Versioning

Specification

The storage specification documented in Specification is versioned using the integer dataset attribute metadata_version which can be defined for all writing pipelines. All metadata_version changes will be reflected in the version by increasing in. New specification versions will be introduced by increasing the minor library version while a removal of a supported version (both read and write) will trigger an increase of the major version number.

Library API

The library versioning itself uses a slighlty adapted version of [semantic versioning](https://semver.org) since the various modules of kartothek reached different levels of maturity.

We commit to full semantic versioning for the subpackages

• kartothek.serialization

• kartothek.io

• kartothek.api

which we consider as our stable public API and should be the primary entrypoint for user interactions.

The subpackages

• kartothek.core

• kartothek.io_components

• kartothek.utils

should be used primarily by extension developers and not the ordinary end user. We allow ourselves therefore a bit more freedom and permit breaking interface changes in every minor version. For changes in core, kartothek.utils and io_components with expected impact on end users we will decide on an individual case basis if an increase of major version is justified to signal the user potential breakage. Under any circumstances, breaking interface changes will be documented to the best of our knowledge.