How to sort git tags by version string order of form rc-X.Y.Z.W?

Question

When I enter a command:

git tag -l

I get such results:

rc-0.9.0.0
rc-0.9.0.1
rc-0.9.0.10
rc-0.9.0.11
rc-0.9.0.12
rc-0.9.0.2
rc-0.9.0.3
rc-0.9.0.4
rc-0.9.0.5
rc-0.9.0.6
rc-0.9.0.7
rc-0.9.0.8
rc-0.9.0.9

Instead of this I want:

rc-0.9.0.0
rc-0.9.0.1
rc-0.9.0.2
rc-0.9.0.3
rc-0.9.0.4
rc-0.9.0.5
rc-0.9.0.6
rc-0.9.0.7
rc-0.9.0.8
rc-0.9.0.9
rc-0.9.0.10
rc-0.9.0.11
rc-0.9.0.12

How it's possible to sort current list to get such results?

With Git 2.0, you will soon be able to do a `git tag -l --sort=version:refname "rc-*"`, and get the output you want. see [my answer below](http://stackoverflow.com/a/22634649/6309) — VonC, Mar 25 '14 at 12:30
Git 2.0 is out now, and all the answers below using 'sort' are no longer needed. [`--sort` is available for git tag](http://stackoverflow.com/a/22634649/6309) — VonC, Jun 18 '14 at 13:33

Robert Mutke · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-28T08:21:26.003

232

Use version sort

git tag -l | sort -V

or for git version >= 2.0

git tag -l --sort=v:refname
git tag -l --sort=-v:refname # reverse

edited Nov 28 '16 at 08:21

answered Jan 11 '13 at 07:29

Robert Mutke

2,757
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@miku please check! for me it does – Robert Mutke Jan 11 '13 at 07:35
6

The -V argument isn't available on the OS X(10.8)-provided version (5.93) of sort. :( – Julien Jan 03 '14 at 14:46
4

you can use homebrew or macports to install the gnu version of sort. `brew install gsort` then you can modify the line above to `git tag -l | gsort -V` and it should work for you. – Goran Feb 24 '14 at 13:16
6

I had to use `brew install coreutils` to get the `gsort` command. `brew install gsort` failed, saying there was no package called `gsort`. – nwinkler Mar 28 '14 at 06:46
No luck on msysgit either – cchamberlain May 28 '15 at 19:38
Now works with Git for Windows 2.0 (official replacement for msysGit, https://git-for-windows.github.io/), since it has updated GNU coreutils. – TalkLittle Nov 12 '15 at 05:57
debian based `sort` reverse sort option is `-r`, not -V – ssoto May 11 '16 at 11:39
2

@ssoto right, but it's about natural sorting of version numbers - not reverse sorting. – Robert Mutke May 13 '16 at 09:58
3

`sort -Vf` comes in really handy when you need case-insensitive. I know a big project tree that has `beta` and `RC` capitalization messed up in their tags. This causes `RC` to show up before `beta`. – lkraav Sep 05 '16 at 21:56
to get last five tags with desc sort ```git tag --sort=-v:refname | head -5``` – Georgy Gobozov Apr 09 '20 at 19:31
also, no pager `git --no-pager tag -l --sort=v:refname` – Alex Nolasco Jul 18 '23 at 13:38

VonC · Answer 2 · 2020-05-25T19:55:07.553

With Git 2.0 (June 2014), you will be able to specify a sorting order!

See commit b6de0c6, from commit 9ef176b, authored by Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy (pclouds):

 --sort=<type>

Sort in a specific order.
Supported type is:

"refname" (lexicographic order),

"version:refname" or "v:refname" (tag names are treated as versions).

Prepend "-" to reverse sort order.

So, if you have:

git tag foo1.3 &&
git tag foo1.6 &&
git tag foo1.10

Here is what you would get:

# lexical sort
git tag -l --sort=refname "foo*"
foo1.10
foo1.3
foo1.6

# version sort
git tag -l --sort=version:refname "foo*"
foo1.3
foo1.6
foo1.10

# reverse version sort
git tag -l --sort=-version:refname "foo*"
foo1.10
foo1.6
foo1.3

# reverse lexical sort
git tag -l --sort=-refname "foo*"
foo1.6
foo1.3
foo1.10

Since commit b150794 (by Jacob Keller, git 2.1.0, August 2014), you can specific that default order:

tag.sort

This variable controls the sort ordering of tags when displayed by git-tag.
Without the "--sort=<value>" option provided, the value of this variable will be used as the default.

robinst comments:

the version sort order can now (Git 2.1+) be configured as default:

git config --global tag.sort version:refname

As noted by Leo Galleguillos in the comments:

To configure Git to show newest tags first (descending order), just add a hyphen before version.
The command becomes:
git config --global tag.sort -version:refname

With Git 2.4 (Q2 2015), the versionsort.prerelease configuration variable can be used to specify that v1.0-pre1 comes before v1.0.

See commit f57610a by Junio C Hamano (gitster).

^{Note (see below) versionsort.prereleaseSuffix is now (2017) a deprecated alias for versionsort.suffix.}

git 2.7.1 (February 2016) will improve the output of git tag itself.

See commit 0571979 (26 Jan 2016), and commit 1d094db (24 Jan 2016) by Jeff King (peff).
^{(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit 8bad3de, 01 Feb 2016)}

tag: do not show ambiguous tag names as "tags/foo"

Since b7cc53e (tag.c: use 'ref-filter' APIs, 2015-07-11), git tag has started showing tags with ambiguous names (i.e., when both "heads/foo" and "tags/foo" exists) as "tags/foo" instead of just "foo".
This is both:

pointless; the output of "git tag" includes only refs/tags, so we know that "foo" means the one in "refs/tags".

and ambiguous; in the original output, we know that the line "foo" means that "refs/tags/foo" exists. In the new output, it is unclear whether we mean "refs/tags/foo" or "refs/tags/tags/foo".

The reason this happens is that commit b7cc53e switched git tag to use ref-filter's "%(refname:short)" output formatting, which was adapted from for-each-ref. This more general code does not know that we care only about tags, and uses shorten_unambiguous_ref to get the short-name.
We need to tell it that we care only about "refs/tags/", and it should shorten with respect to that value.

let's add a new modifier to the formatting language, "strip", to remove a specific set of prefix components.
This fixes "git tag", and lets users invoke the same behavior from their own custom formats (for "tag" or "for-each-ref") while leaving ":short" with its same consistent meaning in all places.

If strip=<N> is appended, strips <N> slash-separated path components from the front of the refname (e.g., %(refname:strip=2) turns refs/tags/foo into foo.
<N> must be a positive integer.
If a displayed ref has fewer components than <N>, the command aborts with an error.

For git tag, when unspecified, defaults to %(refname:strip=2).

Update Git 2.12 (Q1 2017)

See commit c026557, commit b178464, commit 51acfa9, commit b823166, commit 109064a, commit 0c1b487, commit 9ffda48, commit eba286e (08 Dec 2016) by SZEDER Gábor (szeder).
^{(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit 1ac244d, 23 Jan 2017)}

versionsort.prereleaseSuffix is a deprecated alias for versionsort.suffix.

The prereleaseSuffix feature of version comparison that is used in "git tag -l" did not correctly when two or more prereleases for the same release were present (e.g. when 2.0, 2.0-beta1, and 2.0-beta2 are there and the code needs to compare 2.0-beta1 and 2.0-beta2).

@TeaBee true, I have edited the answer accordingly, since Git 2.0 is released now. — VonC, Jun 04 '14 at 19:45
With Git 2.1.0, the version sort order can now be configured as default: `git config --global tag.sort version:refname` — robinst, Aug 24 '14 at 07:26
@robinst Good point, thank you. I have included it in the answer, with a link to the git commit which introduced that feature. — VonC, Aug 24 '14 at 07:34
It would be worth explaining why this is better than `sort -V`. The only advantage I see is portability to systems that don't have GNU sort. But if you have it `| sort -V` golfs better. The thing is: this sort method does not use any Git-specific information (unlike e.g. topological order of object pointed to as in http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6900328/git-command-to-show-all-lightweight-tags-creation-dates) — Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com, Apr 27 '15 at 06:58
@CiroSantilli六四事件法轮功 I agree. I prefer the `git tag --sort` method though. — VonC, Apr 27 '15 at 07:06
Interestingly, it understands both `customtext-1.1.0` and `1.1.0-customtext`. Sorts both flawlessly, assuming you just choose one format. Not really sure if it will work if you mix it, though I think it as a bad idea ;) — Ardee Aram, Jul 03 '15 at 00:46
To configure git to show newest tags first (descending order), just add a hyphen before `version`. The command becomes: `git config --global tag.sort -version:refname` — Leo Galleguillos, May 25 '20 at 19:49
@LeoGalleguillos Thank you. I have included your comment in the answer for more visibility. — VonC, May 25 '20 at 19:55

score 20 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 06 '18 at 16:14

20

Combining the answers already here:

Local repository

git -c 'versionsort.suffix=-' tag --list --sort=-v:refname

suffix=- will prevent 2.0-rc coming "after" 2.0
--sort=- will put the highest version number at the top.

Remote repository

git -c 'versionsort.suffix=-' ls-remote -t --exit-code --refs --sort=-v:refname "$repo_url" \
    | sed -E 's/^[[:xdigit:]]+[[:space:]]+refs\/tags\/(.+)/\1/g'

The advantage of this is that no objects are downloaded from the remote.

For more info see this answer.

answered Oct 06 '18 at 16:14

Tom Hale

40,825
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Very interesting use of `versionsort.suffix`. +1. – VonC Oct 06 '18 at 18:45
`ls-remote --sort` is not supported in **Git < 2.0**. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/68390720/658497 how to workaround. – Noam Manos Jul 15 '21 at 09:26
Can you hard code `--sort=-v:refname` as a default in your local config somehow? – red888 Dec 01 '21 at 21:17

score 12 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

12

According to this answer, on platforms which don't support sort -V like Windows and OSX, you can use

git tag -l | sort -n -t. -k1,1 -k2,2 -k3,3 -k4,4

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community

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answered Jun 18 '14 at 10:21

Cédric

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@Ovi-WanKenobi you need to run it on Cygwin (or mingw) shell. – Cédric Nov 16 '18 at 07:55

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 15 '17 at 21:39

2

To get a reverse sorting with the sort -V approach:

git tag -l | sort -V --reverse

answered Mar 15 '17 at 21:39

modle13

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score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 09 '14 at 17:09

1

Adapt this perl script, which sorts tags that look like client_release/7.2/7.2.25, to your specific tagging scheme.

answered Feb 09 '14 at 17:09

David Tonhofer

14,559
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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 05 '14 at 21:21

1

I ended up writing a simple shell script to simplify this task.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

TAGS=$(git tag)
CODE=$?

if [ $CODE = 0 ]; then
    echo "$TAGS" | sort -V
fi

exit $CODE

I saved that as git-tags in my $PATH and run git tags whenever I need to list tags.

answered Jun 05 '14 at 21:21

Kevin Herrera

2,941
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git tag | sort -V ; exit $PIPESTATUS – luxigo Jan 24 '17 at 10:35

SReza S · Answer 8 · 2021-08-07T09:41:13.103

1

If you're on Linux and using ZSH; Simply use gtl command. It should be predefined as an Alias for you.

Alias code:
gtl='gtl(){ git tag --sort=-v:refname -n -l "${1}*" }; noglob gtl'

edited Aug 07 '21 at 09:41

answered Aug 07 '21 at 09:05

SReza S

151
1
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score -1 · Answer 9 · answered Feb 11 '22 at 06:52

-1

try list for special formate with last one

git tag -l --sort=refname | grep -E '^\d+\.\d+\.\d+.*' | tail -n 1

or first one

git tag -l --sort=refname | grep -E '^\d+\.\d+\.\d+.*' | head -n 1

answered Feb 11 '22 at 06:52

Wei

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How to sort git tags by version string order of form rc-X.Y.Z.W?

9 Answers9

`tag`: do not show ambiguous tag names as "`tags/foo`"

Local repository

Remote repository

Linked

How to sort git tags by version string order of form rc-X.Y.Z.W?

9 Answers9

tag: do not show ambiguous tag names as "tags/foo"

Local repository

Remote repository

Linked

`tag`: do not show ambiguous tag names as "`tags/foo`"