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Software versioning
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==== Incrementing sequences ==== There are two schools of thought regarding how numeric version numbers are incremented. Most [[free and open-source software]] packages, including [[MediaWiki]], treat versions as a series of individual numbers, separated by periods, with a progression such as 1.7.0, 1.8.0, 1.8.1, 1.9.0, 1.10.0, 1.11.0, 1.11.1, 1.11.2, and so on. On the other hand, some software packages identify releases by decimal numbers: 1.7, 1.8, 1.81, 1.82, 1.9, etc. Decimal versions were common in the 1980s, for example with [[NetWare]], [[Timeline of DOS operating systems|DOS]], and [[Timeline of Microsoft Windows|Microsoft Windows]], but even in the 2000s have been for example used by [[Opera (web browser)|Opera]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Opera Changelogs for Windows|publisher=[[Opera Software]]|year=2014|access-date=November 6, 2014|url=http://www.opera.com/docs/changelogs/windows/}}</ref> and [[Movable Type]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Home|work=Movable Type Documentation Wiki|date=June 25, 2013|access-date=November 6, 2014|url=https://github.com/movabletype/Documentation/wiki/Home/4aa709ba079523d7a64cab4a86650f8a8b7a9121}}</ref> In the decimal scheme, 1.81 is the minor version following 1.8, while maintenance releases (i.e. bug fixes only) may be denoted with an alphabetic suffix, such as 1.81a or 1.81b. The standard [[GNU]] version numbering scheme is major.minor.revision,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Releases.html#index-version-numbers_002c-for-releases |title=GNU Coding Standards: Releases |publisher=[[GNU Project]] |date=May 13, 2014 |access-date=May 25, 2014 |quote=You should identify each release with a pair of version numbers, a major version and a minor. We have no objection to using more than two numbers, but it is very unlikely that you really need them.}}</ref> but [[Emacs]] is a notable example using another scheme where the major number (1) was dropped and a ''user site'' revision was added which is always zero in original Emacs packages but increased by distributors.<ref name="advogato"/> Similarly, [[Debian]] package numbers are prefixed with an optional "epoch", which is used to allow the versioning scheme to be changed.<ref>Debian Policy Manual, [http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html#version 5.6.12 Version]</ref>
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