PharIO Version is a PHP library for handling version information and constraints.
The library solves the problem of parsing, comparing, and validating semantic versions and version ranges in PHP applications. It works by accepting version strings and constraint expressions, then determining whether specific versions fall within those constraints. The library supports semantic versioning format with major, minor, and patch components, and provides special operators for common version range patterns: the caret operator to match versions within a major version boundary, and the tilde operator to match versions within a minor version boundary. Pre-release labels are factored into version comparisons.
Developers should choose this library when building PHP applications that need to validate or filter versions against specified ranges, such as dependency management systems, package managers, or version-aware configuration tools. It suits projects that work with semantic versioning and need to express flexible version requirements. The library can be installed as either a production or development-time dependency depending on whether version handling is needed at runtime or only during testing and tooling.
The project maintains a focused scope on version constraint handling without attempting to solve broader dependency resolution problems. Development activity shows consistent attention to the core functionality, with updates addressing version comparison logic and pre-release label handling.
