Version Numbers¶

Salt uses a date based system for version numbers. Version numbers are in the format YYYY.MM.R. The year (YYYY) and month (MM) reflect when the release was created. The bugfix release number (R) increments within that feature release.

Note

Prior to the 2014.1.0 release, the typical semantic versioning was still being used. Because of the rolling nature of the project, this did not make sense. The 0.17 release was the last of that style.

Code Names¶

To distinguish future releases from the current release, code names are used. The periodic table is used to derive the next codename. The first release in the date based system was code named Hydrogen, each subsequent release will go to the next atomic number <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elements>.

Assigned codenames:

Hydrogen: 2014.1.0
Helium: 2014.7.0
Lithium: 2015.5.0
Beryllium: TBD
Boron: TBD

Example¶

An example might help clarify how this all works.

It is the year 2020 and the current code name is Iodine. A release is ready to be cut and the month is June. This would make the new release number 2020.6.0. After three bug fix releases, the release number would be 2020.6.3.

After the release is cut, new features would be worked on under the Xenon code name and the process repeats itself.