1Version Numbers and Releases
2============================
3
4 Curl is not only curl. Curl is also libcurl. They're actually individually
5 versioned, but they mostly follow each other rather closely.
6
7 The version numbering is always built up using the same system:
8
9        X.Y.Z
10
11  - X is main version number
12  - Y is release number
13  - Z is patch number
14
15## Bumping numbers
16
17 One of these numbers will get bumped in each new release. The numbers to the
18 right of a bumped number will be reset to zero. If Z is zero, it may not be
19 included in the version number.
20
21 The main version number will get bumped when *really* big, world colliding
22 changes are made. The release number is bumped when changes are performed or
23 things/features are added. The patch number is bumped when the changes are
24 mere bugfixes.
25
26 It means that after release 1.2.3, we can release 2.0 if something really big
27 has been made, 1.3 if not that big changes were made or 1.2.4 if mostly bugs
28 were fixed.
29
30 Bumping, as in increasing the number with 1, is unconditionally only
31 affecting one of the numbers (except the ones to the right of it, that may be
32 set to zero). 1 becomes 2, 3 becomes 4, 9 becomes 10, 88 becomes 89 and 99
33 becomes 100. So, after 1.2.9 comes 1.2.10. After 3.99.3, 3.100 might come.
34
35 All original curl source release archives are named according to the libcurl
36 version (not according to the curl client version that, as said before, might
37 differ).
38
39 As a service to any application that might want to support new libcurl
40 features while still being able to build with older versions, all releases
41 have the libcurl version stored in the curl/curlver.h file using a static
42 numbering scheme that can be used for comparison. The version number is
43 defined as:
44
45        #define LIBCURL_VERSION_NUM 0xXXYYZZ
46
47 Where XX, YY and ZZ are the main version, release and patch numbers in
48 hexadecimal. All three number fields are always represented using two digits
49 (eight bits each). 1.2 would appear as "0x010200" while version 9.11.7
50 appears as "0x090b07".
51
52 This 6-digit hexadecimal number is always a greater number in a more recent
53 release. It makes comparisons with greater than and less than work.
54
55 This number is also available as three separate defines:
56 `LIBCURL_VERSION_MAJOR`, `LIBCURL_VERSION_MINOR` and `LIBCURL_VERSION_PATCH`.
57