The -SNAPSHOT version qualifier is well explained in Oracle's "Understanding Maven Version Numbers".
But now I hear there is a RELEASE and LATEST version "numbers" as well. And at the same news item, that they are deprecated in Maven 3.
What are these RELEASE and LATEST version numbers/notations? Where can I learn more about them?
Copying answer from link provided by - glytching
Internally, Maven 2.x used the special version markers RELEASE and LATEST to support automatic plugin version resolution. These metaversions were also recognized in the element for a declaration. For the sake of reproducible builds, Maven 3.x no longer supports usage of these metaversions in the POM. As a result, users will need to replace occurrences of these metaversions with a concrete version.
