What does "semantic versioning" mean in programming?

semantic versioning is one of the most common terms in software development. This guide explains what it means, how it is used in practice, and why it matters, with real examples from the developer world.

Definition

A versioning convention using the format MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH (e.g. 2.4.1). MAJOR increments on breaking changes, MINOR on new backward-compatible features, PATCH on backward-compatible bug fixes. Also called SemVer. The standard for most open source libraries.

Example

"We bumped the major version to 2.0.0 because the new API is not backward-compatible."

Related terms

release
changelog
deploy
breaking-change
dependency

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