describe versioning

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@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ It focuses on how to install, configure and run the required software.
   global_licensing
   impl-exchange
   impl-merchant
-
+  versioning
 
 ------------------------
 Web Integration Handbook
diff --git a/versioning.rst b/versioning.rst
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+..
+  This file is part of GNU TALER.
+  Copyright (C) 2014, 2015, 2016 INRIA
+
+  TALER is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
+  terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
+  Foundation; either version 2.1, or (at your option) any later version.
+
+  TALER is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
+  WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR
+  A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
+  You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License along with
+  TALER; see the file COPYING.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>
+
+  @author Christian Grothoff
+
+==================
+GNU Taler Versions
+==================
+
+This text describes how we assign version numbers for Taler software.
+This is about the version numbers of package releases, not of the
+libraries. For Taler libraries, we use libtool semantic versioning
+conventions.
+
+Taler software release version numbers use the scheme
+MAJOR.MINOR-PACKAGE.
+
+Here, MAJOR is used to indicate the compatibility level and is
+increased for all significant releases that are always made across all
+Taler components.
+
+The MINOR numbers is used for small updates that may address minor
+issues but do not break compatibility.  MINOR release may be made only
+for a particular component, leaving other components untouched.  Hence
+you should expect to see say an exchange version 4.5 and a wallet
+version 4.10.  As they both start with "4", they are expected to be
+protocol-compatible.
+
+PACKAGE is reserved for distributions, such as Debian.  These distributions
+may apply their own patch sets or scripting, and they are expected to
+increment PACKAGE.  The upstream Taler releases will just be of the
+format MAJOR.MINOR.
+
+-----------------------
+Alpha and Beta releases
+-----------------------
+
+Before Taler is considered reasonably stable for actual use, we will
+prefix the number "0." to the release version.  Thus, all alpha and
+beta releases will have a three-digit release number of the form
+"0.MAJOR.MINOR"; here, the "0."  indicates that the software may not
+yet be stable enough for real world applications.
+
+
+-----------------------
+Roadmap
+-----------------------
+
+A roadmap with the features we plan to have in each release is
+in our bugtracker at https://gnunet.org/bugs/.  The roadmap
+is subject to change.