julia_versionnumber

[aminya]

Fixes #36221

This is a function that connects to GitHub and gets the latest nightly version.

Note: I just picked a name that I thought is suitable. Let me know if you have a better suggestion.

[musm]

Why is this needed in base? This looks like it would be better suited in user package that requires this functionality directly.

[Keno]

This doesn't seem like it should be in Base. It also commits us to a location of the version file that's fairly random.

[aminya]

Why is this needed in base? This looks like it would be better suited in user package that requires this functionality directly.

It is already there, but per comment of @timholy, we should move them to other packages that have similar functionality.

We should consider putting the bot utils in a separate package if they aren't specific to SnoopCompile.

I could not find any Version.jl to commit this to. The only version.jl lives in the Julia Base itself.

It also commits us to a location of the version file that's fairly random.

Exactly that's why I think this belongs to Base.

There is no doubt that there should be a way to fetch the current nightly version, and if this goes to some other package, the maintainer of that package (and that non-julia repository) should monitor Julia repository constantly.

[yuyichao]

Exactly that's why I think this belongs to Base.

It is actually quite conterintuitiviely the opposite. While I don't expect the VERSION file to move (it hasn't fore YEARS...), suppose if it did in 1.7, then the 1.6 version of julia won't be able to access it anymore. OTOH, if it was in a package, the package can just release a new version that works for all julia versions.

Basically the property you are querying is not a property of the julia version you run on, but a property of the latest setup, which shouldn't be tied to a specific julia version.

[aminya]

Exactly that's why I think this belongs to Base.

It is actually quite conterintuitiviely the opposite. While I don't expect the VERSION file to move (it hasn't fore YEARS...), suppose if it did in 1.7, then the 1.6 version of julia won't be able to access it anymore. OTOH, if it was in a package, the package can just release a new version that works for all julia versions.

Basically the property you are querying is not a property of the julia version you run on, but a property of the latest setup, which shouldn't be tied to a specific julia version.

Yes, this is true. However, this has been a common thing. Other than the backports, Julia rarely fixes the compatibility issues of the older versions. That is the job of Compat package.

I might just move this to a package of itself and call it JuliaVersionNumber.jl.

[KristofferC]

I might just move this to a package of itself and call it JuliaVersionNumber

The user case seems specific enough that just pasting it where you need it right now might be the best.