Is there a simple command to convert a branch to a tag?
Sophia Terry 
I am about to complete a tedious process of converting "dumb snapshots" to git. This process has been going very well (thanks to this rename process), but now I realized that some of the branches that I created, do not merit a branch but rather a tag.
Since everything is still local (never pushed to a repository), I found this question (and associated answer) somewhat more cumbersome than I prefer, so I was wondering whether I can take a shortcut via some simple "convert-from-branch-to-tag" command?
Is there such a simple command to convert a branch to a tag?
(I know I can just leave it as is, but I really like the way gitk highlights tags, helping me easily identify them).
UPDATE: Thanks to @Andy's answer below, I managed to come up with a shell script that does it all conveniently and painlessly. I am sharing this script for the benefit of all and as special thanks to this great community who made moving from CVS to git possible for me:
#!/bin/sh
BRANCHNAME=$1
TAGNAME=$2
echo "Request to convert the branch ${BRANCHNAME} to a tag with the same name accepted."
echo "Processing..."
echo " "
git show-ref --verify --quiet refs/heads/${BRANCHNAME}
# $? == 0 means local branch with <branch-name> exists.
if [ $? == 0 ]; then git checkout ${BRANCHNAME} git tag ${BRANCHNAME} git checkout master git branch ${BRANCHNAME} -d echo " " echo "Updated list branches, sorted chronologically: " echo "---------------------------------------------- " git log --no-walk --date-order --oneline --decorate $(git rev-list --branches --no-walk) | cut -d "(" -f 2 | cut -d ")" -f 1
else echo "Sorry. The branch ${BRANCHNAME} does NOT seem to exist. Exiting."
fi3 Answers
The answers given are basically correct.
As tags and branches are just names for objects, there is a simpler way without touching current work area:
git tag <name_for_tag> refs/heads/<branch_name> # or just git tag <name_for_tag> <branch_name>
git branch -d <branch_name>Or even do it to remote server without touching local repository at all:
git push origin origin/<branch_name>:refs/tags/<tag_name>
git push origin :refs/heads/<branch_name>Was there separate development on these branches? (the post you linked to, doesn't appear to have development on those branches) If there was no development, you could:
- Checkout the branch
git checkout branchName. - Tag it with
git tag tagName. - Switch back to master
git checkout master. - Finally, delete original branch with
git branch branchName -d.
This can also be done if there was development on the branch, but you will need to use -D instead of -d. I'm not a git pro though, so not sure if that is an "acceptable" way to leave a branch.
Per Andy's answer, I've made an alias that can also be used for the same thing:
[alias]
branch2tag = "!sh -c 'set -e;git tag $1 refs/heads/$1;git branch -D $1' -"Usage
If you want to convert branch bug-2483 to a tag (while your main branch is master) write:
git branch2tag bug-2483 masterUPDATE 1
Changed to reflect the solution proposed by kauppi.
