Understanding Zowe release versions

Zowe releases

Zowe uses semantic versioning for its releases, also known as SemVer. In semantic versioning, each release has a unique ID made up of three numbers that are separated by periods:

<Major Version>.<Minor Version>.<Patch Version>

Each time a new release is created, the release ID is incremented. Each number represents the content change since the previous release. For example:

• 2.5.0 represents the fifth minor release since the first major release.
• 2.5.1 represents the first patch to the 2.5.0 release.
• 2.6.0 is the first minor release to be created after 2.5.1.

To see the Zowe release schedule, see Zowe PI Schedule and Releases.

Major release

Major releases are required for a "breaking" change, or a modification that requires updates to avoid disruptions in your applications. Major releases also can be used to indicate to the community a significant content update over and above what would be included in a minor release.

Conformance programs

Zowe V1 is associated with the Zowe V1 conformance program. Offerings that extend Zowe and achieve the Zowe V1 conformance badge remain compatible with Zowe throughout its Version 1 lifetime. A major release increment because of incompatibility is sometimes referred to as a "breaking" change.

SMP/E builds

Each major release has its own SMP/E Functional Module ID (FMID) in the format AZWE00V, where V represents the major version. The first SMP/E build for Zowe V3 has a Functional Module ID (FMID) of AZWE003, which was created with content from the 3.0.0 release.

Subsequent minor and patch releases to V3 are delivered as SMP/E PTF SYSMODs. Because of the size of the content, two co-requisite PTFs are created for each Zowe release.

Minor release

A minor release indicates that new functionality is added but the code is compatible with an earlier version.

Patch

A patch is usually reserved for a bug fix to a minor release.