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Contents

  • Objectives
  • Tasks
  • Exercises
    • Task 1: Create a Tag
    • Task 2: Create a Zenodo account and link it to GitHub
    • Task 3: Create a GitHub Release and mint a DOI
  • Slides
  • Resources

Git: Tags & Releases

Starts at:

Friday, 15:30

Objectives

💡 You understand why Git Tags matter in version control and project management.
💡 You know the difference between lightweight and annotated tags and how to apply them.
💡 You can push and pull tags to a remote repository (e.g., GitHub).
💡 You understand how GitHub releases complement Git Tags.
💡 You can use Zenodo to archive your repository and make your work citable.

Tasks

In this session, you will work on the following tasks:

  1. Reading: Read the chapter(s) Tags & Releases in the Version Control Book.
  2. Implementation: Try out the commands in the chapter.
  3. Exercises: Work on the exercises.

As always:

  1. Try out the commands of this session and play around with them.
  2. Check whether you have achieved the learning objectives.
  3. Ask questions!

Exercises

Task 1: Create a Tag

  1. Preparation: Clean-up your repo, merge any changes that you still want to integrate.
  2. Publish your repo: Go to “Settings”, click “General”, scroll down and change repository visibility.
  3. Create an annotated tag on the main branch in your my-project repo named v1.0.0.
  4. Push the tag to GitHub.

Task 2: Create a Zenodo account and link it to GitHub

  1. Create a Zenodo account by visiting the Zenodo website and signing up.
  2. Link your GitHub account to Zenodo.
  3. Go to the GitHub section in the Zenodo sandbox and enable syncing your my-project repository.

Task 3: Create a GitHub Release and mint a DOI

  1. Go to your repository on GitHub.
  2. Click on “Releases” then “Draft a new release”.
  3. Choose the tag v1.0.0 from the list.
  4. Fill in the release title and description.
  5. Click “Publish release”.
  6. Go to the GitHub section in the Zenodo sandbox and look at your DOI.

Slides

NoteHow can I download the slides as a PDF file?

To export the slides to PDF, do the following:

  1. Toggle into Print View using the E key (or using the Navigation Menu).
  2. Open the in-browser print dialog (CTRL/CMD+P).
  3. Change the Destination setting to Save as PDF.
  4. Change the Layout to Landscape.
  5. Change the Margins to None.
  6. Enable the Background graphics option.
  7. Click Save.

Note: This feature has been confirmed to work in Google Chrome, Chromium as well as in Firefox.

Here’s what the Chrome print dialog would look like with these settings enabled:

These instructions were copied from the Quarto documentation (MIT License) and slightly modified.

Resources

  • Version Control Book: Tags & Releases
  • Zenodo – Open-access repository for research outputs
  • GitHub Docs: About releases
  • Making Your Code Citable by GitHub

© 2026 Dr. Lennart Wittkuhn

 

License: CC BY 4.0