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Version Numbers and Releases
Curl is not only curl. Curl is also libcurl. They're actually individually
versioned, but they mostly follow each other rather closely.
The version numbering is always built up using the same system:
X.Y[.Z][-preN]
Where
X is main version number
Y is release number
Z is patch number
N is pre-release number
One of these numbers will get bumped in each new release. The numbers to the
right of a bumped number will be reset to zero. If Z is zero, it may not be
included in the version number. The pre release number is only included in
pre releases (they're never used in public, official, releases).
The main version number will get bumped when *really* big, world colliding
changes are made. The release number is bumped when big changes are
performed. The patch number is bumped when the changes are mere bugfixes and
only minor feature changes. The pre-release is a counter, to identify which
pre-release a certain release is.
When reaching the end of a pre-release period, the version without the
pre-release part will be released as a public release.
It means that after release 1.2.3, we can release 2.0 if something really big
has been made, 1.3 if not that big changes were made or 1.2.4 if mostly bugs
were fixed. Before 1.2.4 is released, we might release a 1.2.4-pre1 release
for the brave people to try before the actual release.
Bumping, as in increasing the number with 1, is unconditionally only
affecting one of the numbers (except the ones to the right of it, that may be
set to zero). 1 becomes 2, 3 becomes 4, 9 becomes 10, 88 becomes 89 and 99
becomes 100. So, after 1.2.9 comes 1.2.10. After 3.99.3, 3.100 might come.
All original curl source release archives are named according to the libcurl
version (not according to the curl client version that, as said before, might
differ).
As a service to any application that might want to support new libcurl
features while still being able to build with older versions, all releases
have the libcurl version stored in the curl/curlver.h file using a static
numbering scheme that can be used for comparison. The version number is
defined as:
#define LIBCURL_VERSION_NUM 0xXXYYZZ
Where XX, YY and ZZ are the main version, release and patch numbers in
hexadecimal. All three numbers are always represented using two digits. 1.2
would appear as "0x010200" while version 9.11.7 appears as "0x090b07".
This 6-digit hexadecimal number does not show pre-release number, and it is
always a greater number in a more recent release. It makes comparisons with
greater than and less than work.
This number is also available as three separate defines:
LIBCURL_VERSION_MAJOR, LIBCURL_VERSION_MINOR and LIBCURL_VERSION_PATCH.