Maven Version Specifiers

Categories: Java

I recently had to decide what version-numbers to assign to development releases of an upcoming product which uses the Maven build-tool. The software is being developed in a series of “sprints”, so my first thought was to use version-numbers 2.0-sprint-3, 2.0-sprint-4 then 2.0. But in Maven, is 2.0-sprint-4 really before 2.0? The Maven docs were unclear, so I researched the topic.

Spoiler: no, it is not; I had to settle for 2.0-beta-* as my naming scheme.