horde/version

Create, parse, increment, compare, and constrain strict SemVer V2 version tags and other common semantic versioning formats found in the wild.

Features

• ✅ Parse strict SemVer 2.0 and relaxed variants
• ✅ Compare versions with full SemVer 2.0 precedence rules
• ✅ Generate next versions (patch/minor/major bumps)
• ✅ Detect and manage stability levels (dev/alpha/beta/rc/stable)
• ✅ Version constraints (Composer-compatible syntax)
• ✅ Collection utilities (sort, filter, find latest)
• ✅ Comprehensive test coverage (193 tests, 592 assertions)

Installation

composer require horde/version

Quick Start

Parsing Versions

use Horde\Version\SemVerV2Version;
use Horde\Version\RelaxedSemanticVersion;

// Strict SemVer 2.0
$version = new SemVerV2Version('1.0.0');
$version = new SemVerV2Version('1.0.0-alpha.1+build.123');

// Relaxed format (prefixes, no hyphen, missing patch)
$version = new RelaxedSemanticVersion('v1.0.0');
$version = new RelaxedSemanticVersion('1.0');           // → 1.0.0
$version = new RelaxedSemanticVersion('1.0.0alpha1');   // → 1.0.0-alpha1

// Access components
echo $version->major;        // 1
echo $version->minor;        // 0
echo $version->patch;        // 0
echo $version->preRelease;   // 'alpha1'
echo $version->buildInfo;    // ''

Comparing Versions

use Horde\Version\SemVerV2Comparison;

$comparison = new SemVerV2Comparison();
$result = $comparison->compare(
    new SemVerV2Version('1.0.0'),
    new SemVerV2Version('2.0.0')
); // -1 (first < second)

// Or use helper methods
$v1 = new SemVerV2Version('1.0.0');
$v2 = new SemVerV2Version('2.0.0');

$v1->isLessThan($v2);      // true
$v2->isGreaterThan($v1);   // true
$v1->equals($v1);          // true

Version Constraints

use Horde\Version\ConstraintParser;

$parser = new ConstraintParser();

// Exact match
$constraint = $parser->parse('1.0.0');
$constraint->isSatisfiedBy($version); // true if version == 1.0.0

// Comparison operators
$constraint = $parser->parse('>=1.0.0');
$constraint = $parser->parse('<2.0.0');
$constraint = $parser->parse('!=1.5.0');

// Caret (^) - Allow changes that don't modify left-most non-zero
$constraint = $parser->parse('^1.2.3');  // >=1.2.3 <2.0.0
$constraint = $parser->parse('^0.2.3');  // >=0.2.3 <0.3.0
$constraint = $parser->parse('^0.0.3');  // =0.0.3

// Tilde (~) - Allow patch-level changes
$constraint = $parser->parse('~1.2.3');  // >=1.2.3 <1.3.0
$constraint = $parser->parse('~1.2');    // >=1.2.0 <2.0.0

// Wildcard
$constraint = $parser->parse('1.0.*');   // >=1.0.0 <1.1.0
$constraint = $parser->parse('1.*');     // >=1.0.0 <2.0.0

// Range
$constraint = $parser->parse('1.0.0 - 2.0.0');

// AND (space-separated)
$constraint = $parser->parse('>=1.0.0 <2.0.0');

// OR (||)
$constraint = $parser->parse('^1.0 || ^2.0');

// Check if version satisfies constraint
if ($constraint->isSatisfiedBy($version)) {
    echo "Version is compatible!";
}

Collection Utilities

use Horde\Version\VersionCollection;

$versions = ['2.0.0', '1.0.0', '1.5.0', '2.0.0-alpha'];

// Sort versions
$sorted = VersionCollection::sort($versions);
// ['1.0.0', '1.5.0', '2.0.0-alpha', '2.0.0']

$sortedDesc = VersionCollection::sort($versions, descending: true);
// ['2.0.0', '2.0.0-alpha', '1.5.0', '1.0.0']

// Find latest version
$latest = VersionCollection::latest($versions);
// '2.0.0'

$latestStable = VersionCollection::latest($versions, 'stable');
// '2.0.0' (excludes alpha)

// Filter by constraint
$compatible = VersionCollection::filter($versions, '^1.0');
// ['1.0.0', '1.5.0']

// Filter by stability
$stable = VersionCollection::filter($versions, 'stable');
// ['1.0.0', '1.5.0', '2.0.0']

// Filter by callback
$filtered = VersionCollection::filter($versions, fn($v) => $v->major >= 2);
// ['2.0.0', '2.0.0-alpha']

// Group by major version
$grouped = VersionCollection::group($versions, 'major');
// ['1.x' => ['1.0.0', '1.5.0'], '2.x' => ['2.0.0', '2.0.0-alpha']]

Generating Next Versions

use Horde\Version\NextVersion;

$current = new NextVersion('1.0.0');

// Bump patch version
$next = $current('patch', 'stable');  // '1.0.1'

// Bump minor version
$next = $current('minor', 'stable');  // '1.1.0'

// Bump major version
$next = $current('major', 'stable');  // '2.0.0'

// Change stability
$next = $current('minor', 'alpha');   // '1.1.0-alpha.1'
$next = $current('patch', 'beta');    // '1.0.1-beta.1'

// Keep same stability
$next = $current('patch', 'unchanged'); // '1.0.1'

// Increment prerelease revision
$current = new NextVersion('1.0.0-alpha.1');
$next = $current('patch', 'unchanged'); // '1.0.0-alpha.2'

Stability Detection

use Horde\Version\Stability;

$version = new SemVerV2Version('1.0.0-beta.2');
$stability = new Stability($version);

echo $stability->stability;           // 'beta'
echo $stability->stabilityRank;       // 2 (dev=0, alpha=1, beta=2, rc=3, stable=1000)

$stability->isStable();               // false
$stability->isBeta();                 // true
$stability->getStabilityRevision();   // 2

Motivation

SemVer V2 is a useful attempt to standardize semantic versioning. However, semantic versioning itself predates it, and many variant formats exist in the wild.

Common SemVer Deviations

• Stability order: Treating "dev" as inferior to "alpha" (SemVer says alpha < beta < dev < rc)
• No hyphen: Prerelease without hyphen (1.0.0alpha1 instead of 1.0.0-alpha.1)
• Missing patch: Version strings with only major.minor (1.0 instead of 1.0.0)
• Prefixes: v prefix before version (v1.0.0)
• Prerelease format: alpha4 more common than alpha.4

This library handles both strict SemVer 2.0 and these common variants.

Use Cases

Dependency Management

// Check if installed version satisfies requirement
$parser = new ConstraintParser();
$required = $parser->parse('^1.2.0');
$installed = new SemVerV2Version('1.5.0');

if ($required->isSatisfiedBy($installed)) {
    echo "Dependency satisfied!";
}

Update Checker

// Find latest compatible version
$availableVersions = ['1.0.0', '1.5.0', '2.0.0', '2.1.0'];
$currentVersion = '1.3.0';

// Find latest in same major version
$compatible = VersionCollection::filter($availableVersions, '^' . $currentVersion);
$latestCompatible = VersionCollection::latest($compatible);
// '1.5.0'

Release Management

// Find all stable versions in 1.x series
$allVersions = ['1.0.0', '1.5.0', '2.0.0-alpha', '2.0.0'];
$v1Stable = VersionCollection::filter($allVersions, function($v) {
    return $v->major === 1 && (new Stability($v))->isStable();
});
// ['1.0.0', '1.5.0']

API Documentation

Core Classes

• SemVerV2Version - Strict SemVer 2.0.0 parser
• RelaxedSemanticVersion - Lenient parser for common variants
• GenericVersion - Any version string
• SemVerV2Comparison - Compare versions per SemVer rules
• NextVersion - Generate next version with bumps
• Stability - Detect and classify stability levels

Constraint System

• VersionConstraint - Interface for all constraints
• ConstraintParser - Parse constraint strings
• ExactConstraint - Exact version match
• ComparisonConstraint - >, >=, <, <=, !=
• CaretConstraint - ^1.2.3 ranges
• TildeConstraint - ~1.2.3 ranges
• WildcardConstraint - 1.0.* patterns
• CompositeConstraint - AND/OR logic

Utilities

• VersionCollection - Sort, filter, find versions
• VersionComparable - Helper methods trait

Requirements

• PHP 8.2 or higher
• No external dependencies

Testing

composer install
vendor/bin/phpunit

Test coverage: 193 tests, 592 assertions

License

LGPL-2.1-only - See LICENSE file

Contributing

This library is part of the Horde project. Contributions welcome!

Origin

Originally extracted from the horde/components developer CLI tool, rewritten for general-purpose use.