View source for Documentation/4.10/Developers/Versioning

<noinclude>{{documentation/versioncheck}}</noinclude>
<!-- 
= How to create a Slicer package =

== Locally on your machine ==

After Slicer correctly build and test, to create a binary package on mac/unix:

 $ cd Slicer-Superbuild/Slicer-build
 $ make package

For Visual Studio on Windows, the inner Slicer (not superbuild) solution file contains a 'PACKAGE' project, just build it. You might have to install [http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Download NSIS] prior.

On Mac OS X, a 'dmg' file is generated, on unix it's a tar.gz archive and on Windows it's a exe installer.

== Automatically expose it to the Slicer community ==

CTest can automatically create a package and upload it on [http://slicer.cdash.org slicer.cdash.org] and [http://download.slicer.org download.slicer.org] to be available to the community.

You need to create a script following the template [http://viewvc.slicer.org/viewvc.cgi/Slicer4/trunk/CMake/SlicerDashboardScript.TEMPLATE.cmake?view=markup Slicer/CMake/SlicerDashboardScript.TEMPLATE.cmake]. Change the following variables <code>WITH_PACKAGES</code> to <code>TRUE</code> and <code>SCRIPT_MODE</code> to <code>experimental</code> 

Then you can run your script:
 $ ctest -S /path/to/SlicerPackageScript.cmake -VV > /path/to/logs.txt 2>&1

Please note that the source and build directories should not be located in '''/usr'''. The libraries would be considered by the packaging mechanism as "system" libraries.
-->


= Versioning =

== Project fork ==

See [[Documentation/Nightly/Developers/ProjectForks]]

= Slicer Package naming scheme =
{{ambox|text=The following information is for Slicer maintainers only}}

<pre>Slicer-&lt;MAJOR_VERSION&gt;.&lt;MINOR_VERSION&gt;.&lt;PATCH_VERSION&gt;[-rc{1|2|3...}][-&lt;TWEAK_VERSION&gt;][-&lt;DATE&gt;][-svn&lt;REV&gt;][-dirty]-&lt;ARCH&gt;-&lt;PLATFORM&gt;</pre>

There are 2 types of builds, releases and developments:
; Release
: Special builds made on a given revision (e.g. r19033: "ENH: Slicer 4.0.1")
: Don't contain date or revision number.
: The optional suffix '''-rc{1|2|3|...}''' identifies the release candidates leading to a final release.
: Eventually, a tweak number can be added (e.g. 4.0.1-1)
; Development
: Nightly or experimental builds
: Contains suffixes after the major.minor.patch version 
: The suffix '''svn&lt;REV&gt;''' allows to identify the revision associated with the current package.
: The '''-dirty''' prefix indicates if the package has been generated from a locally modified source tree.

== Example of linux 64bits packages ==

=== Proposal #1 ===

Include revision number in package name

{| class="wikitable"
! style="font-weight: bold;" | File name
! style="font-weight: bold;" | date
! style="font-weight: bold;" | build type
! style="font-weight: bold;" | note
|-
| Slicer-4.0.0-linux-amd64
| 2011-11-24
| release
| release of Slicer 4.0.0
|-
| Slicer-4.0.0-2011-12-10-svn100-linux-amd64   ||   2011-11-25 ||  development ||  nightly build after 4.0.0
|-
| Slicer-4.0.1-rc1-linux-amd64      ||       2012-01-04  ||  release   ||  release candidate 1 of Slicer 4.0.1
|-
| Slicer-4.0.1-rc1-2012-01-05-svn150-linux-amd64 ||  2012-01-05 || development ||  nightly build after the release candidate
|-
| Slicer-4.0.1-rc2-linux-amd64      ||      2012-01-11  ||  release  ||   release candidate 2 of Slicer 4.0.1
|-
| Slicer-4.0.1-rc2-2012-01-12-svn200-linux-amd64  || 2012-01-12 || development ||  nightly build after the release candidate
|-
| Slicer-4.0.1-linux-amd64       ||          2012-01-14  ||  release  ||   release of Slicer 4.0.1
|-
| Slicer-4.0.1-2012-01-20-svn236-linux-amd64   ||   2012-01-20 || development ||  nightly build after 4.0.1
|-
| Slicer-4.0.1-1-linux-amd64        ||       2012-01-28  ||  release  ||   tweak version 1 of Slicer 4.0.1
|-
| Slicer-4.0.2-linux.amd64          ||       2012-06-05  ||  release   ||  release of Slicer 4.0.2
|}

=== Proposal #2 === 

* Increment minor version after each release, remove the concept of release candidate and tweak version.

* With the transition to git workflow where branching is easier, after each release, the minor version in the trunk would be increased by one.

* Patch release would be done using the maintenance branch associated with any given release.


{| class="wikitable"
! style="font-weight: bold;" | File name
! style="font-weight: bold;" | date
! style="font-weight: bold;" | build type
! style="font-weight: bold;" | branch
! style="font-weight: bold;" | note
|-
| Slicer-4.5.0-1-linux-amd64                     || 2015-12-11 || release || 4.5 || tweak version 1 of Slicer 4.5.0
|-
| Slicer-4.6.0-2016-01-30-svn24950-linux-amd64   ||   2016-01-30 ||  development || master ||  nightly build after 4.5.0
|-
| ...                                          || ...        || ...     || ... || ...
|-
| Slicer-4.6.0-2016-02-06-svn25174-linux-amd64   ||   2016-02-06 ||  development || master ||  nightly build after 4.5.0
|-
| Slicer-4.5.1-2016-02-06-svn25175-linux-amd64   ||   2016-02-06 ||  development || 4.5 || manual build after 4.5.0-1
|-
| Slicer-4.5.1-linux-amd64                     || 2015-02-07 || release || 4.5 || patch version 1 of Slicer 4.5.0
|-
| ...                                          || ...        || ...     || ... || ...
|-
| Slicer-4.6.0-2016-03-05-svn25174-linux-amd64   ||   2016-02-05 ||  development || master ||  nightly build after 4.5.0
|-
| Slicer-4.6.0-linux-amd64   ||   2016-03-06 ||  release || master ||  release of 4.6.0 : <ul><li>next commit on master would increment minor version to start new dev cycle</li><li>creation of maintenance branch 4.6</li></ul>
|-
| ...                                          || ...        || ...     || ... || ...
|-
| Slicer-4.6.0-2016-03-07-svn25180-linux-amd64   ||   2016-03-07 ||  development || master ||  nightly build after 4.6.0
|}

=== Proposal #3 ===

* Package name remains unchanged: Slicer-X.Y.Z[-YYYY-MM-DD]-<arch>.<ext>

* Development build will end with an "odd" number
** For example: 4.7, 4.9, 5.1, 5.3
** Package name include the date: Slicer-X.Y.Z[-YYYY-MM-DD].<ext>

* Stable release will end with an "even" number
** For example: 4.8, 5.0, 5.2
** Package name do not include the date: Slicer-X.Y.Z.<ext>
 
* Install folder:
** windows: Slicer X.Y.Z-YYYY-MM-DD  (remains the same)
** macOS: Slicer.app -> Slicer-X.Y.Z-YYYY-MM-DD.app (add revision and date)
** Linux: Slicer-X.Y.Z[-YYYY-MM-DD]-<arch> (remains the same)



==== Why ? ====

* Slicer is "released" daily (aka nightly build) and mixing these daily releases with stable releases under the same major.minor revision would be confusing for the users. We cannot expect users to learn different naming patterns to determine what kind of release (development/stable) they are installing and learning a complex logic of determining which version is more recent (e.g., which one is more recent 4.7.1-1 or 4.7.0-2017-08-29).
* With this new scheme in place, we can unambiguously specify both stable/development branch and a specific version. This allows using simple major.minor tags in Mantis, documentation, forums, etc.
* It will be possible to distinguish between the pre- and the post- release. When we mention 4.8, it clearly relates to a version that contain all changes of 4.7.
* Semantic versioning not applicable to a complex application, maintaining backward compatibility is done as a best effort and often "minor" breaking changes are included after communicating with users or updating the user code.

= Extension package - Naming scheme =

* Create <code>Extensions-XYZ-Nightly</code> and <code>Extensions-XYZ-Continuous</code> tracks on CDash

*