title: What version numbering scheme to use?
body: <p>I'm looking for a version numbering scheme that expresses the extent of change, especially compatiblity. </p>
  
  <p><a href="http://apr.apache.org/versioning.html" rel="noreferrer">Apache APR</a>, for example, use the well known version numbering scheme </p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;major&gt;.&lt;minor&gt;.&lt;patch&gt;
  example: 4.5.11
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Maven suggests a similar but more detailed schema: </p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;major&gt;.&lt;minor&gt;.&lt;patch&gt;-&lt;qualifier&gt;-&lt;build number&gt;
  example: 4.5.11-RC1-3732
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Where is the Maven versioning scheme defined? Are there conventions for qualifier and build number? Probably it is a bad idea to use maven but not to follow the Maven version scheme ...</p>
  
  <p>What other version numbering schemes do you know? What scheme would you prefer and why?</p>