Create releases for old commits?

[GPBeta]

Hello everyone,

I just want to create tags for some old commits, so I tried to “create a new release” in the releases page of my repository.

However, in Target - Recent Commits drop-down menu, I couldn’t find the commits I wanted to tag with, only very few commits were listed.

So is it possible to create a release for a specified commit on Github?

Thank you for any help :)

[ThirdEyeRose]

Hi @gpbeta,

If you are unable to tag the commit that you want in the GitHub web interface, you can still tag the commit manually using the Git command line client. Then you can push that tag up to your GitHub repository and make a release based on that tag.

You can also create a tag using the GitHub API as long as you know the SHA of the object that you’re tagging.

Thanks!

[oezeb]

Great answer. Worked for me

[riskeez]

Check the better answer below by @Nixinova

[GPBeta]

Thank you for the solution, it solved my problem :slight_smile:

[ThirdEyeRose]

You’re very welcome, @gpbeta! I’m glad to hear it. :slight_smile:

[slaughter550]

Is it on the roadmap to fix this issue, to atleast allow for fuzzy searching? Seems clunky to have to go the API route for a commit more than a few days old.

[Friduric]

Looking forward to it!

[sandvige]

Hello,

We were also struggling with this limitation, but here is a workarround to manage to create a release on an old commit directly from Github.com : 

• Go on the commit direclty (https://github.com/xxx/yyy/commit/zzz)

• Click on the “Browse files” button (https://github.com/xxx/yyy/tree/zzz)

• Create a branch on this commit by hitting the “Tree” drop down, try to find an unexisting branch name, and create it

• Go on the release creation form, and instead of looking into the “recent commits”, find your freshly created branch

• Create your release

• Delete this temporary branch

Enjoy

[brianjmurrell]

Of course. But what a hassle to just create a release from a git hash.

[noadahlia]

Simple and fast. Tank you.

[Nixinova]

There seems to be support for a “target” URL query. Simply click “new release” and add ?target=<hash> to the URL.

[jotmaster]

This should be marked as the answer in my opinion. Thanks!

[brianjmurrell]

Well, it could be marked as a work-around. This really needs support in the existing UI.

[srl295]

@Nixinova that seemed like a great workaround, BUT even though the UI shows the from target=, the actual tag created is from the latest, so beware!!

[brianjmurrell]

Yes, this process is terribly cumbersome. I should be able to put any valid gitref into the Target not just a choice of branches and a half-dozen recent commits. It boggles my mind that even tags cannot be a Target value given that GA releases are often made from previous RC tags. I.e. release 2.0.0, tagged v2.0.0 would be made from v2.0.0-rc2 once v2.0.0-rc2 has been accepted as the GA release.

In fact there should be a specific workflow button on any release to create a new release from it. I.e. to promote a v2.0.0-rc2 pre-release to v2.0.0 (i.e. final) release.

[brianjmurrell]

This should be the accepted solution (well, workaround, really), IMHO.

[baldwindavid]

I would love to see this feature fixed to enable folks on our team that are involved with the release, but not with the repo or command line, to be able to specify and document a release. The feature is quite limited in that:

1. Nothing prior to a recent commit can be selected
2. Even for recent commits, a full SHA is not searchable

I would hope that one could copy a full or partial SHA from the commits list page, recent or not, and set it as the target.

[egvijayanand]

Allow searching the recent commits with at least the full SHA.

Just missed the threshold by 1 commit and now trying with all other cumbersome workarounds.

Fix this at the earliest. Either load more commits on demand when scrolled to the end or allow searching the commits with SHA.

Regards,
Vijay Anand E G

[goralczm]

The easiest solution I found is to change page source code to destinated commit hash.

1. Right click on one of the recent commits and select Inspect
2. Change commit hash to your wanted hash (as in image below)

[gkurz]

Worked for me ! Nice hack 😉

[mehdibadjian-dfs]

This definitely still work

[akira-kurogane]

Very nice workaround 👏 I was still able to use it today.

[andybeet]

Wondering if this is ever going to be addressed formally through GitHub releases page?