$ git rev-list --count v3.2..master 9651 $ git rev-list --count v3.3..master 6378 $ git describe --tags master v3.2-9651-ga018267 I would have expected to see v3.3-6378-ga018267, given the documentation: If multiple tags were found during the walk then the tag which has the fewest commits different from the input committish will be selected and output. Here fewest commits different is defined as the number of commits which would be shown by git log tag..input will be the smallest number of commits possible. What's going on here? The repository: https://bitbucket.org/petsc/petsc This repository currently uses only lightweight tags. As an experiment, I replaced both v3.2 and v3.3 with annotated tags, but it did not affect the 'git describe' output. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html