Switch to another Git tag

Question

Clone the repository as normal:

git clone git://github.com/rspec/rspec-tmbundle.git RSpec.tmbundle

Then checkout the tag you want like so:

git checkout tags/1.1.4

This will checkout out the tag in a 'detached HEAD' state. In this state, "you can look around, make experimental changes and commit them, and [discard those commits] without impacting any branches by performing another checkout".

To retain any changes made, move them to a new branch:

git checkout -b 1.1.4-jspooner

You can get back to the master branch by using:

git checkout master

Note, as was mentioned in the first revision of this answer, there is another way to checkout a tag:

git checkout 1.1.4

But as was mentioned in a comment, if you have a branch by that same name, this will result in git warning you that the refname is ambiguous and checking out the branch by default:

warning: refname 'test' is ambiguous.
Switched to branch '1.1.4'

The shorthand can be safely used if the repository does not share names between branches and tags.

As of Git v2.23.0 (August 2019), git switch is preferred over git checkout when you’re simply switching branches/tags. I’m guessing they did this since git checkout had two functions: for switching branches and for restoring files. So in v2.23.0, they added two new commands, git switch, and git restore, to separate those concerns. I would predict at some point in the future, git checkout will be deprecated.

To switch to a normal branch, use git switch <branch-name>. To switch to a commit-like object, including single commits and tags, use git switch --detach <commitish>, where <commitish> is the tag name or commit number.

The --detach option forces you to recognize that you’re in a mode of “inspection and discardable experiments”. To create a new branch from the commitish you’re switching to, use git switch -c <new-branch> <start-point>.