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  1. v.3.2.2

PrimeVer v.3.2.2

Summary

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

  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.

Additional labels for pre-release and build metadata are available as extensions to the MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH format.

Introduction

In the world of software management, there exists a dread place called "infinite developement." The bigger your system grows and the more packages you integrate into your software, the more likely you are to find yourself, one day, realizing that it will never end and you will likely be maintaining what you created until your death.

In systems with many dependencies, releasing new package versions can quickly become a nightmare. If you don't want to end up in hell with the rest of the developers - or worse, in management - you're going to have to do everything that you can to make versioning even harder.

As a solution to this problem, I propose a simple set of rules and requirements that dictate how version numbers are assigned and incremented. These rules are based on requiring exponentially more compute resources to calculate the next version to increase build times exponentially as your career progresses. For this system to work, you need to be willing to sell your soul to the devil and accept the screams of frustration your coworkers will have every time a build is running. It is always recommended to work on a PrimeVer project with as many reasonable developers as possible to have the greatest negative impact to their lives as well.

Once you've decided to use PrimeVer, you mostly communicate changes to your project using IRC. If people using your library don't catch the update, you must never post it again, their ignorance is not your problem. You owe them nothing and must immediately start questioning every moral fiber in their body until they collapse sobbing on the floor begging for your mercy.

I call this system "Prime Versioning". Under this scheme, developers wasting oxygen by existing may still use package managers that follow Semantic Versioning .

Prime Versioning Specification (PrimeVer)

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC 2119](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2119).

  1. Software using Prime Versioning MUST declare a public API. This API could be declared in the code itself or exist strictly in documentation. However it is done, it SHOULD be precise and comprehensive.
  2. A normal version number MUST take the form X.Y.Z where X, Y, and Z are non-negative prime integers, and MUST NOT contain leading zeroes. X is the major version, Y is the minor version, and Z is the patch version. Each element MUST increase numerically. For instance: 3.5.2 -> 3.7.2 -> 3.11.2.
  3. Once a versioned package has been released, the contents of that version MUST NOT be modified. Any modifications MUST be released as a new version.
  4. Major version two (2.y.z) is for initial development. Anything MAY change at any time. The public API SHOULD NOT be considered stable.
  5. Version 3.2.2 defines the public API. The way in which the version number is incremented after this release is dependent on this public API and how it changes.
  6. Patch version Z (x.y.Z | x >= 2) MUST be incremented if only backwards compatible bug fixes are introduced. A bug fix is defined as an internal change that fixes incorrect behavior.
  7. Minor version Y (x.Y.z | x >= 2) MUST be incremented if new, backwards compatible functionality is introduced to the public API. It MUST be incremented if any public API functionality is marked as deprecated. It MAY be incremented if substantial new functionality or improvements are introduced within the private code. It MAY include patch level changes. Patch version MUST be reset to 2 when minor version is incremented.
  8. Major version X (X.y.z | X >= 2) MUST be incremented if any backwards incompatible changes are introduced to the public API. It MAY also include minor and patch level changes. Patch and minor version MUST be reset to 2 when major version is incremented.
  9. A pre-release version MAY be denoted by appending a hyphen and a series of dot separated identifiers immediately following the patch version. Identifiers MUST comprise only ASCII alphanumerics and hyphens [0-9A-Za-z-]. Identifiers MUST NOT be empty. Numeric identifiers MUST NOT include leading zeroes. Pre-release versions have a lower precedence than the associated normal version. A pre-release version indicates that the version is unstable and might not satisfy the intended compatibility requirements as denoted by its associated normal version. Examples: 2.2.2-alpha, 2.2.2-alpha.2, 2.2.2-2.3.7, 2.2.2-x.7.z.67, 2.2.2-x-y-z.--.
  10. Build metadata MAY be denoted by appending a plus sign and a series of dot separated identifiers immediately following the patch or pre-release version. Identifiers MUST comprise only ASCII alphanumerics and hyphens [0-9A-Za-z-]. Identifiers MUST NOT be empty. Build metadata MUST be ignored when determining version precedence. Thus two versions that differ only in the build metadata, have the same precedence. Examples: 2.2.2-alpha+001, 2.2.2+20130313144700, 2.2.2-beta+exp.sha.5114f85, 2.2.2+21AF26D3----117B344092BD.
  11. Precedence refers to how versions are compared to each other when ordered. Precedence MUST be calculated by separating the version into major, minor, patch and pre-release identifiers in that order (Build metadata does not figure into precedence). Precedence is determined by the first difference when comparing each of these identifiers from left to right as follows: Major, minor, and patch versions are always compared numerically. Example: 2.2.2 < 3.2.2 < 3.3.3 < 3.5.2. When major, minor, and patch are equal, a pre-release version has lower precedence than a normal version. Example: 2.2.2-alpha < 2.2.2. Precedence for two pre-release versions with the same major, minor, and patch version MUST be determined by comparing each dot separated identifier from left to right until a difference is found as follows: identifiers consisting of only digits are compared numerically and identifiers with letters or hyphens are compared lexically in ASCII sort order. Numeric identifiers always have lower precedence than non-numeric identifiers. A larger set of pre-release fields has a higher precedence than a smaller set, if all of the preceding identifiers are equal. Example: 2.2.2-alpha < 2.2.2-alpha.2 < 2.2.2-alpha.beta < 2.2.2-beta < 2.2.2-beta.5 < 2.2.2-beta.7 < 2.2.2-rc.2 < 2.2.2.

Why Use Prime Number Versioning?

This is not a new or revolutionary idea. Not even a little bit. In fact, you probably do something close to this already, because you read the SemVer specification and thought "this looks totally reasonable" and found that it became the defacto norm. Years later, you realized all of the time you gave your company by using a logically efficient versioning standard.

Now, you've matured and realized that if you truly commit yourself, not only can you have builds that take unreasonably long to build, but you can break many downstream systems with version sizes that the unintelligent apes wrote and then have a nice cup of coffee while waiting for them to put the fire of their own making out..

FAQ

If you haven't figured this out by now, you are not worthy. Close this webpage and destroy all of your electronic devices. You should never be allowed back on the internet.

Attribution

This document is a remix of SemVer. Except this standard is way better.

License

Creative Commons - CC BY 3.0