# Core Version Numbering

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/core-version-numbering/20989>\
**Category:** Ansible Developer\
**Created:** [March 25, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/core-version-numbering/20989 "2016-03-25T18:40:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Alex\_Rowley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/65b543/32.png) [@Alex\_Rowley](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Alex_Rowley)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/core-version-numbering/20989/1 "2016-03-25T18:40:16Z")

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Hi all,

Could someone explain how the core version numbering works after moving to version 2?

Prior to version 2 I thought that semantic versioning was used but now all tagged versions seem to use 4 numbers prior to the hyphen.

This change is causing some confusion for me as to which version is the most up to date, and how to track the latest changes.

I found this on the site [http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/community.html#release-numbering](http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/community.html#release-numbering) but it also seems to imply 3 digits.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks, Alex

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**Author:** ![James\_Cammarata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7c8e57/32.png) [@James\_Cammarata](https://forum.ansible.com/u/James_Cammarata)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2016, 3:22am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/core-version-numbering/20989/2 "2016-03-26T03:22:54Z")

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Hi Alex, I moved to a 4 digit release version to alleviate some problems we have with packaging (PyPi doesn’t allow the same filename to be uploaded twice). In the event that we have a small packaging problem, we used to have to bump the minor, which I always hated doing. So the 4th digit is really just the packaging release version to us, and the first 3 are the actual release version.

I’ll update that doc to make this a bit more clear in light of the new numbering.

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**Author:** ![Alex\_Rowley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/65b543/32.png) [@Alex\_Rowley](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Alex_Rowley)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2016, 7:47pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/core-version-numbering/20989/3 "2016-03-26T19:47:27Z")

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Hi James,

Thanks for the prompt reply and for explaining the new numbering.

I’ve not released any of my own packages to PyPI before so I might be misinterpreting the docs but I’m curious if this packaging identifier could be labelled a post suffix? Or even if the packaging can be uploaded and tested on Test PyPI before releasing? That would mean that packaging issues could be caught there before releasing to a wider audience on PyPI.

Looking at the comparison between releases for 2.0.0 I think a bug fix may have slipped in without the right increment during the packaging changes.  
[https://github.com/ansible/ansible/compare/v2.0.0.1-1...v2.0.0.2-1](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/compare/v2.0.0.1-1...v2.0.0.2-1)

Thanks, Alex

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**Author:** ![James\_Cammarata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7c8e57/32.png) [@James\_Cammarata](https://forum.ansible.com/u/James_Cammarata)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/core-version-numbering/20989/4 "2016-03-27T16:05:59Z")

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Yes, there was a minor bugfix related to Tower that went in with that as well.