Maven tag

Last updated: November 18, 2025

The Maven tag goal marks the current database state so you can roll back or deploy changes in the future.

Uses

The Maven tag goal is typically used to mark the current database state by adding the tag to the last row of the DATABASECHANGELOG table.

Liquibase tag operations

When you run the tag goal and use the tagDatabase Change Type in your changelog file, and they do not match each other, you will have the following:

  • If this is the first row in the DATABASECHANGELOG table, a Liquibase internal row is added to the DATABASECHANGELOG table with the tag name specified when you ran the tag goal with the liquibase.tag attribute.

  • If this is not the first row in the DATABASECHANGELOG table, the last row in the DATABASECHANGELOG table is updated to include the tag name specified when you ran the tag goal with the liquibase.tag attribute.

  • If this is not the first row in the DATABASECHANGELOG table and the last row in the DATABASECHANGELOG table already has a tag, a new tagDatabase row is added to the DATABASECHANGELOG table.

Liquibase update to tag operations

If you want to make an update to a specific tag using the liquibase.toTag attribute, it will work only if there is a tagDatabase Change Type in the changelog:

  • When a Liquibase tagDatabase When a changeset is deployed from the changelog, it adds a new row to the DATABASECHANGELOG table, which will have the tag name specified in the changeset.

  • When liquibase.toTag is configured, and there is a row in the DATABASECHANGELOG table corresponding to the tagDatabase changeset in the changelog, the update goal deploys all objects up to and including the tagDatabase changeset.

  • When liquibase.toTag is configured, and there is no matching tagDatabase changeset specified in the changelog, the update goal deploys all changesets that are not excluded by labels, contexts, dbms, and others.

Liquibase rollback by tag operations

When a Liquibase tag changeset is deployed from the changelog and the liquibase.rollbackTag attribute is configured with a value matching the tag in the changeset, the rollback goal removes all changes that come after the tag changeset. It also rolls back the tag changeset.

When you run liquibase.rollbackTag with the tag specified only by using the tag goal with the liquibase.tag attribute, the rollback command will revert all your changesets after the tag you specify.

Note: It is best practice to tag your changesets before running any other commands against your database.

Maven configuration

You can configure Liquibase Maven in multiple ways. You can pass arguments like <changeLogFile> in Maven directly in your pom.xml file, in a liquibase.properties file referenced in your POM, as environment variables, or as JVM system properties. To learn about each files syntax, see Maven Properties.

For more information about the Maven configuration, see Configuring Maven.

Additionally, you can include <liquibase.tag>specify your tag here</liquibase.tag> in your pom.xml file under the <properties></properties> in the <project></project> level.

Running the tag Maven goal

Running the tag goal requires a Maven project to be implemented. To run the goal, type the following in your command prompt:

mvn liquibase:tag -Dliquibase.tag=myTag

Attribute

Definition

liquibase.tag

The tag you can add to changesets to determine which changesets in the changelog to evaluate based on their tags. The text to write to the DATABASECHANGELOG.

Attribute

Definition

liquibase.changeLogDirectory

Specifies the path to the directory where Liquibase can find your changelog file.

liquibase.changelogCatalogName

Specifies the catalog Liquibase will use to create your changelog tables.

liquibase.changelogSchemaName

Specifies the schema Liquibase will use to create your changelog tables.

liquibase.clearCheckSums

Boolean. Forces checksums to be cleared from the DATABASECHANGELOG table. Default value is: false.

liquibase.databaseChangeLogLockTableName

Specifies the table name to use for the DATABASECHANGELOG table.

liquibase.databaseChangeLogTableName

Specifies the table name to use for the DATABASECHANGELOG table.

liquibase.databaseClass

Specifies the database object class.

liquibase.defaultCatalogName

Specifies the default catalog name to use for the database connection.

liquibase.defaultSchemaName

Specifies the default schema name to use for the database connection.

liquibase.driver

Specifies the driver class name to use for the database connection.

driverPropertiesFile

Specifies the location of a JDBC connection properties file which contains properties the driver will use.

liquibase.emptyPassword

Deprecated. Boolean. Use an empty or null value for the password instead. Default value is: false.

expressionVariables

Specifies a map-based collection of changelog properties to apply.

expressionVars

Specifies a property-based collection of changelog properties to apply.

liquibase.includeArtifact

Boolean. Includes a Maven project artifact in the class loader, which obtains the Liquibase properties file and changelog files. Default value is true.

liquibase.includeTestOutputDirectory

Boolean. Includes the Maven test output directory in the class loader which obtains the Liquibase properties file and changelog files. Default value is true.

liquibase.licenseKey

Specifies your Liquibase Secure license key.

liquibase.outputDefaultCatalog

Boolean. Specifies whether to ignore the catalog or database name. Default value is: false.

liquibase.outputDefaultSchema

Boolean. Specifies whether to ignore the schema name. Default value is: false.

liquibase.outputFileEncoding

Indicates that you want to set the character encoding of the output file during the updateSQL phase.

liquibase.password

Specifies the database password for the database connection.

liquibase.promptOnNonLocalDatabase

Deprecated. Boolean. Controls whether users are prompted before executing changesets to a non-local database. Default value is: true.

liquibase.propertyFile

Specifies the Liquibase properties file to use for configuration, like liquibase.properties.

liquibase.propertyFileWillOverride

Boolean. Indicates that you want the liquibase.properties file to override any settings provided in the Maven plugin configuration. By default, if a property is explicitly specified, it is not overridden if it also appears in the properties file. Default value is: false.

liquibase.propertyProviderClass

Specifies the property provider, which must be a java.util.Properties implementation.

liquibase.server

Specifies the server ID in the Maven settings.xml to use when authenticating.

liquibase.skip

Boolean. Specifies whether to skip running Liquibase. The use of this attribute is not recommended but can be used when needed. Default value is: false.

systemProperties

Specifies a list of system properties you want to pass to the database.

liquibase.url

Specifies the database URL you want to use to execute Liquibase.

liquibase.username

Specifies the database username for the database connection.

liquibase.verbose

Boolean. Controls the amount of output detail when you call the plugin. Default value is: false.

Maven tag output

When successful, the tag Maven goal produces the following output:

[INFO] Scanning for projects... [INFO] [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Building liquibase-app 1.0-SNAPSHOT [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] [INFO] --- liquibase-commercial-maven-plugin:3.9.0:tag (default-cli) @ liquibase-app --- [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Parsing Liquibase Properties File [INFO] File: liquibase.properties [INFO] 'referencePassword' in properties file is not being used by this task. [INFO] 'changeLogFile' in properties file is not being used by this task. [INFO] 'referenceUrl' in properties file is not being used by this task. [INFO] 'referenceUsername' in properties file is not being used by this task. [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] [INFO] [INFO] Liquibase Community 3.9.0 by Liquibase [INFO] Starting Liquibase at Thu, 09 Jul 2020 09:24:22 CDT (version 3.9.0 #11 built at Thu May 14 04:03:56 UTC 2020) [INFO] Parsing Liquibase Properties File liquibase.properties for changeLog parameters [INFO] Executing on Database: jdbc:oracle:thin:@//win-20e107kb4tn:1521/ORCL [INFO] SELECT COUNT(*) FROM DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK [INFO] SELECT COUNT(*) FROM DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK [INFO] SELECT LOCKED FROM DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK WHERE ID=1 FOR UPDATE [INFO] Successfully acquired change log lock [INFO] SELECT MD5SUM FROM DATABASECHANGELOG WHERE MD5SUM IS NOT NULL AND ROWNUM=1 [INFO] SELECT COUNT(*) FROM DATABASECHANGELOG [INFO] MERGE INTO DATABASECHANGELOG a USING (SELECT * FROM (SELECT ORDEREXECUTED, DATEEXECUTED from DATABASECHANGELOG order by DATEEXECUTED desc, ORDEREXECUTED desc) where rownum=1 ) b ON ( a.DATEEXECUTED = b.DATEEXECUTED and a.ORDEREXECUTED=b.ORDEREXECUTED ) WHEN MATCHED THEN UPDATE SET a.tag='mikev1' [INFO] Successfully released change log lock [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] BUILD SUCCESS [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Total time: 6.002 s [INFO] Finished at: 2020-07-09T09:24:25-05:00 [INFO] Final Memory: 20M/450M [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------