VERCMP(8)

NAME
vercmp - version comparison utility

SYNOPSIS

vercmp [-h] [--help] <version1> <version2>

DESCRIPTION

vercmp is used to determine the relationship between two given version numbers. It outputs values as follows:

    • < 0 : if ver1 < ver2

    • = 0 : if ver1 == ver2

    • > 0 : if ver1 > ver2

Version comparison operates as follows:

    Alphanumeric:
      1.0a < 1.0b < 1.0beta < 1.0p < 1.0pre < 1.0rc < 1.0 < 1.0.a < 1.0.1
    Numeric:
      1 < 1.0 < 1.1 < 1.1.1 < 1.2 < 2.0 < 3.0.0

Additionally, version strings can have an epoch value defined that will overrule any version comparison, unless the epoch values are equal. This is specified in an epoch:version-rel format. For example, 2:1.0-1 is always greater than 1:3.6-1.

Keep in mind that the pkgrel is only compared if it is available on both versions given to this tool. For example, comparing 1.5-1 and 1.5 will yield 0; comparing 1.5-1 and 1.5-2 will yield < 0 as expected. This is mainly for supporting versioned dependencies that do not include the pkgrel.

OPTIONS

-h, --help
    Display summary of the available return codes. Must be the first option specified.

EXAMPLES

    $ vercmp 1 2
    -1

    $ vercmp 2 1
    1

    $ vercmp 2.0-1 1.7-6
    1

    $ vercmp 2.0 2.0-13
    0

    $ vercmp 4.34 1:001
    -1

SEE ALSO

pacman(8), makepkg(8), libalpm(3)

See the pacman website at https://www.archlinux.org/pacman/ for current information on pacman and its related tools.

BUGS

Bugs? You must be kidding; there are no bugs in this software. But if we happen to be wrong, submit a bug report with as much detail as possible at the Arch Linux Bug Tracker in the Pacman section.

AUTHORS

Current maintainers:

    • Allan McRae <allan@archlinux.org>

    • Andrew Gregory <andrew.gregory.8@gmail.com>

    • Dan McGee <dan@archlinux.org>

    • Dave Reisner <dreisner@archlinux.org>

Past major contributors:

    • Judd Vinet <jvinet@zeroflux.org>

    • Aurelien Foret <aurelien@archlinux.org>

    • Aaron Griffin <aaron@archlinux.org>

    • Xavier Chantry <shiningxc@gmail.com>

    • Nagy Gabor <ngaba@bibl.u-szeged.hu>

For additional contributors, use git shortlog -s on the pacman.git repository.