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## Project Versioning

We are using the semantic versioning standard:

http://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html

For instance, we can have: 1.5.1-dev.1 that corresponds to: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH-PRERELEASE

More in depth:

* MAJOR version when you make incompatible API / DB structure changes. In AzerothCore we release a MAJOR version once in a while and we support only security fixes right after (read the section below). Therefore, this version can be seen more as a Milestone.

* MINOR version when you add functionality in a backwards-compatible manner. This is mostly unused on AC since we do not import any new functionality after we release a MAJOR version.

* PATCH version when you make backwards-compatible bug and security fixes.

* PRERELEASE this is such called “metadata” in semver standard. We use this part of the versioning while we work on master branch. Everytime a new feature or breaking change (on both code or db) is released, this number is increased to notify you regarding possible actions to take. Check [how to use the changelog](how-to-use-changelog.md).

### PRERELEASE first

AzerothCore is not yet considered a “completed” software, hence is costantly in dev stage. The versioning described above will be mainly used to provide a simple way to check if a module, script or anything connected to AC is compatible or not with AC and what to do to upgrade it.

Our strategy is (in order of most common actions):

- to not update the version when the changes are just small fixes/chore changes - to update the `-dev.x` prerelease version on master when we have breaking changes or new features - to upgrade the major version when we decide to release a new stable version - if any new security patch or feature is imported within the released major version, those ones will increase the minor/patch version then, but we do it very occasionally.

## Dev stages

* PHASE 1: Developing Phase: During the developing phase, we will use the master branch where we can freely make changes to API, DB and all things that could break compatibility with old revisions. At the beginning of each development phase, we will clean the sql/updates folders archiving old SQLs.

N.B. 
* Some big jobs, such as rewriting/implementing features, could be not ready for next revision and eventually they will be planned for a future one, so they will be kept in dedicated branches instead of master. 
* Using master branch you will have immediate access to new awesome features, but you must take care since some commits can break stability in some rare cases.

* PHASE 2: Only Stability and security fixes: In this phase we will stop to import mechanic / content fix and we will offer support to only security and stability issues. For example: if a function generates a crash for a null pointer, we will fix it.

We could eventually extends this phase if requested by many people.

* PHASE 3: End of Life ( EOL ): We will archive that release keeping documentation and branch ofc. You can continue to use/download it, but we won't offer any official support of any kind

## List of releases

NOTE: this is outdated, check our [releases](https://github.com/azerothcore/azerothcore-wotlk/releases) on github

| version/branch | codename | description | current state | release data | end of support|