[GH-ISSUE #807] Question: Do bump in version implies an actual change for SemVer? #4774

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GiteaMirror · 2026-06-13T13:09:46-05:00

GiteaMirror commented

2026-06-13 13:09:46 -05:00

Originally created by @pak3nuh on GitHub (Feb 22, 2022).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/semver/semver/issues/807

It might seem like common sense that if a version changes, then something in the code changes, but there are nuances.

For instance there might be branding strategies like bumping a product version to a new major early or there might side effects of bundling components where we make an increment on one of the components, but all others are bumped just because they belong to the same global package.

I've looked at the spec and I've only seen that if something changes, then it MUST be versioned, but haven't seen the opposite. If something hasn't changed, CAN it be versioned?

Originally created by @pak3nuh on GitHub (Feb 22, 2022). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/semver/semver/issues/807 It might seem like common sense that if a version changes, then something in the code changes, but there are nuances. For instance there might be branding strategies like bumping a product version to a new major early or there might side effects of bundling components where we make an increment on one of the components, but all others are bumped just because they belong to the same global package. I've looked at the spec and I've only seen that if something changes, then it MUST be versioned, but haven't seen the opposite. If something hasn't changed, CAN it be versioned?

GiteaMirror added the question label 2026-06-13 13:09:46 -05:00

GiteaMirror closed this issue

2026-06-13 13:09:49 -05:00

GiteaMirror commented

2026-06-13 13:09:51 -05:00

@ljharb commented on GitHub (Feb 22, 2022):

Yes, a change is not required - although bumping a version when no change is included causes churn for consumers, and so may be seen as a hostile act if done frequently.

@ljharb commented on GitHub (Feb 22, 2022): Yes, a change is not required - although bumping a version when no change is included causes churn for consumers, and so may be seen as a hostile act if done frequently.

GiteaMirror commented

2026-06-13 13:09:51 -05:00

@JohnTitor commented on GitHub (Aug 13, 2022):

I think this is not something to clarify on the semver specification, so just closing in favor of the above answer.

@JohnTitor commented on GitHub (Aug 13, 2022): I think this is not something to clarify on the semver specification, so just closing in favor of the above answer.

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Reference: github-starred/semver#4774