bump

Command line tool for managing project versioning.

Usage

Add a .version.json file to the root of your project.
Use the command line utility in build scripts to increment the version number.

Strategies

To select a strategy use the --strategy option.

bump --strategy semver|date

Semver (default)

The default strategy is semver which looks like:

{
    "strategy": "semver",
    "major": 0,
    "minor": 1,
    "patch": 4,
    "build": 15
}

Date

The date strategy always uses the current date as the version number.

{
    "strategy": "date",
    "major": 2025,
    "minor": 3,
    "patch": 2
    "build": 0
}

The build is optional and defaults to 0. It is useful to track multiple releases in a single day.

Examples

Show current version:

bump

Typing bump by itself in a directory containing a version.json file will show the current version on the command line.

e.g.

0.1.4

If the version contains a build number > 0 then it will show the build also.

e.g.

0.1.4 (15)

Semver Strategy

Performing an increment action reads the file, increments the requested element and writes the file back out. This is ideal for automated release scripts.

build:

bump --build

patch:

bump --patch

minor:

bump --minor

major:

bump --major

This will load the version file, increment the patch number and write it back out.

Date Strategy

The date strategy uses the --stamp command to set the version to the current date.

bump --stamp

For multiple releases in a single day, the build number can be incremented.

bump --build

Creating a New File

bump --new

Creates a new .version.json file is the current folder.

Installation

MacOS

Make the file executable:

chmod +x bump

To install the command globally:

sudo cp bump /usr/local/bin

Usage with gitflow

A useful technique for creating a release using gitflow is to use the following command from the develop branch:

 bump | xargs git flow release start

This command will create a new git flow release using the current version number.