coding-conventions: include the preceding upstream version when packaging a commit without a version attached

1 files changed, 3 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/doc/contributing/coding-conventions.chapter.md b/doc/contributing/coding-conventions.chapter.md
index 7a538de18d152..03cd3dd458c80 100644
--- a/doc/contributing/coding-conventions.chapter.md
+++ b/doc/contributing/coding-conventions.chapter.md
@@ -220,7 +220,9 @@ There are a few naming guidelines:
 
 - The `version` attribute _must_ start with a digit e.g`"0.3.1rc2".
 
-- If a package is not a release but a commit from a repository, then the `version` attribute _must_ be the date of that (fetched) commit. The date _must_ be in `"unstable-YYYY-MM-DD"` format.
+- If a package is a commit from a repository without a version assigned, then the `version` attribute _should_ be the latest upstream version preceding that commit, followed by `-unstable-` and the date of the (fetched) commit. The date _must_ be in `"YYYY-MM-DD"` format.
+
+Example: Given a project had its latest releases `2.2` in November 2021, and `3.0` in January 2022, a commit authored on March 15, 2022 for an upcoming bugfix release `2.2.1` would have `version = "2.2-unstable-2022-03-15"`.
 
 - Dashes in the package `pname` _should_ be preserved in new variable names, rather than converted to underscores or camel cased — e.g., `http-parser` instead of `http_parser` or `httpParser`. The hyphenated style is preferred in all three package names.