What does the tilde (~) mean in my composer.json file?
SymfonySyntaxComposer PhpSymfony Problem Overview
I have this line in my composer.json file:
"require": {
...
"friendsofsymfony/user-bundle": "~2.0@dev",
...
},
What does the tilde ~ in ~2.0@dev exactly mean? Is that a placeholder and shall always fetch the subversions like 1.2.0, 2.2.0, 3.2.0 and so on? Doesn't make sense (and would be done by the * wildcard).
The composer.json documentation doesn't tell anything about the tilde.
I am asking because I just read about a security issue in the Symfony blog and they recommend to upgrade to version 1.3.3. But figuring out the FOSUserBundle's version isn't that easy (I couldn't find a file that contains the version).
Symfony Solutions
Solution 1 - Symfony
Tilde means next significant release. In your case, it is equivalent to >= 2.0, < 3.0.
The full explanation is at Tilde Version Range docs page:
> The ~ operator is best explained by example: ~1.2 is equivalent to >=1.2 <2.0.0, while ~1.2.3 is equivalent to >=1.2.3 <1.3.0.
> Another way of looking at it is that using ~ specifies a minimum
> version, but allows the last digit specified to go up.
Seldeak's below comment is a simple sum up explanation of the Composer documentation.
Solution 2 - Symfony
Tilde operator is useful for the projects that version their libraries using semantic versioning scheme.
Semantic versioning is more of a guideline that evaluates to the next significant release.
For Composer, this operator means to allow minor releases (that can include patches) without allowing a major version (that may not be backward compatible) while installing and updating.
For example: ~4.1 will allow project versions >=4.1 but <5.0.
Solution 3 - Symfony
The tilde ~ is one of many constraints that can be used to handle versions.
Next Significant Release Operators (~, ^):
> The ~ operator is best explained by example: ~1.2 is equivalent to >=1.2 <2.0.0, while ~1.2.3 is equivalent to >=1.2.3 <1.3.0
> The ^ operator behaves very similarly, but it sticks closer to
> semantic versioning, and will always allow non-breaking updates. For
> example ^1.2.3 is equivalent to >=1.2.3 <2.0.0 as none of the releases
> until 2.0 should break backwards compatibility. For pre-1.0 versions
> it also acts with safety in mind and treats ^0.3 as >=0.3.0 <0.4.0
> Inclusive set of versions. Partial versions on the right include are
> completed with a wildcard. For example 1.0 - 2.0 is equivalent to
> >=1.0.0 <2.1 as the 2.0 becomes 2.0.*. On the other hand 1.0.0 - 2.1.0 is equivalent to >=1.0.0 <=2.1.0
> You can specify a pattern with a * wildcard. 1.0.* is the equivalent
> of >=1.0 <1.1
Simple Version Range (>, >=, <, <=, !=)
> By using comparison operators you can specify ranges of valid
> versions. Valid operators are >, >=, <, <=, !=.
>
> You can define multiple ranges. Ranges separated by a space ( ) or
> comma (,) will be treated as a logical AND. A double pipe (||) will be
> treated as a logical OR. AND has higher precedence than OR.
And finally Exact Version Constraint
> You can specify the exact version of a package
> Example: 1.0.2
Solution 4 - Symfony
The tilde ~ in ~2.0@dev exactly mean to go up for immediate version :
For Example :
If we have ~2.0@dev it goes to up immediate next version => ~2.x@dev