# Package version number when upgrading to v0.6

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/package-version-number-when-upgrading-to-v0-6/4912>\
**Category:** Internals & Design\
**Created:** [July 17, 2017, 9:18pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/package-version-number-when-upgrading-to-v0-6/4912 "2017-07-17T21:18:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robertdj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/robertdj/32/103_2.png) [@robertdj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/robertdj)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 9:18pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/package-version-number-when-upgrading-to-v0-6/4912/1 "2017-07-17T21:18:25Z")

</div>

Package version numbers are encouraged to use semver as described on the [PkgDev](https://github.com/JuliaLang/PkgDev.jl) GitHub page.

However, I am unsure how to apply this when upgrading a package to v0.6 where I drop support for older versions.  
I suppose the change is _backwards-incompatible_, but going from 0.something to 1.0 when there are no API changes in the actual code seems like overkill to me.  
I took a peek at the [Distributions](https://github.com/JuliaStats/Distributions.jl) that apparently added a minor version to fit 0.6.

Are there any recommendations?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kristoffer.carlsson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kristoffer.carlsson/32/22_2.png) [@kristoffer.carlsson](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kristoffer.carlsson)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 9:27pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/package-version-number-when-upgrading-to-v0-6/4912/2 "2017-07-17T21:27:27Z")

</div>

Minor version bump when below 1.0 is appropriate I think.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![adamslc](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/adamslc/32/3452_2.png) [@adamslc](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/adamslc)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 9:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/package-version-number-when-upgrading-to-v0-6/4912/3 "2017-07-17T21:42:58Z")

</div>

> **[Semantic Versioning 2.0.0](https://semver.org/)**
>
> Semantic Versioning spec and website

In particular:

> Major version zero (0.y.z) is for initial development. Anything may change at any time. The public API should not be considered stable.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![StefanKarpinski](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stefankarpinski/32/24_2.png) [@StefanKarpinski](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/StefanKarpinski)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2017, 12:17am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/package-version-number-when-upgrading-to-v0-6/4912/4 "2017-07-18T00:17:26Z")

</div>

As noted here, SemVer doesn’t specify semantics 0.x.y releases, but we consider the 0.x.y to be patch releases (bugfix only) while 0.x releases are major – anything can change. However, we do our best to deprecate changing functionality so that when you run your code you will get warnings telling you what you need to change. If you fix all the warnings after upgrading, with very few exceptions, your code should work as expected.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robertdj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/robertdj/32/103_2.png) [@robertdj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/robertdj)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2017, 11:51am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/package-version-number-when-upgrading-to-v0-6/4912/5 "2017-07-18T11:51:42Z")

</div>

What would you suggest if I had a package with a major version of 1 or more? Would it still be a minor bump?