SPM version numbers¶
SPM has a version and a release. For example, the version may be SPM25 and the release may be 25.01.
Other toolboxes that depend on SPM use this information to check whether a compatible SPM version is installed. A common pattern is to split the version string into two parts, e.g. SPM12 becomes SPM and 12, and then the latter part is compared to the desired version number.
Calendar versioning¶
With the introduction of SPM25, SPM moved to calendar versioning. The format is YY.0M[.MICRO], where YY is the short year (e.g. 25 for the year 2025), 0M is the zero padded month (e.g. 06 for June or 12 for December) and .MICRO is an optional integer for patches.
For backward compatibility, the version and release are set as follows:
- Version: SPMYY, where YY is the year of the most recent release, e.g. SPM25
- Release: either 00.00 for the development version on Github or for a release: YY.0M[.MICRO], e.g. 25.07 for July 2025
Where the SPM version number is stored¶
The SPM version is stored on the second line of the file Contents.m in the root directory, or Contents.txt when SPM is in deployed mode (i.e., compiled).
Querying SPM’s version number¶
To obtain the version and release call:
where v is the version and r is the release. For convenience, to return the version and release as a single string, instead call:
please note that when using the development version of SPM the release string will be 00.00Uniquely identifying the development version of SPM¶
If you use the development version of SPM you will need to be able to uniquely identify what version of SPM that you are using. This is important when you either write papers or share code with others. By way of example let’s say you were using the development version that was available on the 18th of February 2025. To uniquely identify this version of SPM you must first locate the commit associated with the version you are using. This can easily be done by pressing the commits button in the repository
When you press this button you will be redirected to the list of commits over time. Hovering your mouse over the two angular brackets next to the appropriate commit will allow you to explore the repository at that point in time.
When you click on these brackets you will be redirected to the repository at that point in time. You can now
- Hover over the code button
- Click download ZIP
- Save the link to the repository
You should now have the correct code for your project and a link that you can share in scripts or in papers. An example of what you might put in a script is given below.