date, and an optional message, while lightweight tags are simply a pointer to a specific commit.

Annotated tags are created using the -a option with the git tag command, followed by a tag name, like this:

git tag -a v1.0 -m "Version 1.0 release"

This will create an annotated tag with the name v1.0 and a message “Version 1.0 release”. Annotated tags are useful when you need to store additional information about a particular version, such as release notes, changelogs, or signatures.

On the other hand, lightweight tags are created using the git tag command without any additional options or parameters. For example:

git tag v1.0

This will create a lightweight tag with the name v1.0. Lightweight tags are simply a pointer to a specific commit, and they don’t store any additional information.

In summary, the main differences between annotated and unannotated tags are:

• Annotated tags store additional metadata such as the tagger’s name, email, date, and an optional message, while lightweight tags are simply a pointer to a specific commit.
• Annotated tags are created using the -a option with the git tag command, while lightweight tags are created using the git tag command without any additional options or parameters.