Change of versioning scheme to `2.20` (no patch) vs `2.19.0` and earlier (jackson-databind version still 2.20.0 (28-Aug-2025))

[ca-stefan-cordes]

In the past the jackson-annotations version was released inline with all other jackson components.
Now "other" are named "2.20.0" and this one "2.20" (without .0).

Has that be done by intention to de-couple jackson annotations from the rest ?

(currently I have one version for all jacksons and so build fails with
Could not find artifact com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-annotations:jar:2.20.0 in centralMirror)

The "Release notes" does not mention something in that direction (to be precise it is completely empty ;-) )

EDIT: see actual 2.20 Release Notes

EDIT: see discussion#90 for more on decision to go with "2.20 plan".
And JSTEP-1 for the wider discussion on Jackson 3.x versioning.

[pjfanning]

Relates to #294.
It is unfortunate - some people will see build issues but this change is going to be kept. We should update the release notes if this change is not highlighted.

[pjfanning]

The release notes are at https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson/wiki/Jackson-Release-2.20

And they mention the #294 change.

[cowtowncoder]

Yes: this is to sort of de-couple jackson-annotations from patch versions of other components.
But also related to Jackson 3.0.0 relying on 2.x annotations.

I tried to explain rationale on JSTEP-1 (https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-future-ideas/wiki/JSTEP-1).

This change (dropping patch) was originally meant just for Jackson 3.x (due to friction for some 2.x users).
But due to re-thinking 2.x/3.x split for annotations, Jackson 3.0 will continue using 2.x jackson-annotations (to prevent problems we saw with 1.x->2.x migration with 2 annotations packages).

I realize this change may seem sudden and apologize for short time, reduced discussion.

But like @pjfanning said, this is permanent change from 2.20 onwards.

EDIT: To expand just slightly on "both 2.x and 3.x will depend on jackson-annotations 2.x hence drop the patch" will mean that:

• Both 2.20.x and 3.0.y jackson-databind will depend on jackson-annotations 2.20
• But there is no synchronization between x and y -- 2.20.1 and 3.0.1 releases go out independently
• There is no way -- aside from publishing separate 2.x and 3.x jackson-annotations -- to keep 3-level versions in-sync

this also ties into the older observation that annotations package really should never change in patch versions, prompting this change.

[pjfanning]

I mentioned this elsewhere but it's useful to mention it here. One way to simplify dependencies for Jackson is use:
https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-bom