Disttag

Disttag, often written as dist-tag or dist-tags, is a label used by some package registries to refer to a specific published version of a package. It acts as a pointer that maps a human-readable tag to a concrete version number, allowing maintainers and users to choose release channels or testing tracks without specifying exact versions. Disttags are commonly associated with the npm package registry, but the concept appears in other ecosystems as well.

The primary purpose of a disttag is to enable flexible version resolution. A registry maintains a mapping from tag names to version numbers, such as latest pointing to 1.2.3 or beta pointing to 1.3.0-rc.1. When a user installs a package with a tag (for example, npm install package@latest), the registry resolves the tag to the corresponding version. This separates release management from individual version publication, making it easier to promote, demote, or retire versions according to stability, compatibility, or testing needs.

Common tags include latest, next, beta, and canary, though the actual set depends on the package and registry. Disttags can be created, updated, or removed by package maintainers or automated workflows. In npm, commands such as dist-tag add, dist-tag rm, and dist-tag ls are used to manage tags, and npm view or npm info can display a package’s dist-tags.

Limitations include that tags are registry-specific and not guaranteed to reflect the entire version history. They are aides to version selection, not substitutes for careful versioning or semantic versioning practices. See also semantic versioning, package registries, and release channels.