Versioning

All versions are of the tuple (major,minor,patch).

As of Botan 2.0.0, Botan uses semantic versioning. The minor number increases if any feature addition is made. The patch version is used to indicate a release where only bug fixes were applied. If an incompatible API change is required, the major version will be increased.

The library has functions for checking compile-time and runtime versions.

The build-time version information is defined in botan/build.h

BOTAN_VERSION_MAJOR

The major version of the release.

BOTAN_VERSION_MINOR

The minor version of the release.

BOTAN_VERSION_PATCH

The patch version of the release.

BOTAN_VERSION_DATESTAMP

Expands to an integer of the form YYYYMMDD if this is an official release, or 0 otherwise. For instance, 3.6.1, which was released on October 26, 2024, has a BOTAN_VERSION_DATESTAMP of 20241026.

Warning

This macro is deprecated and will be removed in Botan4. Use version_datestamp

BOTAN_DISTRIBUTION_INFO

Added in version 1.9.3.

A macro expanding to a string that is set at build time using the --distribution-info option. It allows a packager of the library to specify any distribution-specific patches. If no value is given at build time, the value is the string “unspecified”.

Warning

This macro is deprecated and will be removed in Botan4. Use version_distribution_info

BOTAN_VERSION_VC_REVISION

Added in version 1.10.1.

A macro expanding to a string that is set to a revision identifier corresponding to the source, or “unknown” if this could not be determined. It is set for all official releases.

Warning

This macro is deprecated and will be removed in Botan4. Use version_vc_revision

The runtime version information, and some helpers for compile time version checks, are included in botan/version.h

std::string version_string()

Returns a single-line string containing relevant information about this build and version of the library in an unspecified format.

uint32_t version_major()

Returns the major part of the version.

uint32_t version_minor()

Returns the minor part of the version.

uint32_t version_patch()

Returns the patch part of the version.

uint32_t version_datestamp()

Return the datestamp of the release (or 0 if the current version is not an official release).

std::optional<std::string> version_vc_revision()

Added in version 3.8.

Returns a string that is set to a revision identifier corresponding to the source, or nullopt if this could not be determined. It is set for all official releases, and for builds that originated from within a git checkout.

std::optional<std::string> version_distribution_info()

Added in version 3.8.

Return any string that is set at build time using the --distribution-info option. It allows a packager of the library to specify any distribution-specific patches. If no value is given at build time, returns nullopt.

BOTAN_VERSION_CODE_FOR(maj, min, patch)

Return a value that can be used to compare versions. The current (compile-time) version is available as the macro BOTAN_VERSION_CODE. For instance, to choose one code path for version 3.4.0 and later, and another code path for older releases:

#if BOTAN_VERSION_CODE >= BOTAN_VERSION_CODE_FOR(3,4,0)
   // 3.4+ code path
#else
   // code path for older versions
#endif