I was reading the git tag and found this bit:
But if you have pushed things out (or others could just read your repository directly), then others will have already seen the old tag. In that case you can do one of two things:
- The sane thing. Just admit you screwed up, and use a different name. Others have already seen one tag-name, and if you keep the same name, you may be in the situation that two people both have "version X", but they actually have different "X"'s. So just call it "X.1" and be done with it.
- The insane thing. You really want to call the new version "X" too, even though others have already seen the old one. So just use git-tag -f again, as if you hadn't already published the old one.
I find it surprising that this has to be said in the documentation. The "sane" method is, to me, clearly the most obvious one. However, as Joel Spolsky once wrote of a "No Dogs Allowed" sign at a restaurant: "The real reason that sign is there is historical: it is a historical marker that indicates that people used to try to bring their dogs into the restaurant." So I suppose enough people have used or wanted to use the "insane" method for it to be mentioned.