Versioning is always a big question and I see many similar questions here, however none really answer my question so I try to highlight the things that are important to me specifically.

We have a single repository for a multi-module maven project. The decision for a single repository was made, because the modules are (in part) tightly coupled, and it makes refactoring across the whole codebase easier. The move to a monorepo was done just recently without thinking about how to properly handle versioning and releases.

Before, each module (then a separate project in a separate repository) was released independently and luckily never introduced breaking changes, so customers could freely choose which versions to use and never had any issues.

What I want to do is keep offering releases for the individual modules, because it makes updating much easier. (Bugfix release? just exchange the jar file). But I always want to release distribution packages.

Consider the following layout:

pom.xml
  --- app1 pom.xml
  --- app2 pom.xml
  --- lib1 pom.xml
  --- dist pom.xml

Each module has its own version. An application might get a new feature which justifies a bump in the minor version, a library might get constant buxfixes so its micro version increases fast.

It comes down to two questions:

• Under these circumstances - what is the meaning of the version number of the maven root project?

I could imagine it simply tracking the state of the repository. A new module is added? Bump the micro version. A module is removed/merged? Bump the major version. Things like that. But I'm not sure if this is a good approach.

• What version should the distribution package have?

When all components have different versions, I just can't pick a single one. Every update of the components has to be reflected in the distribution's version. Although I really like semantic versioning, I feel like a date-based approach might be better suited here. Make a distribution release every 6 months or so and call it 2020_06. If an important bugfix required the update of a component in between, a version like 2020_06.2 might work as well.

I'd love to hear your opinions and experiences.

Versioning is always a big question and I see many similar questions here, however none really answer my question so I try to highlight the things that are important to me specifically.

We have a single repository for a multi-module maven project. The decision for a single repository was made, because the modules are (in part) tightly coupled, and it makes refactoring across the whole codebase easier. The move to a monorepo was done just recently without thinking about how to properly handle versioning and releases.

Before, each module (then a separate project in a separate repository) was released independently and luckily never introduced breaking changes, so customers could freely choose which versions to use and never had any issues.

What I want to do is keep offering releases for the individual modules, because it makes updating much easier. (Bugfix release? just exchange the jar file). But I always want to release distribution packages.

Consider the following layout:

pom.xml
  --- app1 pom.xml
  --- app2 pom.xml
  --- lib1 pom.xml
  --- dist pom.xml

Each module has its own version. An application might get a new feature which justifies a bump in the minor version, a library might get constant buxfixes so its micro version increases fast.

It comes down to two questions:

• Under these circumstances - what is the meaning of the version number of the maven root project?

I could imagine it simply tracking the state of the repository. A new module is added? Bump the micro version. A module is removed/merged? Bump the major version. Things like that. But I'm not sure if this is a good approach.

• What version should the distribution package have?

When all components have different versions, I just can't pick a single one. Every update of the components has to be reflected in the distribution's version. Although I really like semantic versioning, I feel like a date-based approach might be better suited here. Make a distribution release every 6 months or so and call it 2020_06. If an important bugfix required the update of a component in between, a version like 2020_06.2 might work as well.