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://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, please report them to the issue tracker at https://gitlab.archlinux.org/pacman/pacman/-/issues with specific information such as your command-line, the nature of the bug, and even the package database if it helps.

Authors

Current maintainers:

Past major contributors:

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