Application Versioning

Question

We are creating a web application using Zend Framework and SVN for versioning and are planning to implement an application versioning. After referencing to some methods we have decided to follow Semantic Versioning . According to Semantic Versioning the version number should be like MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH. Considering that I have a doubt. What if the development and bug fixing is going in parallel?. What will be the next version number?.

Consider the application is now at version 2.3.0. The development is been going on for the implementation of a new feature, which when finished is supposed to be released as a minor release 2.4.0. Then a major security issue is been identified and was solved. So that bug will also be added to the release 2.4.0 which is against the rule (MINOR version when you add functionality in a backwards-compatible manner). How should I handle this situation?

Also is there any other good solution/method for application versioning?

Answer 1

It is absolutely not against Semantic Versioning to include debugs in a minor version. The rule of semantic versioning is that if you have a feature (with backwards-compatibility), you need to release a minor version at least. It would be indeed absurd to not be able to release in the same version both features and bug fixes.

However in your case, you would probably want to do two things:

1. release a fix for your version 2.3.0 by releasing a 2.3.1
2. include the fix in the 2.4.0 version as well (assuming you have more than one instance of the web application and that they won't all be always at the latest version).