Version Numbering Rules

The version numbering scheme is a set of rules that define how the version number is assigned to a release. The version number is a sequence of numbers separated by dots, for example, 1.2.3.

All projects tries to follow the Semantic Versioning (semver) rules, but there are some differences between the projects.

NethServer and NethVoice

NethServer and NethVoice releases follow a subset of Semantic Versioning. Specifically, “build metadata” syntax is not permitted because the + character conflicts with the container image tag specification, as stated in OCI distribution-spec.

The distinction between stable and pre-release versions is important in the development process.

  • Stable releases consist of three numbers separated by dots, e.g., 1.2.7. These represent the Major, Minor, and Patch numbers. For detailed explanations of these terms, refer to the semver site. Stable releases are published and deployed to production systems.

  • Pre-releases or testing releases include a pre-release suffix. This consists of a - (minus sign), a word, a dot ., and a number, e.g., 1.3.0-testing.3. Testing releases are meant for development. In rare cases, they can be used in production, but only if they address specific bugs requiring immediate resolution.

Releases can be automated using gh ns8-release-module - GitHub CLI Extension.

Update rules

Updates to NS8 core and modules (applications) must follow these rules:

  1. New features, enhancements, and bug fixes must not change the behavior of existing systems.
  2. New behaviors must be enabled through explicit and documented sysadmin actions.
  3. Modules must support updates from any previous release within the same major release.

NethSecurity

NethSecurity packages follow OpenWrt conventions.

OpenWrt roughly follows the semantic versioning rules, but with some differences:

  • do not use pre-release version numbers
  • do not use metadata version numbers

NethSecurity image versioning is documented here.