DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports Events Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
  1. DZone
  2. Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
  3. DevOps and CI/CD
  4. DevOps: Semantic Versioning Simplified

DevOps: Semantic Versioning Simplified

Semantic versioning allows you to easily deal with features and fixes across a variety of environments so that you can avoid dependency hell.

Anshul Patel user avatar by
Anshul Patel
·
Dec. 11, 16 · Tutorial
Like (10)
Save
Tweet
Share
15.31K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

Semantic versioning makes it easy and convenient to track, test, deploy, patch, and roll back features, enhancements, bugs, and fixes across a variety of environments in the software supply chain.

Semantic versioning provides an efficient and effective framework to version the software products so that the infamous dependency hell can be avoided.

What Is Semantic Versioning?

Semantic versioning uses the MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH number scheme for software products. For example:

Semantic_Versioning

How to Decide When to Update the Numbers

You should increment the PATCH number during the following circumstances:

  • A backward compatible bug fix.

  • A backward compatible maintenance release.

  • A backward compatible hot-fix.

You should increment the MINOR number in these situations (note that PATCH should be reset to zero when MINOR is incremented):

  • A backward compatible new framework adoption.

  • A backward compatible new functionality implementation.

  • A backward compatible framework enhancement.

  • A backward compatible functionality enhancement.

Finally, you should increment the MAJOR number in the following events (again, note that PATH and MINOR should both be reset to zero when MAJOR is incremented):

  • Any backward incompatible change.

  • A situation in which the MAJOR zero (0.Y.Z) should be considered for development. The product shouldn't be considered stable and should not be deployed on production.

What About Versioning During Continuous Integration?

Prerelease numbers with semantic versioning can tackle the problem of versioning during CI (for example: X.Y.Z-${CI_BUILD_NUMBER}, 2.0.5-1992).

Once the software product is ready, the prerelease number should be removed and the product should be published and released to the external repository.

Finally, note that once the package is released and published, it must not be modified. Any modifications must absolutely be released as a new version.

Semantics (computer science) DevOps

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Popular on DZone

  • Mr. Over, the Engineer [Comic]
  • Image Classification With DCNNs
  • Do Not Forget About Testing!
  • Educating the Next Generation of Cloud Engineers With Google Cloud

Comments

Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 600 Park Offices Drive
  • Suite 300
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • support@dzone.com
  • +1 (919) 678-0300

Let's be friends: