Version Numbers¶

Salt uses a major and patch based systems for version numbers. Version numbers are in the format MAJOR.PATCH.

Note

Prior to the 3000 release, Salt used a date based system for version numbers. Version numbers were in the format YYYY.MM.R. The year (YYYY) and month (MM) reflected 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.

Assigned codenames:

Hydrogen: 2014.1.0
Helium: 2014.7.0
Lithium: 2015.5.0
Beryllium: 2015.8.0
Boron: 2016.3.0
Carbon: 2016.11.0
Nitrogen: 2017.7.0
Oxygen: 2018.3.0
Fluorine: 2019.2.0
Neon: 3000
Sodium: 3001
Magnesium: 3002
Aluminium: 3003

Example¶

An example might help clarify how this all works.

The current code name is Iodine. A release is ready to be cut and the previous release was 3053. This would make the new release number 3054. After three patch releases, the release number would be 3054.3.

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

Version numbers, Git and salt --version¶

The salt version, for programmers, is based on git describe and presented to end-users with salt --version.

Example arguments for git checkout:

Argument

Comment

master

Master branch Actively developed bug-fixes and new features

v3000

Tag signaling the commit for 3000 release.

v3000.1

Tag signaling the commit for a 3000.1 patch fix.

Argument	Comment
master	Master branch Actively developed bug-fixes and new features
v3000	Tag signaling the commit for 3000 release.
v3000.1	Tag signaling the commit for a 3000.1 patch fix.

Further reading on release branch and develop branch.

Influence of the git checkout argument on git describe:

Checkout

Describe

Comment

v3000

v3000

(tag is fixed point in time)

v3000.1

v3000.1

(tag is fixed point in time)

master

v3000.1-9-g10d5dec

Commit of most recent tag in master

Checkout	Describe	Comment
v3000	v3000	(tag is fixed point in time)
v3000.1	v3000.1	(tag is fixed point in time)
master	v3000.1-9-g10d5dec	Commit of most recent tag in master

Some details of v3000.1-9-g10d5dec (from git describe after git checkout master):

Part

Comment

v3000.1

git describe finds the most recent tag on the 2016.11 branch

9

Commits on top of the most recent tag, relative to your local git fetch

gf2eb3dc

'g' + git SHA ("abbreviated name") of the most recent commit

Part	Comment
v3000.1	git describe finds the most recent tag on the 2016.11 branch
9	Commits on top of the most recent tag, relative to your local git fetch
gf2eb3dc	'g' + git SHA ("abbreviated name") of the most recent commit