update-to-tag

Last updated: September 2, 2025

The update-to-tag command applies sequential changes to your database from the newest changeset to the changeset with the tag you specified and applied earlier.

Uses

The update-to-tag command is mainly used to apply changes sequentially, starting with the changesets from the top of the changelog file until the specified tag is reached. Even though there are other undeployed changes in the changelog, the command deploys only the changesets associated with a specific tag.

Command behavior

You must specify a tag with the tagDatabase Change Type in your changelog file for update-to-tag to work. The default behavior is:

  • If you specify tagDatabase in your changelog, update-to-tag deploys all changesets up to that tag.

  • If you omit tagDatabase from your changelog, update-to-tag deploys all changes.

  • If you misspell the tag from tagDatabase when you run the command, update-to-tag deploys all changes.

By default, if Liquibase cannot find your tag, it displays the following message:

The tag 'noexist' was not found in the changelog 'changelog.xml'. All changesets in the changelog were deployed.

In Liquibase 4.30.0 and later, you can set the --strict parameter to true to ensure that Liquibase requires you to specify a valid tag before running the command. If --strict=true and Liquibase cannot find your tag, it halts the update and displays the following message:

liquibase.exception.LiquibaseException: Command execution tag testTag does not match with any changeSet tag

Before running this command, it is best practice to run the tag-exists command to check whether your tag syntax is correct. It is also a best practice to copy and paste the name of the tag into the CLI so that you are less likely to misspell it.

Note: You cannot use the update-to-tag command with reference to a tag created in the DATABASECHANGELOG table using the tag command.

The following image shows that if you run the update-to-tag command with the tag version1, which should be specified in the changelog file as a tagDatabase changeset, Liquibase will deploy createTable A, createTable B, and version1 without deploying createTable C.

DATABASECHANGELOG table

Note: Currently, the tagDatabase Change Type is not supported in formatted SQL changelogs. The supported formats are XML, YAML, and JSON. If you have a root XML changelog that includes formatted SQL files, you can apply a changeset with a tag between the formatted SQL files.

*Liquibase will check the changelog and any nested changelogs for definitions of the changesets to update.

Note: The username and password attributes are not required for connections and systems that use alternate means of authentication. Also, you can specify database credentials as part of the url attribute.

XML changelog example with applied change types
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<databaseChangeLog
  xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext"
  xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd">
  <changeSet author="liquibase-docs" id="createTable-example a">
    <createTable catalogName="sample"
		remarks="A String"
		schemaName="public"
		tableName="person"
		tablespace="A String">
      <column name="address" type="varchar(255)"/>
    </createTable>
  </changeSet>
  <changeSet author="liquibase-docs" id="createView-example">
    <createView catalogName="sample"
		encoding="UTF-8"
		fullDefinition="true"
		path="A String"
		relativeToChangelogFile="true"
		remarks="A String"
		replaceIfExists="false"
		schemaName="public"
		viewName="v_person">select id, name from person where id > 10
	</createView>
  </changeSet>
  <changeSet author="liquibase-docs" id="tagDatabase-example">
    <tagDatabase tag="version1"/>
  </changeSet>
  <changeSet author="liquibase-docs" id="createTable-example b">
    <createTable catalogName="sample"
		remarks="A String"
		schemaName="public"
		tableName="person"
		tablespace="A String"
		
      <column name="address" type="varchar(255)"/>
    </createTable>
  </changeSet>

Additionally, it is best practice to run the update-to-tag-sql helper command to inspect the update-to-tag SQL, so you can correct any issues that may arise before running the command.

In Liquibase Secure 4.25.1 and later, you can automatically generate a database Update Report summarizing this command.

Syntax

To run the update-to-tag command, specify the driver, classpath, and URL in the Liquibase properties file. You can also specify these properties in your command line.

Then run the update-to-tag command:

liquibase update-to-tag --tag=myTag --changelog-file=example-changelog.xml

Note: The --tag=myTag syntax was added in Liquibase 4.4. If you use an older version, specify your tag as a positional argument: <command> myTag.

Command parameters

Attribute

Definition

Requirement

--changelog-file=<string>

The root changelog

Required

--tag=<string>

The tag identifies which tagged changesets in the changelog to evaluate. Specify as --tag=myTag. Positional format <command> <tag> deprecated in 4.4+.

Required

--url=<string>

The JDBC database connection URL.

Required

--change-exec-listener-class=<string>

Fully-qualified class which specifies a ChangeExecListener. For more information, see Implementing a Custom ChangeExecListener Class with Liquibase and ChangeExecListenerCommandStep.

Optional

--change-exec-listener-properties-file=<string>

Path to a properties file for the ChangeExecListener class. For more information, see Implementing a Custom ChangeExecListener Class with Liquibase and ChangeExecListenerCommandStep.

Optional

--context-filter=<string>

Specifies the changeset contexts to match. Contexts are tags you can add to changesets to control which changesets are executed in any particular migration run.

Note: If you use Liquibase 4.23.0 or earlier, use the syntax --contexts instead of --context-filter.

Optional

--default-catalog-name=<string>

Name of the default catalog to use for the database connection

Optional

--default-schema-name=<string>

Name of the default schema to use for the database connection. If defaultSchemaName is set, then objects do not have to be fully qualified. This means you can refer to just mytable instead of myschema.mytable.

Note: In Liquibase 4.12.0 and later, you can use mixed-case schema names if you set --preserve-schema-case to true. However, in Liquibase 4.12.0–4.22.0, the Liquibase validator still throws an DatabaseException error if you specify a mixed-case value of defaultSchemaName. In 4.23.0 and later, the Liquibase validator accepts any casing.

Optional

--driver=<string>

The JDBC driver class

Optional

--driver-properties-file=<string>

The JDBC driver properties file

Optional

--force-on-partial-changes=<true|false>

Liquibase Pro only. Use this argument only if you are specifying --rollback-on-error=true to automatically roll back update operations containing errors. --force-on-partial-changes=true specifies whether Liquibase rolls back partially invalid changesets, such as a changeset containing two changes: one with an error and one without an error. This ensures that you can successfully roll back all changes if a deployment has an error, even if the changeset contains multiple changes. Available in Liquibase 4.25.0+. Default: false. See also: failOnError.

Optional

--label-filter=<string>

Specifies the changeset labels to match. Labels are tags you can add to changesets to control which changesets will be executed in any migration run.

Optional

--password=<string>

Password to connect to the target database.

Optional

--report-enabled=<true|false>

Enables a report at the command level. Overrides the global parameter --reports-enabled. Default: true.

Optional

--report-name=<string>

Specifies the name of the report file at the command level. Overrides the global parameter --reports-name. By default, Liquibase generates a new report file labeled with a timestamp (user's local time). If you set a custom name, Liquibase overwrites the existing file every time you generate a new report. Default: report-<DD-Mon-YYYY-HHmmss>.html.

Optional

--report-path=<string>

Specifies the file path to the report file at the command level. Overrides the global parameter --reports-path. Default: ./.

Optional

--report-suppress-exception=<true|false>

Liquibase 4.31.0+. Specifies whether to hide exceptions (which may contain SQL) from the operation report at the command level. Overrides the global parameter --reports-suppress-exception. Default: false. However:

If --report-suppress-exception is not set and --report-suppress-sql=true, Liquibase suppresses all SQL, including exception SQL.

If --report-suppress-exception=false and --report-suppress-sql=true, Liquibase suppresses most SQL but shows exception SQL.

Optional

--report-suppress-sql=<true|false>

Liquibase 4.31.0+. Specifies whether to hide changeset SQL in operation reports at the command level. Overridden by the global parameter --reports-suppress-sql. Default: false.

Optional

--rollback-on-error=<true|false>

Liquibase Pro only. If any changeset in a deployment fails, --rollback-on-error stops the update operation and rolls back all changesets you just deployed. Available in Liquibase 4.18.0+. Default: false.

Note: A changeset marked failOnError=false does not trigger as an error, so rollback-on-error will not occur. Additionally, if a changeset is not auto-rollback compliant or does not have a rollback script, then rollback-on-error does not occur for any changeset. Read more: failOnError.

Optional

--show-summary=<string>

Liquibase 4.24.0+. Produces a summary list of any changesets skipped and why they were skipped. Valid values are OFF, SUMMARY, and VERBOSE. In Liquibase Pro, SUMMARY and VERBOSE provide additional information about failed deployments. Default: SUMMARY.

Note: Liquibase may display one or multiple reasons for halting deployment of a changeset. If Liquibase cannot resolve a halting reason, it does not evaluate the changeset for other possible halting reasons.

Optional

--show-summary-output=<string>

Liquibase 4.24.0+. Summary output to report update summary results. Valid values are LOG, CONSOLE, and ALL. If set to LOG, the --show-summary output is sent to the file specified in --log-file. If set to CONSOLE, the --show-summary output is sent to STDOUT. If set to ALL, the --show-summary output is sent to both locations. Default: ALL.

Optional

--username=<string>

Username to connect to the target database.

Optional

Output

Liquibase Version: 4.9.1 Liquibase Community 4.9.1 by Liquibase Running Changeset: example-changelog.sql::1::your.name Running Changeset: example-changelog.sql::2::your.name Running Changeset: example-changelog.sql::3::other.dev Liquibase command 'update-to-tag' was executed successfully.