Release Numbering Scheme

Description

Basis

The syntax of LRDE projects' release numbering scheme is: PROJECT-MAJOR.MINOR Assuming that:

• PROJECT is the name of the project (such as leopard or nolimips)
• MAJOR is the major release number, made of decimal characters only (i.e. matching the class [0-9], such as 0 or 1)
• MINOR is the minor release number, made of decimal characters and possibly followed by a lower-case alphabetic character (MINOR matches the regular expression ([0-9])+([a-z])?)

The releases' numbers below follow this basis:

• bison-2.3b
• nolimips-0.8a

While these do not:

• linux-2.6.21-rc7-git7
• Street Fighter II Turbo Alpha Prime
• CATIAV5R17SP3

Induction Step

MAJOR numbers are incremented by one each time a major version of a project is released. It is up to the maintainers of the project to declare a version as a "major" evolution compared to the previous one. A version breaking backward compatibility (by changing the file formats or obsoleting command line options) is generally considered as a "major" revision.

MINOR numbers are incremented by one each time a minor revision reaches the end of its development. When entering a development stage, an alphabetic character is appended to the end of the minor revision number. Hence:

• Let a "stable" release 1.4; when committing a patch (thus entering a new development stage), the release number should be updated to 1.4a. As long as developments are made on this release, the release number remains. When a particular modification is applied, the revision may be updated to 1.4b.
• Let a "development" release 3.14a; when the release reaches a stable state (i.e. the evolutions that have been introduced and that have justified the entering in a development stage are validated), the release should be updated to 3.15

So the progression of release numbers follow this kind of scheme:

1.0 < 1.0a < 1.1 < 1.1a < 1.2 < 1.2a < 1.2b < 2.0

Discussion

So in the release number 2.97a, the a does not mean "alpha of 2.97"?

Right. It means "development version of 2.97"

If the a is not the first character of a greek letter, what does it stand for?

It makes release numbers have a lexicographical order identical to the chronological one. 2.97a appears "after" 2.97, both in time and in a dictionary.

-- BenoitPerrot^? - 25 Apr 2007
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