373

I saw this comment in git many times. What does it mean actually?

Dom
  • 1,687
  • 6
  • 27
  • 37
user80805
  • 6,088
  • 5
  • 28
  • 31

4 Answers4

419

It means to increment the version number to a new, unique value.

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
  • 776,304
  • 153
  • 1,341
  • 1,358
  • 11
    Does it have any special context in which it can be used? Does it have to be the source version, or can it be a dependency version? Can it include actually updating some component to a newer version, or is it about only changing a version number in a config file for example? In other words, are there any technical details about how this term can be used? – Alexey May 13 '14 at 09:01
  • 6
    Updating components or dependencies is usually annotated as "update to latest/newer" or "build against latest/newer". Other than that it's just housekeeping. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams May 13 '14 at 13:51
  • @Alexey One technical consideration I have about version bump (only in the context of sbt and Maven projects) is that development should only happen with `-SNAPSHOT` versions. This also helps avoid two people bumping the version unaware of each other. 1. bump from `-SNAPSHOT` to a release (with same version number). 2. commit 3. bump to next version number and place `-SNAPSHOT` back. 4. commit 5. push – akauppi Dec 27 '16 at 12:41
  • 7
    does `2.2.1` --> `2.2.2` count as a 'bump'? – OlehZiniak Apr 12 '17 at 08:07
  • 11
    @OlehZiniak: Assuming 2.2.2 hasn't been used as a version number in the project yet, sure. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Apr 12 '17 at 12:22
  • And could we say _"bump down a version from 2.2.2 to 2.2.1"_ ?! – Jonathan F. Aug 19 '20 at 07:54
  • 1
    Just to clarify, does "bump" generally mean changing *only* the version number *without* making any changes to the rest of the code? In other words, if Foo 1.9.9 is described as being bumped to 2.0.0, can I safely assume that everything else between these two versions is identical? – EJ Mak Oct 15 '20 at 20:57
  • 3
    yes @EJMak. after testing everything this should be the last commit made in a release. after that you can make a tag (https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Basics-Tagging) and or put your changes into a release branch (https://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/) – denns Dec 11 '20 at 13:05
88

from: A successful Git branching model:

$ git checkout -b release-1.2 develop
Switched to a new branch "release-1.2"
$ ./bump-version.sh 1.2
Files modified successfully, version bumped to 1.2.
$ git commit -a -m "Bumped version number to 1.2"
[release-1.2 74d9424] Bumped version number to 1.2
1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

After creating a new branch and switching to it, we bump the version number. Here, bump-version.sh is a fictional shell script that changes some files in the working copy to reflect the new version. (This can of course be a manual change—the point being that some files change.) Then, the bumped version number is committed.

Sebastian Sastre
  • 2,034
  • 20
  • 21
  • 44
    This article describes a fantastic way to work with git, by the way. Very organized and streamlined. I recommend to everyone. – pilau Feb 03 '13 at 09:02
  • 3
    Where can I have some demo bump_version script ? – voila Dec 13 '13 at 10:55
  • 5
    [bumpversion](https://github.com/peritus/bumpversion) or [grunt-bump](https://github.com/vojtajina/grunt-bump) or [git-version-bump](https://rubygems.org/gems/git-version-bump/) or else. Depending on your language preferences. – mab Jun 16 '15 at 15:03
  • 1
    Here is the [release.sh shell](https://gist.github.com/szxp/2b0e5e86c1350274f049a28392fc25e0) script on how I automatically bump Git tag versions – pepe Jul 16 '17 at 16:15
  • 3
    Who came to this question because he found "Bump Version" while reading that article, than found out that the answer was down there :D – KADEM Mohammed Nov 21 '19 at 09:52
  • @pilau A single way to work with git cannot be recommended to everyone :) Of course that comment is written in 2013 and makes total sense, but I recommend future readers to also watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_IFGpJDbeU – aderchox Jul 05 '22 at 06:26
  • Where is `./bump-version.sh` script is located? – alper Apr 30 '23 at 15:16
  • @alper the idea is that `bump-version.sh` is your own simple bash script that is doing whatever needs to be done in your repo to bump the version to the first argument sent. In that example `1.2`. That in case you commit the version. I have a project that doesn't commit the version and use git tags for versions instead. – Sebastian Sastre May 01 '23 at 14:44
30

Boost, pump up, bring up, ⸻the version.

The etymology for you.

https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/bump

Likely emerging in the mid to late 1990s with the rise of online message boards, bump is popularly said to be a backronym for the phrase “bring up my post.” The term, however, may have also simply originated as an extension of the word bump (i.e., give something a bump, or boost.).

Константин Ван
  • 12,550
  • 7
  • 61
  • 73
19

It means incrementing the current version number by 1.

Larry K
  • 47,808
  • 15
  • 87
  • 140
  • 15
    But hopefully you imply doing so in a way that conforms to [semver](http://semver.org/)! – binki Mar 25 '16 at 05:36
  • 7
    Semver is mostly for libs and APIs. It doesn't make sense *everywhere*. – Marc.2377 Nov 20 '19 at 01:03
  • 2
    Why not say "update/increment version" instead if that's what it means? It seems like jargon designed to exclude those not in the clique – danio May 02 '23 at 11:12