What rules does software version numbering use?

Question

I am developing some software and want to give it version numbers.

How should I do it?

How is it that some software gets two versions, such as 1.3v1.1

or some of them have 3 numbers - 4.0.1

What is the method of all this?

Thank.

Answer 1

The usual method I saw is XYZ, which usually matches major.minor.patch:

• Major version numbers change whenever major changes are made. For example, large or potentially incompatible with changes in a software package.
• Minor version numbers change when you enter a new, minor function or when you deploy a set of smaller functions.
• Patch numbers change when a new version of the software is provided to customers. This usually refers to minor bug fixes, etc.

Other options use building numbers as an additional identifier. Thus, you can have a large quantity for XYZbuild if you have many versions checked between releases. I use a couple of packages that are identified by year / month or year / release. Thus, the September 2010 release may be 2010.9 or 2010.3 for this year’s third release.

There are many options for version control. It all comes down to personal preference.

For "1.3v1.1", which can be two different internal products, something that will be a shared library / code base that is different from the main product; which may indicate version 1.3 for the main product and version 1.1 of the internal library / package.

Answer 2

You can find the Semantic Versioning Specification .

Answer 3

Wikipedia has a fairly extensive answer , which could be a good place to run.