I have in openhab/services/runtime.cfg:org.openhab.ItemChannelLinkRegistry:useTags=true, added by #4913, and a binding under /usr/share/opehan/addons/*.jar, which defines in its channel-types tags. I load the items, using that binding, from /etc/opehab/items/i1.items. When openHAB 5.1 build 4912 boots, it first prints

[INFO ] [el.core.internal.ModelRepositoryImpl] - Loading DSL model 'i1.items'

and then executes the HandlerFactory constructor (the @Component/@Activate method). Once openHAB has completed booting, and starts doing nothing, the items’ tags are still not applied.

When I add a space somewhere in items/i1.items, the file is reloaded and openHAB prints:

[INFO ] [el.core.internal.ModelRepositoryImpl] - Loading DSL model 'i1.items'           
[INFO ] [e.thing.link.ItemChannelLinkRegistry] - Item 'D' adding tags '[Status]' supplied by channel 'a:b:c:d'.
[INFO ] [e.thing.link.ItemChannelLinkRegistry] - Item 'E' adding tags '[Alarm]' supplied by channel 'a:b:c:e'.

I stop and start openHAB, the same happens: until I modify the .items file, the tags from the channels are not applied to the items.

• It appears that if an .items file defines items, connected to channels, provided by a binding not yet loaded, on booting openHAB loads the .items file, and does not apply the tags from the later loaded binding.