Git could not find remote ref for tag or commit hash

I am trying to pull (I also get the same problem with fetch) to a specific tag on a remote branch. I am trying to run:

 git pull origin v0.0.2.1

      

        
        
        
      

    

Where v0.0.2.1 is the name of my tag. I am getting this error message:

fatal: Couldn't find remote ref v0.0.2.1
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly

      

        
        
        
      

    

I get the same error message if I replace "v0.0.2.1" with the hash for that tag, or the commit hash that the tag belongs to.

I have verified that in fact the remote has this tag and this commit (in fact, I can successfully execute the above commands on another machine that has this repository). I have verified that the .git / config files are the same on both of these machines.

Still works:

 git pull origin HEAD

      

        
        
        
      

    

Also, I used

git ls-remote origin

      

        
        
        
      

    

And I get the following (among other things):

016d51475640e738b24cce2fb4019649ed81fa6b    refs/tags/v0.0.2.1

      

        
        
        
      

    

Does anyone know what's going on?

I found a workaround: The following works:

 git pull origin refs/tags/v0.0.2.1

      

        
        
        
      

    

This works for my task, but I really would like to know more about why this works and the other does not. If anyone can provide an explanation that would be awesome.