Versioning

How is EGSnrc versioned?

Every change in a git repository is uniquely identified with a 40 hexadecimal digits hash value (a 160-bit SHA1 hash). This is useful to refer to a specific point in the EGSnrc code history, for example, commit 98c008213fef79506e6d9e87a444a139b0f79cc5 (in practice it proves sufficient to quote the first 7 characters 98c0082 to identify any particular commit, or more characters in case of collision).

However, such hash values are unsorted and rather cryptic, so for convenience we also tag the repository every year with "v" and the 4-digit year number, for example v2017. This tag point is called a release and is accessible via the Releases page. Significant changes or new features will only be added on release points, so in general parlance you can use this number to identify the version of EGSnrc you are using. If we need to release more than once every calendar year—for example if an important bug is uncovered and fixed—we add a letter to the release number, as in 2016a, 2016b, etc.