Fedora and Semantic Versioning

[David Wilcox]

Hi everyone,

Last year, we initiated a discussion on the fedora-tech mailing list regarding a possible move to semantic versioning for Fedora [1]. In semantic versioning, each of the three positions of the version number have very specific meaning [2]:

Given a version number MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, increment the:

    1. MAJOR version when you make incompatible API changes,

    2. MINOR version when you add functionality in a backwards-compatible manner, and

    3. PATCH version when you make backwards-compatible bug fixes.

Due to the branding of “Fedora 4”, we have been reluctant to increment the MAJOR version number beyond “4” as would be dictated by standard semantic versioning. However, the overwhelming consensus amongst Fedora stakeholders is that we should move to standard semantic versioning. Therefore, the next major release of Fedora will be Fedora 5.0.0 (rather than 4.8.0), followed by 6.0.0 (or 5.1.0, or 5.0.1 as appropriate), and so on. The purpose of this message is to assure the community that this change only reflects the adoption of standard semantic versioning and does not imply a radical change like the move from Fedora 3.x to Fedora 4.x. Fedora 5.0.0 will be functionally equivalent to what would have been a 4.8.0 release.

Along with this change, the community has voiced an interest in slowing down the pace of major releases. To this end, we will aim to publish one major release per year, though minor and patch releases will be published as needed. This means you can expect to see Fedora 5.0.0 by the end of 2017, but Fedora 6.0.0 will not be released until sometime in 2018. 

Please reply with any questions or concerns. We will communicate these changes as widely as possible in order to ensure the broader community understands the meaning of Fedora version numbers and the release schedule going forward.

[1] https://groups.google.com/d/msg/fedora-tech/sTB7XzQn1ik/Cndo0fY7EgAJ

[2] http://semver.org/

-- 

David Wilcox

Fedora Product Manager
DuraSpace

dwi...@duraspace.org