I didn't get back the latest tag by 'git describe --tags --always' if I have two tags on the same commit. // repository ppa:git-core/ppa (master)⚡ % cat /etc/lsb-release DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.04 DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS" (master)⚡ % git --version git version 2.11.0 (master) [1] % git show-ref --tag 76c634390... refs/tags/1.0.0 b77c7cd17... refs/tags/1.1.0 b77c7cd17... refs/tags/1.2.0 (master) % git describe --tags --always 1.1.0-1-ge9e9ced ### Expected: 1.2.0 References: https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/RelNotes-1.7.1.1.txt * "git describe" did not tie-break tags that point at the same commit correctly; newer ones are preferred by paying attention to the tagger date now. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8089002/git-describe-with-two-tags-on-the-same-commit Thanks, Istvan Pato