JvmMetadataVersion

Version of the metadata inside JVM classfile.

Starting from Kotlin 1.4, the metadata version is equal to the language version. It consists of major and minor versions. Patch version usually does not affect the metadata format, but it is present for completeness because compiler writes its full version to the @Metadata annotation; therefore, the patch version is accounted for in comparisons and equality. All components (major, minor, and patch) should be non-negative.

While the metadata version is currently equal to the language version, this may be changed in the future, including adding or removing components. Therefore, it is recommended to rely on the compareTo and equals method instead of accessing components directly.

Note that the metadata version is 1.1 for Kotlin compilers from 1.0 until 1.4, and is 1.0 or less for pre-1.0 compilers. Metadata with versions less than 1.1 is considered incompatible and cannot be read or written.

The library can read in strict mode only compatible versions of metadata. For definition of a compatible version, see documentation for LATEST_STABLE_SUPPORTED property.