Re: gitk: visually indicate whether a tag exists on a remote

From: Chris Torek <chris.torek@gmail.com>
Date: Jul 9, 2025, 08:45 UTC
Message-ID: <CAPx1Gvd+XwN1YbbTiVCM-6rSr=9o5mB+T-=c8x5gpLkUp_hZ8A@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAEWUs4gEsASB3Fog2Zc5tEfACPURjHPqaS6e2XNWj0i50O-e5Q@mail.gmail.com>

On Wed, Jul 9, 2025 at 1:37 AM Adi Shavit <adishavit@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

> When browsing history in **gitk**, I often need to know whether a tag I
> see on a commit was:
>
>   * fetched from a remote (and therefore shared with collaborators), or
>   * created only in my local repository and not yet pushed.

This information is not (currently) available in Git.

> For branches this distinction is obvious because gitk lists local and
> remote-tracking branch heads separately.  Tags, however, are shown in a
> single list, so a locally added tag and one fetched from –‐say–‐
> `origin` look identical.

They not only look identical, they *are* identical*.

To make these show up separately, you would have to do at least one of the following:

 * collect information from the remote in gitk itself (run `git ls-remote`); or
 * collect information from the remote during `git fetch`

The latter would be possible by adding the concept of "remote tags" to Git, but this is a pretty big change (not technically difficult but probably controversial).

Chris