The semver shell utility

semver is a little tool to manipulate version bumping in a project that follows the semver 2.x specification. Its uses are:

• bump version
• compare versions
• extract specific version part
• identify most significant difference between two versions

It can be combined with git pre-commit hooks to guarantee correct versioning.

installation

The semver tool can be downloaded from github, made executable and added to your path with these commands:

# Download the script and save it to /usr/local/bin
wget -O /usr/local/bin/semver \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fsaintjacques/semver-tool/master/src/semver

# Make script executable
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/semver

# Prove it works
semver --version
# semver: 3.2.0

The semver tool can also be installed with the asdf version manager with this plugin, which automates the process of downloading and installing release binaries from github. With asdf already installed, use the following commands to install the semver tool

# Add the semver plugin to asdf
asdf plugin add semver

# Show all installable versions
asdf list-all semver

# Install specific version
asdf install semver latest

# Set a version globally (on your ~/.tool-versions file)
asdf global semver latest

# Now semver commands are available
semver --version

usage

Usage:
  semver bump (major|minor|patch|release|prerel [<prerel>]|build <build>) <version>
  semver compare <version> <other_version>
  semver diff <version> <other_version>
  semver get (major|minor|patch|release|prerel|build) <version>
  semver --help
  semver --version

Arguments:
  <version>  A version must match the following regular expression:
             "^[vV]?(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*)(\-(0|[1-9][0-9]*|[0-9]*[A-Za-z-][0-9A-Za-z-]*)(\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*|[0-9]*[A-Za-z-][0-9A-Za-z-]*))*)?(\+[0-9A-Za-z-]+(\.[0-9A-Za-z-]+)*)?$"
             In English:
             -- The version must match X.Y.Z[-PRERELEASE][+BUILD]
                where X, Y and Z are non-negative integers.
             -- PRERELEASE is a dot separated sequence of non-negative integers and/or
                identifiers composed of alphanumeric characters and hyphens (with
                at least one non-digit). Numeric identifiers must not have leading
                zeros. A hyphen ("-") introduces this optional part.
             -- BUILD is a dot separated sequence of identifiers composed of alphanumeric
                characters and hyphens. A plus ("+") introduces this optional part.

  <other_version>  See <version> definition.

  <prerel>  A string as defined by PRERELEASE above. Or, it can be a PRERELEASE
            prototype string (or empty) followed by a dot.

  <build>   A string as defined by BUILD above.

Options:
  -v, --version          Print the version of this tool.
  -h, --help             Print this help message.

Commands:
  bump     Bump by one of major, minor, patch; zeroing or removing
           subsequent parts. "bump prerel" sets the PRERELEASE part and
           removes any BUILD part. A trailing dot in the <prerel> argument
           introduces an incrementing numeric field which is added or
           bumped. If no <prerel> argument is provided, an incrementing numeric
           field is introduced/bumped. "bump build" sets the BUILD part.
           "bump release" removes any PRERELEASE or BUILD parts.
           The bumped version is written to stdout.

  compare  Compare <version> with <other_version>, output to stdout the
           following values: -1 if <other_version> is newer, 0 if equal, 1 if
           older. The BUILD part is not used in comparisons.

  diff     Compare <version> with <other_version>, output to stdout the
           difference between two versions by the release type (MAJOR, MINOR,
           PATCH, PRERELEASE, BUILD).

  get      Extract given part of <version>, where part is one of major, minor,
           patch, prerel, build, or release.

See also:
  https://semver.org -- Semantic Versioning 2.0.0

examples

Basic bumping operations

$ semver bump patch 0.1.0
0.1.1
$ semver bump minor 0.1.1
0.2.0
$ semver bump patch 0.2.0
0.2.1
$ semver bump major 0.2.1
1.0.0
$ semver bump patch 1.0.0
1.0.1
$ semver bump prerel rc.1 1.0.1
1.0.1-rc.1
$ semver bump prerel rc.. 1.2.0-beta2
1.2.0-rc.1
$ semver bump prerel 1.0.1-rc.1+build4423
1.0.1-rc.2
$ semver bump prerel beta. 1.1.0-beta2
1.1.0-beta3
$ semver bump build build.051 1.0.1-rc1.1.0
1.0.1-rc1.1.0+build.051
$ semver bump release v0.1.0-SNAPSHOT
0.1.0

Comparing version for scripting

$ semver compare 1.0.1-rc1.1.0+build.051 1.0.1
-1
$ semver compare v1.0.1-rc1.1.0+build.051 V1.0.1-rc1.1.0
0
$ semver compare 1.0.1-rc1.1.0+build.051 1.0.1-rc1.1.0+build.052
0
$ semver compare 1.0.1-rc1.1.0+build.051 1.0.1-rb1.1.0
1
$ semver compare 10.1.4-rc4 10.4.2-rc1
-1
$ semver compare 10.1.4-rc4 10.4.2-1234
-1

Find most significant difference

$ semver diff 1.0.1-rc1.1.0+build.051 1.0.1
prerelease
$ semver diff 10.1.4 10.1.4

$ semver diff 10.1.4-rc4 10.4.2-rc1
minor

Extract version part

$ semver get patch 1.2.3
3
$ semver get minor 1.2.3
2
$ semver get major 1.2.3
1
$ semver get prerel 1.2.3-rc.4
rc.4
$ semver get prerel 1.2.3-alpha.4.5
alpha.4.5
$ semver get build 1.2.3-rc.4+build.567
build.567
$ semver get release 1.2.3-rc.4+build.567
1.2.3
$ semver get prerel 1.2.3+build.568

$ semver get prerel 1.2.3-rc.4+build.569
rc.4
$ semver get prerel 1.2.3-rc-4+build.570
rc-4