Semantic Versioning Explained: What MAJOR, MINOR, and PATCH Numbers Mean

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Semantic Versioning, or SemVer, is a widely adopted convention that formats software version numbers as MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, with each position carrying a distinct meaning. The MAJOR number increments for breaking changes, MINOR for backward-compatible new features, and PATCH for backward-compatible bug fixes. This structure lets developers instantly gauge the risk of applying an update without reading full release notes. A common implementation pitfall involves comparing version strings lexicographically, which causes "1.10.0" to incorrectly rank lower than "1.9.0". The correct approach is to split each version string on dots, convert segments to integers, and compare the resulting numeric tuples.

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