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I'm looking at upgrading my sites to 4.0, but I don't know if that's a major update.

Most of the sites I maintain are on 3.9, and I don't know if I should wait for a 3.10 release. Most of the open source software I use uses a numbering scheme of {major}.{minor}.{patch} and I'm wondering if WordPress 4.0 is a minor or major update, since the dashboard is prompting me to update to 4.0, not simply look into it.

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    There is no 3.10 version planned for release. All planned and released versions can be seen here: codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Versions
    – hereswhatidid
    Sep 15, 2014 at 20:14
  • 3.10? I am confused.
    – Christine Cooper ♦
    Sep 15, 2014 at 20:39
  • They meant 4.0.1, not 3.10.
    – Gabriel
    Sep 15, 2014 at 21:09
  • @ChristineCooper - I was using it as an arbitrary example; to my knowledge, all of the FOSS that I use follow the convention that you reserve changing the first digit for major changes, eg Drupal 6 is not compatible with Drupal 7, Linux Kernel 2.6 is not interchangeable with Kernel 3.2. So I've been holding off on updating WordPress because (based on my personal experience) it seemed that it should break my site.
    – Goldentoa11
    Sep 16, 2014 at 12:14
  • @Gabriel - I meant 3.10; I was using it as an arbitrary example of a hypothetical two-digit release number.
    – Goldentoa11
    Sep 16, 2014 at 12:16

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WordPress 4.0 is not a major update, at least referencing the scheme {major}.{minor}.{patch}. However, WordPress version numbering is explained here, and major versions are identified by the first two numbers, e.g. some recent major versions were 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 4.0, and 4.1 coming in December 2014.

WordPress noted in the release post, "4.0 is just another number for us after 3.9 and before 4.1". Treat this upgrade like you did when upgrading from 3.8 to 3.9.

I'm not sure if there will be a 4.0.1 minor release, usually referred to as Maintenance and/or Security releases. They usually come out a few weeks after a major release, and so far there has always been at least one released.

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WordPress version numbering only has major and minor versions.

Think of it as {major.also-major}.{minor} :)

WordPress 3.9 is a major version, WordPress 3.9.1 was a minor update to that version.

So, WordPress 4.0 is considered a major version release, yes. Minor version releases are now geared to only be bugfixes and to not introduce new features.

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    Didn't see your post until after I updated my answer, having run across the Wordpress Version Numbering explanation.
    – Gabriel
    Sep 15, 2014 at 21:46

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