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While in general terms I realize this is a sub-version number that's bumped based on patches that don't bump the major version, is there a more exact definition for this?

Must the number match the number of patches applied for example?

Or is this a general term that each project uses slightly differently?

ideasman42
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  • Replying to the flag that this question is "Opinion Based" - there are quire a few questions about meanings of terminology on this site, e.g: https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/118158 https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/163090 – ideasman42 May 28 '20 at 10:07
  • Both of those questions are from before the site changed its scope. Also, the fact that a question exists on the site is not proof that it is on-topic, it is only proof that it has not been removed yet. Moderation is done by volunteers in their spare time, so it *might* be on-topic, or it might be that nobody deemed if worth the effort to close it. And lastly, neither of those questions really ask for the definition of a term. One asks a focused question about the different usage of the term in two concrete examples, the other asks about a concept. – Jörg W Mittag May 28 '20 at 10:33

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The closest we have to an accepted definition of "patch level" comes from semantic versioning (semver), where a patch level is the third component of a version number, which gets increased if a release only contains backward compatible bug fixes.

However, semver is not universally used and others may use the term "patch level" in other ways.

Bart van Ingen Schenau
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