What does it do?
bump2version updates a software project’s version number, like changing 1.2.3 to 1.2.4, consistently across every file where that number appears, instead of a person manually hunting through files to update it by hand. It’s like updating an expiration date that’s printed in five different places on a product’s packaging, and having a machine change all five at once instead of trusting someone to remember every spot. Developers configure it once with a list of files and patterns to look for, and afterward a single command handles finding and replacing the version number everywhere, including creating a matching commit and tag in the project’s version history. Missing just one of those version references by hand is a surprisingly common and annoying mistake it eliminates entirely.
See it in action
This is a configuration snippet recording a project’s current version number, followed by a terminal command that bumps it to the next version everywhere it appears.
# setup.cfg
[bumpversion]
current_version = 1.2.3
# terminal command
bump2version patchWhy would a non-developer care?
A mismatched version number scattered inconsistently across a product’s files is a small thing that can cause real confusion, like a support team not being sure which version of software a customer is actually running, and tools like this quietly prevent that entire class of confusion.
Real-world examples
Version bump automation like this is common practice across open-source Python projects specifically to prevent the classic mistake of updating a version number in the changelog but forgetting it in the actual package configuration file. It’s a small tool, but the class of bug it prevents, mismatched version numbers causing support and debugging confusion, is a genuinely common real-world headache.
Who uses it
Maintainers of Python packages and projects who release new versions regularly and want the version number updated consistently everywhere without manual tracking.
How it compares to alternatives
It’s a spiritual successor to the original bumpversion project, which became unmaintained, and it now competes with newer tools like bump-my-version and functionality built directly into Poetry for the same basic task.