Cheat Sheet - Semantic Versioning

Given a version number MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH:

Expression Meaning
MAJOR incompatible API changes
MINOR add functionality (backwards-compatible)
PATCH bug fixes (backwards-compatible)

Simple ranges

  1.2.3
 =1.2.3
 >1.2.3
 <1.2.3
>=1.2.3

Note that suffixed versions (1.2.3-rc1) are not matched.

Ranges

Expression Meaning Note
~1.2.3 is >=1.2.3 <1.3.0  
^1.2.3 is >=1.2.3 <2.0.0  
^0.2.3 is >=0.2.3 <0.3.0 (0.x.x is special)
^0.0.1 is =0.0.1 (0.0.x is special)
^1.2 is >=1.2.0 <2.0.0 (like ^1.2.0)
~1.2 is >=1.2.0 <1.3.0 (like ~1.2.0)
^1 is >=1.0.0 <2.0.0  
~1 same  
1.x same  
1.* same  
1 same  
* any version  
x same  

Hyphenated ranges

Expression Meaning
1.2.3 - 2.3.0 is >=1.2.3 <=2.3.4

Partial right

Expression Meaning
1.2.3 - 2.3 is >=1.2.3 <2.4.0
1.2.3 - 2 is >=1.2.3 <3.0.0

Partial left

Expression Meaning
1.2 - 2.3.0 is 1.2.0 - 2.3.0

When the right is partial (e.g., 2.3), missing pieces are assumed to be x (e.g., 2.3.x).

When the left is partial (e.g., 1.2), missing pieces are assumed to be 0 (e.g., 1.2.0).

Combining ranges

Expression Meaning
>=0.14 <16 And (space-separated)
0.14.x || 15.x.x Or (pipe-separated)

Pre-releases

1.2.3-prerelease+build

Explanation

Expression Meaning
^ means “compatible with”
~ means “reasonably close to”
0.x.x is for “initial development”
1.x.x means public API is defined

References