> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://notes.eliasnorrby.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://notes.eliasnorrby.com/bash/comparing-versions.md).

# Comparing versions

Here's a couple of functions for comparing versions.

```bash
version_less_than() {
  printf '%s\n%s' "$1" "$2" | sort --version-sort --check
}

version_greater_than() {
  ! version_less_than "$1" "$2"
}
```

* `--version-sort` (shorthand `-V`) sorts based on version numbers.
* `--check` (shorthand `-C`) make `sort` check for sorted input instead of sorting.

Example usage:

```bash
MY_VERSION=1.2.3
if version_less_than "$MY_VERSION" 4.3.0; then
  : # do something
fi
```

Source: `man sort`