Software Architect's Handbook

Software versioning

As part of the build process for your software, you will need to think about how you want to version your software. Software versioning is the process of assigning a unique number or name to the software you are building.

It is beneficial to use a formal convention for software versioning. Once a formal convention has been established, it provides everyone who is interested in the software, both internally and externally, with knowledge about the state of the software. Without the use of a formal versioning convention, version numbers are meaningless to users and useless for dependency management. A meaningful version number communicates to interested parties information regarding the intention of the version and the extent ...