Versioning

Apache Geode can’t really follow loosely follows Semantic Versioning specification (http://semver.org/)   since even on major releases we don’t break backward compatibility with previous major version. But most principles still apply, such as the model:

...

MINOR: Minor releases can contain minor new features and must definitely include significant improvements to current API or components that justify not be configured as maintenance changes.  Minor releases can also be increased if extensions or sub-projects add new features or are updated somehow. 

 MAINTENANCE: Maintenance releases can occur more frequently and depend on specific patches introduced (e.g. bug fixes) and their urgency. In general these releases are designed to hot-fixes and bugs.

 API Compatibility

Changes to public classes or APIs should take into consideration backward compatibility with at least the previous major version in order to support rolling updates on a cluster.

...