{"action":"closed","issue":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/issues/1854","labels_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/issues/1854/labels{/name}","comments_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/issues/1854/comments","events_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/issues/1854/events","html_url":"https://github.com/jquery/jquery/issues/1854","id":48462767,"number":1854,"title":"\"git describe --abbrev=0 --tags\" doesn't return the latest stable version","user":{"login":"elas7","id":7537033,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/7537033?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/elas7","html_url":"https://github.com/elas7","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/elas7/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/elas7/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/elas7/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/elas7/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/elas7/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/elas7/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/elas7/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/elas7/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/elas7/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"labels":[{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/jquery/jquery/labels/Docs","name":"Docs","color":"0052cc"}],"state":"closed","locked":false,"assignee":null,"milestone":null,"comments":7,"created_at":"2014-11-12T01:51:17Z","updated_at":"2015-01-07T03:18:20Z","closed_at":"2015-01-07T03:18:20Z","body":"In line 124 of README.md, the following command is suggested to check out the latest stable version of jQuery:\r\n\r\n```bash\r\ngit pull; git checkout $(git describe --abbrev=0 --tags)\r\n```\r\n\r\nIn particular, `git describe --abbrev=0 --tags` is meant to return the most recent tag, which should also be the last jQuery version number.\r\n\r\nThis doesn't work because, on the master branch, it returns \"2.1.0-beta1\" which is far from the latest stable version, even if it is the latest reachable tag.\r\n\r\nThe problem is that the tags with the version numbers are generally made on separate branches, and therefore they are unreachable with the \"describe\" command.\r\n\r\nWith the branching and tagging system used in jQuery, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to get the latest tag ([link](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19925288/how-do-you-figure-out-the-previous-tag-in-such-a-workfow?)). Also, given the different versions (1.x and 2.x, now 3.x and Compat 3.x), it can be hard to define which one corresponds to the latest stable version, if any.\r\n\r\nMy suggestion would be to remove the notion of automatically getting the latest stable version through a git command."}}