Question

When I tag versioned code in git, I like using bullet points in the tag message.

This can easily be done with annotated tags:

git tag -a v1.0.0

* Change number 1
* Change number 2
#
# Write a tag message
#

However, if I attempt the same tag with the -m option, the tag message is not what I expect:

git tag -a v1.0.0 -m "* Change number 1\n* Change number 2"

git show v1.0.0

...

* Change number 1\n* Change number 2
....

The ‘\n’ was interpreted literally as the characters ‘\’ and ‘n’ instead of a newline. I want to use the -m option so that I can automate the tagging process.

Is there any way to include actual newline characters using git tag with the -m option?

Answer 1

The closest solution I found is to use multiple -m options, one for each line. For example:

git tag -a v1.0.0 -m "* Change number 1" -m "* Change number 2"

from git-tag man page:

-m <msg>
   Use the given tag message (instead of prompting). If multiple
   -m options are given, their values are concatenated as separate
   paragraphs. (...)

UPDATE: Check “Add line break to git commit -m from command line” for more shell-based solutions.