Move VERS spec files to their own repo

[pombredanne]

As discussed in the community calls, there is a consensus to split the VERS spec for version ranges in its own repo.

Why?

• issues will be focused on either PURL or VERS
• repo tags will match exactly the version of one or the other

Here is the list of TODOs:

• Repo forked to vers-spec
• Issues transferred
• Discussions transferred
• PRs merged
• Repo synced, then unlinked from PURL
• PURL content removed from VERS repo. Migrate vers to its own repo vers-spec#22
• VERS repo README and root files updated
• Close milestones in purl-spec and recreate in vers-spec
  • https://github.com/package-url/purl-spec/milestone/7
  • https://github.com/package-url/purl-spec/milestone/6
• VERS content removed from PURL repo
• VERS repo settings reviewed

[mjherzog]

@pombredanne has created a new vers-spec repository as a fork of purl-spec.

This issue is to track the tasks to remove vers-spec files and data from the purl-spec repository after the new vers-spec repository is configured.

There are relatively few files in the current purl-spec repository that are related to the VERS spec. The primary file is: https://github.com/package-url/purl-spec/blob/main/VERSION-RANGE-SPEC.rst.

As of July 28, 2025 the items with label: PURL/univers version scheme are:

• 14 Issues (10 open, 4 closed)
• 8 Pull requests (2 open, 6 closed)
  We will eventually remove these issues from the purl-spec repo.

[pombredanne]

We can transfer the issues, but not the PRs. I will merge the PRs, then sync up one last time the new vers repo before we can "unlink" it from the purl repo.

[pombredanne]

See details at:

• Transfer Issues and PRs from purl-spec repo vers-spec#4

[johnmhoran]

@mjherzog @pombredanne I've marked VERS content removed from PURL repo as completed. See #560.