Software versioning standards

Question

Are there any software versioning standards? Or i can change version of my product, when i have made some changes to it?

Is there any percentage in changes, by which i can say, what version this product will have?

Answer 1

No rules. You decide.

There seems to be a common agreement:

• You increment the version number when you make significant changes or the amount of service packs and updates makes the application noticeably advanced over the original version.

• The smaller a change is, the smaller the increment in subversion numbers. Bug fix -> behavior change -> new feature -> service pack for lots of features -> some big change or a new module.

Answer 2

See also:

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/65718/what-do-the-numbers-in-a-version-typically-represent-i-e-v1-9-0-1

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/615227/how-to-do-version-numbers

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1889615/version-numbering-basics

Answer 3

Some people have proposed software version number conventions. Here are two:

• Semantic Versioning
• Apache APR Version Numbering Concepts

Answer 4

There is some good advice in Software Release Practice HOWTO.