How to compare two strings in dot separated version format in Bash?

Question

Is there any way to compare such strings on bash, e.g.: 2.4.5 and 2.8 and 2.4.5.1?

Answer 1

There probably is no universally correct way to achieve this. If you are trying to compare versions in the Debian package system try dpkg --compare-versions <first> <relation> <second>.

Answer 2

Here is another pure bash solution without any external calls:

#!/bin/bash

function version_compare {

IFS='.' read -ra ver1 <<< "$1"
IFS='.' read -ra ver2 <<< "$2"

[[ ${#ver1[@]} -gt ${#ver2[@]} ]] && till=${#ver1[@]} || till=${#ver2[@]}

for ((i=0; i<${till}; i++)); do

    local num1; local num2;

    [[ -z ${ver1[i]} ]] && num1=0 || num1=${ver1[i]}
    [[ -z ${ver2[i]} ]] && num2=0 || num2=${ver2[i]}

    if [[ $num1 -gt $num2 ]]; then
        echo ">"; return 0
    elif
       [[ $num1 -lt $num2 ]]; then
        echo "<"; return 0
    fi
done

echo "="; return 0
}

echo "${1} $(version_compare "${1}" "${2}") ${2}"

And there is even more simple solution, if you are sure that the versions in question do not contain leading zeros after the first dot:

#!/bin/bash

function version_compare {

local ver1=${1//.}
local ver2=${2//.}


    if [[ $ver1 -gt $ver2 ]]; then
        echo ">"; return 0
    elif    
       [[ $ver1 -lt $ver2 ]]; then
        echo "<"; return 0
    fi 

echo "="; return 0
}

echo "${1} $(version_compare "${1}" "${2}") ${2}"

This will work for something like 1.2.3 vs 1.3.1 vs 0.9.7, but won't work with 1.2.3 vs 1.2.3.0 or 1.01.1 vs 1.1.1

Answer 3

Here is a pure Bash version that doesn't require any external utilities:

#!/bin/bash
vercomp () {
    if [[ $1 == $2 ]]
    then
        return 0
    fi
    local IFS=.
    local i ver1=($1) ver2=($2)
    # fill empty fields in ver1 with zeros
    for ((i=${#ver1[@]}; i<${#ver2[@]}; i++))
    do
        ver1[i]=0
    done
    for ((i=0; i<${#ver1[@]}; i++))
    do
        if [[ -z ${ver2[i]} ]]
        then
            # fill empty fields in ver2 with zeros
            ver2[i]=0
        fi
        if ((10#${ver1[i]} > 10#${ver2[i]}))
        then
            return 1
        fi
        if ((10#${ver1[i]} < 10#${ver2[i]}))
        then
            return 2
        fi
    done
    return 0
}

testvercomp () {
    vercomp $1 $2
    case $? in
        0) op='=';;
        1) op='>';;
        2) op='<';;
    esac
    if [[ $op != $3 ]]
    then
        echo "FAIL: Expected '$3', Actual '$op', Arg1 '$1', Arg2 '$2'"
    else
        echo "Pass: '$1 $op $2'"
    fi
}

# Run tests
# argument table format:
# testarg1   testarg2     expected_relationship
echo "The following tests should pass"
while read -r test
do
    testvercomp $test
done << EOF
1            1            =
2.1          2.2          <
3.0.4.10     3.0.4.2      >
4.08         4.08.01      <
3.2.1.9.8144 3.2          >
3.2          3.2.1.9.8144 <
1.2          2.1          <
2.1          1.2          >
5.6.7        5.6.7        =
1.01.1       1.1.1        =
1.1.1        1.01.1       =
1            1.0          =
1.0          1            =
1.0.2.0      1.0.2        =
1..0         1.0          =
1.0          1..0         =
EOF

echo "The following test should fail (test the tester)"
testvercomp 1 1 '>'

Run the tests:

$ . ./vercomp
The following tests should pass
Pass: '1 = 1'
Pass: '2.1 < 2.2'
Pass: '3.0.4.10 > 3.0.4.2'
Pass: '4.08 < 4.08.01'
Pass: '3.2.1.9.8144 > 3.2'
Pass: '3.2 < 3.2.1.9.8144'
Pass: '1.2 < 2.1'
Pass: '2.1 > 1.2'
Pass: '5.6.7 = 5.6.7'
Pass: '1.01.1 = 1.1.1'
Pass: '1.1.1 = 1.01.1'
Pass: '1 = 1.0'
Pass: '1.0 = 1'
Pass: '1.0.2.0 = 1.0.2'
Pass: '1..0 = 1.0'
Pass: '1.0 = 1..0'
The following test should fail (test the tester)
FAIL: Expected '>', Actual '=', Arg1 '1', Arg2 '1'

Answer 4

I came across and solved this problem, to add an additional (and shorter and simpler) answer...

First note, extended shell comparison failed as you may already know...

    if [[ 1.2.0 < 1.12.12 ]]; then echo true; else echo false; fi
    false

Using the sort -t'.'-g (or sort -V as mentioned by kanaka) to order versions and simple bash string comparison I found a solution. The input file contains versions in columns 3 and 4 which I want to compare. This iterates through the list identifying a match or if one is greater than the other. Hope this may still help anyone looking to do this using bash as simple as possible.

while read l
do
    #Field 3 contains version on left to compare (change -f3 to required column).
    kf=$(echo $l | cut -d ' ' -f3)
    #Field 4 contains version on right to compare (change -f4 to required column).
    mp=$(echo $l | cut -d ' ' -f4)

    echo 'kf = '$kf
    echo 'mp = '$mp

    #To compare versions m.m.m the two can be listed and sorted with a . separator and the greater version found.
    gv=$(echo -e $kf'\n'$mp | sort -t'.' -g | tail -n 1)

    if [ $kf = $mp ]; then 
        echo 'Match Found: '$l
    elif [ $kf = $gv ]; then
        echo 'Karaf feature file version is greater '$l
    elif [ $mp = $gv ]; then
        echo 'Maven pom file version is greater '$l
   else
       echo 'Comparison error '$l
   fi
done < features_and_pom_versions.tmp.txt

Thanks to Barry's blog for the sort idea... ref: http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=02199

Answer 5

This is also a pure bash solution, as printf is a bash builtin.

function ver()
# Description: use for comparisons of version strings.
# $1  : a version string of form 1.2.3.4
# use: (( $(ver 1.2.3.4) >= $(ver 1.2.3.3) )) && echo "yes" || echo "no"
{
    printf "%02d%02d%02d%02d" ${1//./ }
}

Answer 6

GNU sort has an option for it:

printf '2.4.5\n2.8\n2.4.5.1\n' | sort -V

gives:

2.4.5
2.4.5.1
2.8