# Bumping minimum Julia version for a package

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/bumping-minimum-julia-version-for-a-package/5005>\
**Category:** Internals & Design\
**Tags:** question\
**Created:** [July 21, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/bumping-minimum-julia-version-for-a-package/5005 "2017-07-21T19:16:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dmbates](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/dmbates/32/44_2.png) [@dmbates](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dmbates)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/bumping-minimum-julia-version-for-a-package/5005/1 "2017-07-21T19:16:56Z")

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Is there a write-up of what a package author should do when bumping the minimum version of Julia in `REQUIRE`. My recollection is that when changing the minimum Julia version from, say, 0.5 to 0.6 one should

- create a v0.5 branch in the repository from the last tag that works
- add code specific to versions beyond 0.5 and tag at least a minor release

Anything else?

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**Author:** ![ChrisRackauckas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/chrisrackauckas/32/77_2.png) [@ChrisRackauckas](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ChrisRackauckas)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 7:26pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/bumping-minimum-julia-version-for-a-package/5005/2 "2017-07-21T19:26:17Z")

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I’d add deleting all of the `@compat`s and cross-version workarounds, but yeah that’s about it.

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**Author:** ![nalimilan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nalimilan/32/147_2.png) [@nalimilan](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nalimilan)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 7:28pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/bumping-minimum-julia-version-for-a-package/5005/3 "2017-07-21T19:28:29Z")

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AFAIK you don’t even have to create a branch. All what is required is to bump a _major_ release (except for versions before 1.0, where bumping `x` in `0.x` is enough since that’s considered as a major release). If needed, the branch can always be created later.