dpkg::version(3)

NAME

Dpkg::Version - handling and comparing dpkg-style version numbers

DESCRIPTION

The Dpkg::Version module provides pure-Perl routines to compare dpkgstyle version numbers (as used in Debian packages) and also an object
oriented interface overriding perl operators to do the right thing when you compare Dpkg::Version object between them.

OBJECT INTERFACE

my $v = Dpkg::Version->new($version, %opts): Create a new Dpkg::Version object corresponding to the version
indicated in the string (scalar) $version. By default it will
accepts any string and consider it as a valid version. If you pass the option "check => 1", it will return undef if the version is
invalid (see version_check for details).; You can always call $v->is_valid() later on to verify that the version is valid.
boolean evaluation: When the Dpkg::Version object is used in a boolean evaluation (for example in "if ($v)" or "$v || 'default'") it returns its string
representation if the version stored is valid ($v->is_valid()) and undef otherwise.
$v->is_valid(): Returns true if the version is valid, false otherwise.
$v->epoch(), $v->version(), $v->revision(): Returns the corresponding part of the full version string.
$v1 <=> $v2, $v1 < $v2, $v1 <= $v2, $v1 > $v2, $v1 >= $v2: Numerical comparison of various versions numbers. One of the two
operands needs to be a Dpkg::Version, the other one can be anything provided that its string representation is a version number.
"$v", $v->as_string(): Returns the string representation of the version number.

FUNCTIONS

All the functions are exported by default.

version_compare($a, $b): Returns -1 is $a is smaller than $b, 0 if they are equal and 1 if
$a is bigger than $b.; If $a or $b are not valid version numbers, it dies with an error.
version_compare_relation($a, $rel, $b): Returns the result (0 or 1) of the given comparison operation. This function is implemented on top of version_compare().; Allowed values for $rel are the exported constants REL_GT, REL_GE, REL_EQ, REL_LE, REL_LT. Use version_normalize_relation() if you have an input string containing the operator.
my $rel = version_normalize_relation($rel_string): Returns the normalized constant of the relation $rel (a value among REL_GT, REL_GE, REL_EQ, REL_LE and REL_LT). Supported relations
names in input are: "gt", "ge", "eq", "le", "lt", ">>", ">=", "=", "<=", "<<". ">" and "<" are also supported but should not be used
as they are obsolete aliases of ">=" and "<=".
version_compare_string($a, $b): String comparison function used for comparing non-numerical parts
of version numbers. Returns -1 is $a is smaller than $b, 0 if they are equal and 1 if $a is bigger than $b.; The "~" character always sort lower than anything else. Digits sort lower than non-digits. Among remaining characters alphabetic
characters (A-Za-z) sort lower than the other ones. Within each
range, the ASCII decimal value of the character is used to sort
between characters.
version_compare_part($a, $b): Compare two corresponding sub-parts of a version number (either
upstream version or debian revision).; Each parameter is split by version_split_digits() and resulting items are compared together.in digits and non-digits items that are compared together. As soon as a difference happens, it returns -1
if $a is smaller than $b, 0 if they are equal and 1 if $a is bigger than $b.
my @items = version_split_digits($version): Splits a string in items that are each entirely composed either of digits or of non-digits. For instance for "1.024~beta1+svn234" it
would return ("1", ".", "024", "~beta", "1", "+svn", "234").
my ($ok, $msg) = version_check($version) my $ok = version_check($version): Checks the validity of $version as a version number. Returns 1 in
$ok if the version is valid, 0 otherwise. In the latter case, $msg contains a description of the problem with the $version scalar.

AUTHOR

Don Armstrong <don@donarmstrong.com>, Colin Watson
<cjwatson@debian.org> and Raphal Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>, based on the implementation in "dpkg/lib/vercmp.c" by Ian Jackson and others.

docs.sk