---
name: "git-mktag"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "git"
version: "2.56.0-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/git-mktag"
---

# git-mktag(1)

Creates a tag object with extra validation

## NAME

git-mktag - Creates a tag object with extra validation

## SYNOPSIS

```
git mktag
```

## 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)](/git-hash-object/1.md) 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)](/git-fsck/1.md) check.

The "fsck" check done by mktag is stricter than what [**git-fsck**(1)](/git-fsck/1.md) would run by default in that all **fsck.***\<msg-id\>* 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)](/git-fsck/1.md). This extra check can be turned off by setting the appropriate **fsck.***\<msg-id\>* variable:

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

## OPTIONS

- \--strict

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

## 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

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