Swift Package Manager version Syntax

There is an amazing project called Swift Package Manager. I hope you know about it, if not take a second and have a look on it :)

Overview

Swift Package Manager (short name SwiftPM) is a dependency manger. You can make a Manifest file and declare your dependencies there.

import PackageDescription

let package = Package(
    name: "Hello",
    dependencies: [
        .Package(url: "ssh://git@example.com/Greeter.git", 
                 versions: Version(1,0,0)..<Version(2,0,0)),
    ]
)

In this example I simply say that my Package with name “Hello” depends on package with:

• Url - ssh://git@example.com/Greeter.git
• Version range - Version(1,0,0)..<Version(2,0,0)

That is the most popular notation to specify your dependency version. Maybe because it’s shown in the documentation.

apple/swift-package-manager

But there are also many other formats to specify version dependency in the Manifest file.

Version formats

There are 5 formats to declare version specification for a Package dependency. Here are they:

• Range - Version(0,1,0)..<Version(2,0,0)
• MajorVersion - majorVersion: 0
• majorVersion minor - majorVersion: 0, minor: 1
• Version - Version(0, 1, 0)
• Version String - “0.1.0”

let package = Package(
    name: “App”,
    dependencies: [
      .Package(url: “../Foo”, versions: 
               Version(0,1,0)..<Version(2,0,0)),
      .Package(url: “../Foo”, majorVersion: 0),
      .Package(url: “../Foo”, majorVersion: 0, minor: 1),
      .Package(url: “../Foo”, Version(0, 1, 0)),
      .Package(url: “../Foo”, “0.1.0”),
    ]
)

That’s it :)

Now you know many ways to specify a version for a dependency Package, choose it wisely :)