doc/versioning_policy.rst

Versioning policy
==================

This document captures information about how the version identifier of the
|TFACMF| is built up, what is the meaning of each part, where the version
information is captured and how it is managed.

Summary
-------

The version identifier identifies the feature set supported by a specific
release of the |TFACMF|, and captures compatibility information to other
releases.

This project uses "Semantic Versioning v2.0". For details please refer to
|SMVC| v2.0.

In general the version number is constructed from three numbers. The `MAJOR`
number is changed when incompatible API changes are introduced, the `MINOR`
version when you functionality is added in a backward compatible manner, and
the `PATCH` version when backwards compatible bug fixes are added.

Each release will get a unique release id assigned. When a release is made, the
version number will get incremented in accordance with the compatibility rules
mentioned above.

This project is only using the core version and will not use pre-release or
build specific metadata extension.

Storage and format
------------------

The version number of each release will be stored at two locations:
  #. In a tag of the version control system in the form of "vX.Y.Z" where X Y
     and Z are the major, minor and patch version numbers.
  #. In a file called version.txt. This file uses ASCII encoding and will
     contain the version number as "X.Y.Z"  where X Y and Z are the major,
     minor and patch version numbers.

.. note:: The version id is independent from version identifiers of the
          versioning system used to store the |TFACMF| (i.e. git).

--------------

.. |SMVC| replace:: `Semantic Versioning`_
.. _`Semantic Versioning`: https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html

*Copyright (c) 2020, Arm Limited and Contributors. All rights reserved.*

SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause