VERSIONING.md

Versioning

This document describes the versioning policy for this repository. This policy is designed so that the following goal can be achieved:

Users are provided a codebase of value that is stable and secure.

Policy

• Versioning of this project will be idiomatic of a Go project using Go modules.

  • Semantic import versioning will be used.

    • Versions will comply with semver 2.0.
    • If a module is version v2 or higher, the major version of the module must be included as a /vN at the end of the module paths used in go.mod files (e.g., module go.opentelemetry.io/collector/v2, require go.opentelemetry.io/collector/v2 v2.0.1) and in the package import path (e.g., import "go.opentelemetry.io/collector/v2/component"). This includes the paths used in go get commands (e.g., go get go.opentelemetry.io/collector/v2@v2.0.1. Note there is both a /v2 and a @v2.0.1 in that example. One way to think about it is that the module name now includes the /v2, so include /v2 whenever you are using the module name).
    • If a module is version v0 or v1, do not include the major version in either the module path or the import path.
    • Semantic convention packages will contain a complete version identifier in their import path to enable concurrent use of multiple convention versions in a single application. This identifies the version of the specification used to generate the package and is not related to the version of the module containing the package.

  • A single module should exist, rooted at the top level of this repository, that contains all packages provided for use outside this repository.

  • Additional modules may be created in this repository to provide for isolation of build-time tools or other commands. Such modules should be versioned in sync with the go.opentelemetry.io/collector module.

  • Experimental modules still under active development will be versioned with a major version of v0 to imply the stability guarantee defined by semver.

    Major version zero (0.y.z) is for initial development. Anything MAY change at any time. The public API SHOULD NOT be considered stable.

  • Configuration structures should be considered part of the public API and backward compatibility maintained through any changes made to configuration structures.

    • Because configuration structures are typically instantiated through unmarshalling a serialized representation of the structure, and not through structure literals, additive changes to the set of exported fields in a configuration structure are not considered to break backward compatibility.
    • Struct tags used to configure serialization mechanisms (yaml:, mapstructure:, etc) are to be considered part of the structure definition and must maintain compatibility to the same extent as the structure.
• Versioning of the associated contrib repository of this project will be idiomatic of a Go project using Go modules.
  • Semantic import versioning will be used.
    • Versions will comply with semver 2.0.
    • If a module is version v2 or higher, the major version of the module must be included as a /vN at the end of the module paths used in go.mod files (e.g., module github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/processor/k8sprocessor/v2, require github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/processor/k8sprocessor/v2 v2.0.1) and in the package import path (e.g., import "github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/processor/k8sprocessor/v2"). This includes the paths used in go get commands (e.g., go get github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/processor/k8sprocessor/v2@v2.0.1. Note there is both a /v2 and a @v2.0.1 in that example. One way to think about it is that the module name now includes the /v2, so include /v2 whenever you are using the module name).
    • If a module is version v0 or v1, do not include the major version in either the module path or the import path.
  • Configuration structures should be considered part of the public API and backward compatibility maintained through any changes made to configuration structures.
    • Because configuration structures are typically instantiated through unmarshalling a serialized representation of the structure, and not through structure literals, additive changes to the set of exported fields in a configuration structure are not considered to break backward compatibility.
  • Modules will be used to encapsulate receivers, processor, exporters, extensions, and any other independent sets of related components.

    • Experimental modules still under active development will be versioned with a major version of v0 to imply the stability guarantee defined by semver.

      Major version zero (0.y.z) is for initial development. Anything MAY change at any time. The public API SHOULD NOT be considered stable.

    • Experimental modules will start their versioning at v0.0.0 and will increment their minor version when backwards incompatible changes are released and increment their patch version when backwards compatible changes are released.

    • Mature modules for which we guarantee a stable public API will be versioned with a major version of v1 or greater.

    • All stable contrib modules of the same major version with this project will use the same entire version.

      • Stable modules may be released with an incremented minor or patch version even though that module's code has not been changed. Instead the only change that will have been included is to have updated that modules dependency on this project's stable APIs.
  • Contrib modules will be kept up to date with this project's releases.
• GitHub releases will be made for all releases.
• Go modules will be made available at Go package mirrors.