1Version Numbers and Releases 2============================ 3 4 Curl is not only curl. Curl is also libcurl. They are actually individually 5 versioned, but they usually follow each other closely. 6 7 The version numbering is always built up using the same system: 8 9 X.Y.Z 10 11 - X is main version number 12 - Y is release number 13 - Z is patch number 14 15## Bumping numbers 16 17 One of these numbers will get bumped in each new release. The numbers to the 18 right of a bumped number will be reset to zero. 19 20 The main version number will get bumped when *really* big, world colliding 21 changes are made. The release number is bumped when changes are performed or 22 things/features are added. The patch number is bumped when the changes are 23 mere bugfixes. 24 25 It means that after release 1.2.3, we can release 2.0.0 if something really 26 big has been made, 1.3.0 if not that big changes were made or 1.2.4 if only 27 bugs were fixed. 28 29 Bumping, as in increasing the number with 1, is unconditionally only 30 affecting one of the numbers (except the ones to the right of it, that may be 31 set to zero). 1 becomes 2, 3 becomes 4, 9 becomes 10, 88 becomes 89 and 99 32 becomes 100. So, after 1.2.9 comes 1.2.10. After 3.99.3, 3.100.0 might come. 33 34 All original curl source release archives are named according to the libcurl 35 version (not according to the curl client version that, as said before, might 36 differ). 37 38 As a service to any application that might want to support new libcurl 39 features while still being able to build with older versions, all releases 40 have the libcurl version stored in the `curl/curlver.h` file using a static 41 numbering scheme that can be used for comparison. The version number is 42 defined as: 43 44```c 45#define LIBCURL_VERSION_NUM 0xXXYYZZ 46``` 47 48 Where `XX`, `YY` and `ZZ` are the main version, release and patch numbers in 49 hexadecimal. All three number fields are always represented using two digits 50 (eight bits each). 1.2 would appear as "0x010200" while version 9.11.7 51 appears as `0x090b07`. 52 53 This 6-digit hexadecimal number is always a greater number in a more recent 54 release. It makes comparisons with greater than and less than work. 55 56 This number is also available as three separate defines: 57 `LIBCURL_VERSION_MAJOR`, `LIBCURL_VERSION_MINOR` and `LIBCURL_VERSION_PATCH`. 58