Jenkins Git Plugin: Git Describe Cannot Describe Anything

I am using the Git Plugin of Jenkins ans use Douglas Creager's get_git_version script. This uses git describe to get some sensible version for python modules. Usually this creates

Solution 1:

Regarding tags (as described in "Git Tip of the Week: Tags")

If no annotated tags are found then it will print fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything. To allow describe to use non-annotated tags, run with git describe --tags. It’s also possible to get it to describe against a branch using git describe --all, although this only makes sense if the branch is known remotely.

So it is possible that your current repo against which the Git Plugin is doing a simple git describe doesn't contain any annotated tag (which explains why a checkout of a tip of a branch doesn't solve the issue: this isn't about a DETACHED HEAD situation)

You need to clone the repo, including the tags.

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Actually, the OP Jasper Van Den Bosch reports:

I wasn't pushing the tags correctly

No tags pushed, means Jenkins doesn't get those tags when updating its own clone, means the git describe cannot work properly.

Solution 2:

git describe doesn't work until you have a tag (preferable an annotated tag) in the history before what is currently checked out.

/tmp/repo$ git describe
fatal: No names found, cannot describe anything.
/tmp/repo$ git tag foo
/tmp/repo$ git describe
fatal: No annotated tags can describe'14d827c72b2f277a5cd3e65e7b0e0502edc58fa3'.
However, there were unannotated tags: try --tags./tmp/repo$ git tag -a 'annotated-tag'-m 'whatever'/tmp/repo$ git describe
annotated-tag