49

I get the logic of MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH and kinda intuitively get what -alpha and -beta mean at the end of a semver number but -rc doesn't ring any bell for me.

Couldn't find a satisfying answer there -> https://semver.org/

marc_s
  • 732,580
  • 175
  • 1,330
  • 1,459
Félix Paradis
  • 5,165
  • 6
  • 40
  • 49

3 Answers3

49

The meanings of prerelease and build meta tags in SemVer strings is entirely up to the publisher. Always consult the publisher's documentation before acting on tag content. As @lemieuxster points out however, "rc" is likely an acronym for Release Candidate.

In the absence of publisher documentation, you can not make assumptions about meanings of any prerelease tag. The spec defines precedence based entirely on the tag's ASCII code points and the number of fields: 1.0.0-airdale < 1.0.0-airdale.dog < 1.0.0-boring < 1.0.0-zed. They don't have to have any implied meaning for the sort algorithms to do their job. There's nothing special about "-alpha" unless the publisher documents what it means.

jwdonahue
  • 6,199
  • 2
  • 21
  • 43
  • 3
    Do you have any sources? – Félix Paradis Jun 22 '18 at 14:48
  • 3
    Well it could stand for Really Crappy, how likely do you think that is? The point is that the SemVer spec doesn't define the semantics of any specific prerelease tag, only their sort order. It does have precedence examples that include alpha, beta and rc, but as far as their version semantics are concerned; all versions that include a prerelease tag are potentially breaking, no matter which version field is bumped and they sort lower than versions without the tag (given equal version numbers). – jwdonahue Jun 22 '18 at 16:18
12

RC means release candidate. A release candidate (RC) version is a beta version likely to be a stable product. Generally, the last two releases may be stable release.

Amber Zhang
  • 182
  • 1
  • 6
5

RC stands for release candidate, It is a version of a software program that is still being tested, but is ready to be released. If no major issues are found in the release candidate, then it is released to the public. RC is made available for "last minute testing" purposes to detect any remaining errors within the program.

Zied Yazidi
  • 385
  • 3
  • 9
  • 1
    "Decelerate" ? I guess you thought of the French "déceler", which would be ["detect" in English](https://translate.google.com/?sl=fr&tl=en&text=d%C3%A9celer&op=translate). I'm just making this comment because I'm French too and I found it funny that I still understood what you meant ^^' – LoneCodeRanger Jan 10 '23 at 10:11
  • 3
    You just have debugged my response :D You are right, i meant detect. I edited the response. Thank you for your help – Zied Yazidi Jan 11 '23 at 11:04